Armoured Samurai

Historical Background

In 1935, the Imperial Japanese Army began a programme to develop a replacement for the Type 89 I-Go medium tank. Experience showed that the I-Go was too slow to keep up with motorised infantry, especially in the wide expanses of the Manchurian steppes. A new specification was issued with Mitsubishi offering a scaled-up version of the Type 95 Ha-Go light tank with four crew members, a two-man turret, thicker armour and increased power to maintain performance. Mitsubishi delivered the first prototype in April 1937 with the second prototype in June of the same year. Despite the original requirement specifying a 47mm gun, the prototype was armed with a 57mm gun as the I-Go. At the same time, Osaka Army Arsenal proposed their Chi-Ni tank, which was preferred by the IJA because of its lower cost. However, with the outbreak of The Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, all budgetary restrictions were off and the more expensive Mitsubishi tank was accepted for production. The tank was given type number 97 as an abbreviation for Showa Year 2597 (1937 in Gregorian calendar). The name 'Chi' came from Chi-Sensa (medium tank) while 'Ha' refer to 'Model 3' in Japanese Army nomenclature. Hence the name Type 97 Chi-Ha could be translated as 1937 Medium Tank Model 3.

The Chi-Ha was of riveted construction. The engine is mounted to the rear with the crew compartment up front. The driver sat to the right with the bow machine gunner to his left. The commander, who also acted as the gunner sat to the rear of the turret with the loader/radio operator to assist him. Armour protection was average for a 1930s tank design, being 50mm thick on the gun mantlet and 28mm for the hull front. Main armament was a 57mm Type 97 gun. The Type 97 is designed as an infantry support weapon with a relatively low muzzle velocity and was thus not suitable for anti-armour work, although it was sufficient to destroy the few Chinese light tanks and tankettes it encountered. The gun had no elevation gear but it had secondary trunnions, allowing it to traverse 10 degrees independently of the turret. Secondary armament were two 7.7mm Type 97 machineguns; one mounted on the left side of the hull and the other on the rear face of the turret. Suspension was of the same bell-crank system of the Ha-Go but with an extra bogie. The Chi-Ha was powered by a V-12 Mitsubishi SA12200VD air-cooled diesel producing 170hp.

The Chi-Ha entered production in 1938 and was immediately used in China with considerable success as the Chinese National Revolutionary Army had only three tank battalions of Vickers Light Tank, Panzerkampfwagen I and CV33 tankettes. Its first true test however came in July 1939 during the Battle Of Khalkin Gol against the Soviet Union where it was outgunned by the BT-5 and BT-7 fast tanks with their high-velocity 45mm gun. Reports following the battle prompted the need for a more powerful gun. A new 47mm high-velocity gun was developed and completed in 1941 as the Type 1 47mm tank gun. The turret of the Chi-Ha was modified to accept the new gun, resulting in Type 97 Kai or Shinhoto (new turret) Chi-Ha. The Shinhoto Chi-Ha replaced the original model on the production line in early 1942 and was built until 1943.

The Type 97 was used again during the invasion of South-East Asia. The Japanese 3rd Tank Group's 1st, 6th and 14th Tank Regiments took part in the invasion of Malaya and Singapore where the presence of tanks where they were least expected became one of the key to the Japanese success. The jungles of Malaya proved to be a non-obstacle to tanks. The 2nd and the 14th Regiment then participated in the Burma Campaign. In The Philippines, the Type 97 Kai was used against the M2A1 and M3 light tanks with devastating results. On the Pacific islands, despite the terrain, the Type 97 also took part, albeit in smaller numbers, and in desperate situations. During the Battle Of Saipan, 36 Type 97s of the 9th Tank Regiment together with Type 95s of the 136th Infantry Regiment counterattacked against the US 6th Marine Regiment. This largest and last Japanese armour attack in the Pacific was broken up by machine gun, mortar, artillery, bazooka and naval gunfire. Thereafter the tanks were used mostly in hull defilade positions as their armour were too weak against the M4 Sherman. Not only that, they were also being outnumbered by Allied tanks. The Kwangtung Army in Manchuria also faced the same problem when the Red Army launched the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation in August 1945. Many Type 97s were retained in the Home Islands in the anticipation of an American invasion.

A total of 1,162 57 mm-guned Chi-Has with another 930 47 mm were built from 1938 to 1943. They were manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Hitachi Industries plus a small number built by the Army's Sagami Arsenal. The Chi-Ha's chassis was also used for a number of vehicles such as the Shi-Ki command tanks, Ho-Ni series of tank destroyers, the Ho-Ro self-propelled howitzer, the Ho-Hi infantry support tank and a number of experimental vehicles. The Chi-Ha also became the basis for the Type 1 Chi-He (47mm gun) and Type 3 Chi-Nu (75mm) medium tanks.

The Kit

Kit number 35075 is another venerable stuff from Tamiya, dating from 1975. Despite its 1970s origin, it remains one of Tamiya's better 1/35 kits. The kit contains 166 parts including 2 lengths of vinyl tracks and parts for two figures. Apparently the dimensions of the kit is accurate and in general the details are OK although many finer details were simplified or omitted entirely. Of course, the trade-off for this is a quick and easy build. The drawback with the kit was the lack of sponsons (which also plagued their 1/35 Sherman kits until today) and the lack of detail for the lower hull. The most obvious disadvantage are the lack of PE screens over the exhaust mufflers - the screens are moulded together with the mufflers. The tracks are OK although it basically cannot be made saggy as most pictures showed them to be. The two figures are of the typical Tamiya quality especially for their older kits: rather stiff poses and having soft detail. Decals provide markings for six vehicles: 1st Tank Regiment for Malaya operations (with extra markings for two other companies of the 1st); 3rd Company, 1st Tank Regiment when preparing for the expected invasion of the Home Islands; 8th Tank Regiment; 5th Company, 17th Tank Regiment; 2nd Company, 34th Tank Regiment and a Type 97 from the Chiba Army Tank School.

Construction

I started by assembling the wheels and suspension of the tank. They consist of two bogies (similar to the one found on Type 95 Ha-Go) and a pair of singles. with all the wheels in pairs. The road wheels and the idler and sprocket wheels have the usual poly caps trapped between the halves to allow movement. The wheels for the bogies were secured in a different manner, that is by mating the wheels (Parts A8 and B8) together without cement and securing the wheels by cementing Parts A12 to A8. The coil springs and the fairing for the bell-crank suspension were glued onto the lower hull and this was followed by cementing the front and rear hull plates. The towing pintles on the plates were cemented but the tow cable and the registration plate were left off. Also to ease painting, the wheels were also left off.

Moving on to the upper hull, I first cemented the engine deck grill, engine hatch, tool box and the exhaust shield. The hull machine gunner's hatch and the driver's vision block cover can be posed in the open position but I elected to pose them in the closed position as I didn't intend to place the crew figure there. Furthermore, there wasn't any detail on the inside of the hatch. The pioneer tools were also left off to facilitate painting. As I didn't intend to replace the kit exhausts, they were assembled and cemented onto the hull. Other sundry parts such as tie-downs, grab handles and the headlight were also cemented. Finally for this stage, an insert below the engine grill and the hull machine gun were cemented. The latter was unlike its turret counterpart which was engineered to be moveable after assembly.

Finally the turret was assembled. I started off by gluing Part C31 to the turret roof and it acted as a stopper for the machine gun assembly. Then the turret shell was mated with the turret bottom plate. The machine gun was inserted into its slot unglued  and the mantlet was carefully glued to the turret face. The main gun was then assembled; the barrel was a one-piece affair with separate muzzle. The barrel was then cemented to the featureless breech with the mantlet in between. The breech was not cemented to allow for movement (up and down only, with no lateral ones unlike the real gun) and the assembly was secured by the mantlet and two cylindrical shapes moulded inside the turret, acting as stoppers. The rather simple commander's cupola was assembled and cemented and again I posed it in closed position. This was followed by the machine gun mount on the turret roof and Part C24 which I'm not sure of its identity. Tamiya mentioned that the 'thing' is retractable on the real tank and suggested that the part can be shortened to show it retracted but didn't show by how much the said part should be cut off. The semi-circular aerial round the top of the turret was left off until after painting.

Painting and Decaling

All six of the marking options share the same camouflage pattern. While probably unlikely, and in the case for tanks depicted later in the war, probably inaccurate, it actually helped by allowing one to change their mind about the selected marking options after the model has been painted. Having said that, Tamiya merely gave generic names for the paints instead of their customary reference to their own brand. Tamiya kits of the same vintage usually had two instruction sheets - one in English, the other in Japanese. From my observation, it seemed like the Japanese sheet had a more detailed description of the paint mixes. But since it was written in Japanese and somehow Tamiya did not include their paint codes, I have to make my best guess for the paints: they are Khaki (I guess XF-49), Dark Red Brown (XF-64, but I eventually decided to use XF-10) and Dark Green (XF-13 IJA Green). The lightest colour (Khaki) was painted first with the Flat Brown last. The yellow line was painted using Tamiya XF-3. Being yellow, it needed a couple of layers to avoid a see-through effect. The tracks were painted XF-64 Red Brown. While instructions showed a patch of Dark Green on the barrel, I painted it overall khaki, to reflect what I read in modelling magazines.

For the decals, the choice is really a no-brainer for me - I chose the markings for the 1st Tank Regiment, which was part of the 5th Division landing at Singora in Thailand.  Specifically I chose the markings for the 3rd Company,  part of the Saeki Detachment which was in the van of the attack and successfully breaching the Jitra line. There were the ready-made numbers '31' but extra numbers were included so one can model a few other Type 97s in the company (or, for that matter, other companies of the 1st Tank Regiment). I chose number 32.

Finishing

The remaining parts can now be permanently fixed to the model. The pioneer tools were painted first. Tamiya did not specify what are their colours, with just Red Brown specified for the pry bar. I used Fine Molds' instructions and painted the pry bar and the business end of the shovel and pick-axe H81 Khaki and the handles XF-64 Red Brown. The jack was also painted khaki but with a slightly different shade. The headlight was cemented and to simulate the reflecting surface of the headlight, I inserted a piece of Bare Metal kitchen foil inside the cavity. Somehow Tamiya did not include the lens cover for the light and lacking stuff like Humbrol's Clearfix, I'll pretend that the glass has broken! The embossed star on the glacis plate was painted gold, mixed with a bit of silver. The aerial on the turret was painted copper with the insulators painted red brown. The 'thingie' on the turret roof was painted clear red, clear orange and clear green according to Fine Molds' instructions (and that makes it some kind of light, I guess).

For weathering, the model was subjected to a black/red brown wash first. MiG Productions' Africa Earth was then applied almost liberally on the lower hull, wheels and tracks and fixed with Mig's Pigment Fixer solution. The lower hull was then washed with AK Interactive's Earth Effects Wash. The tow cable, having been painted Metallic Grey, was finished with AK Interactive Track Wash. The turret aerial was painted Mr. Color Copper with the insulators XF-64 Red Brown. The tracks were then placed onto the model and the turret was then inserted into place, finishing the build.

Conclusion

While displaying most of the hallmarks of a 1970s kit, the Tamiya Chi-Ha was well-engineered and shows what Tamiya can do even in the 1970s. The parts fit well  and have reasonable enough detail to satisfy most modellers. I can say that there were only two glaring weakness of the kit - the exhausts and the tracks. The latter being the old-school heat-to-link style and also , being a vinyl belt type, did not readily lent itself to the saggy tracks often found on Japanese tanks. I can still vouch for this kit, despite the superior Fine Molds kit. It is still cheaper than the other kit, and the details are adequate for most of us.