At 81 years old (young?), Ken Perkins shows no signs of taking a back seat in scale modelling! This is good news for readers of FSM, as Ken's latest design, a Mitsubishi A5M4 'Claude' will be a nice change from the normal Warbird type. This model is definitely one that many modellers would leave alone. It has a very short nose, a fairly high aspect ratio elliptical wing and tail, and precious little space to install the necessary kit, due to the aforementioned short nose and thin wing section. Ken actually added an inch to the nose length knowing it would be tail heavy, even with the convenient 'ballast' weight of the Saito seven-cylinder radial engine he used. You'd never know by looking at the photos! I guess if it was a smaller scale, you would notice the extra length, but at 1:5 it's not noticeable. Including 3 lb of lead in the nose, the Claude weighs 21 lbs and has an 84" wingspan. It's of all conventional construction from balsa and ply with blue foam being used for the headrest/fairing.
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