For Japanese armour fans, there is another version of the Type 95 on its way in 1/35 scale from Dragon Models.

Link to Item

If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

If the model looks as good in styrene as CAD, it will be a beauty.

The main difference with this Type 95 and the earlier release is not the machine gun but the upside down suspension arms. This variant was used in Manchuria.

Now that there is a choice, I must get one!

In 2001 we visited the Army Museum in Hawaii and they had the Ha-Go and an M24 outside which I hear now that they have built a building for them.

This one looks like the version I need to build.



~ Jeff

Hi, All! DRAGON just MAY HAVE used 2 different 3-directional slide-molds to render the machine guns- They are of different lengths in the CAD illustrations. Guess I'll need to buy this version of the HA-GO (Modified).

It's easy to miss, but if we look a little bit closer at the newer kit's bogie/road-wheel assemblies, we'll find that a smaller road-wheel was added in-between the 2 larger road-wheels to provide better cross-country performance. These tanks were tested in Manchuria, but the "improved" 3-wheeled bogie assemblies offered only marginal cross-country performance gains. This design was not developed any further.

The next design in the evolutionary process of the Type 95 HA-GO, took shape in the Type 98-A KE-NI, which ran on 6 smaller-diameter road-wheels grouped in 3 bogies per side. These bogies were sprung internally. Production processes were further improved by more extensive welding in this model. These tanks were well-liked by their crews, but no more than 200 were ever built.

The next Light Tank in this series was the Type 98-B KE-NI. This tank was developed as an alternative to the Type 98-A. This tank featured 4 large-wheeled Christie-type running gear per side, and rear drive (a la T-34) with no upper return rollers. Suspension was by individual bell cranks connected by coil springs. The Type 98-B never went past the experimental stage, as it didn't really improve on the cross-country performance of the Type 95.

That little Type 98-B looks pretty interesting to me with those big road-wheels Think I'll kit-bash/scratch-build one of those, using an old FINEMOLDS HA-GO as a donor-kit that I have in my stash. Comparing DRAGON's Type 95 side by side to the FINEMOLDS kit, I prefer the DRAGON kit as a nicer alternative overall...