Khee Kha Art Productions 1/72 Edo J-5300 floats
(With gratitude to Jim Schubert)
While researching and building my Hansa Brandenburg W.29 I stumbled
upon the subtle complexities of floats; the longer I stared at my reference
photos the more aware I became of the many minute details and differences
of the types of floats used. Most modelers commit countless hours detailing
engines and cockpits while trusting the kit manufacturer’s molds
for the details on their aircraft’s floats. Admitedly, the amount
of research and resulting reference material on cockpits and engines greatly
outweighs that on floats and other areas, like propellers for instance;
leaving a great gap in our knowledge.
In some small way Khee Kha Art Products have opened the door to this
untapped knowledge with their latest offering; a pair of beautiful resin
Edo J-5300 floats. Designed to fit their Fairchild
71 kit, these gorgeous floats can be used on the MPM
Lockhead Vega 5C floatplane as well.
The casting on these floats, mastered by Jim Schubert, is as close to
perfect as any resin casting I have ever seen. Cast in solid resin, the
details are crisp and to scale and the floats come with three pairs of
mooring cleats and drawings for their installation on three aircraft built
using the Khee Kha Fairchild 71 kit and Whiskey Jack Decals (see Khee
Kha’s website for details on the Whiskey Jack Decal sheets). No
rudders are provided but can easily be scratchbuilt if desired, although
these are not necessary as recent discussions have shown that they were
only used to taxi while in the water, otherwise they were retracted or
even left off completely.
I was curious to see the difference between the Khee Kha floats and
those provided in the MPM Vega kit so I wrote Jim Schubert, who did the
Vega review for IM and asked for a comparison photo; not only did I get
this, but Jim was kind enough to elaborate on the floats needed for various
incarnations of the Vega 5C “Nugget” depicted in the MPM kit;
what follows is his response:
“MPM’s Vega on floats represents, incorrectly in several
respects, Alaska Coastal’s Vega 5C, NC27M, “Nugget”.
The color scheme is wrong, the vertical tail is wrong and the floats,
based on an old, totally incorrect William Wylam drawing, are not even
in the ball park for accuracy. They are asymmetric, too long for Nugget
as presented in the kit, and have four flutes rather than the correct
six on the planing surface; MPM got the step in the wrong place too.
The length of MPM’s floats is correct for the Edo Model J-5300
floats, with which Nugget was fitted during a post WWII overhaul and
re-enginning. MPM’s presentation of Nugget is as she was pre WWII
when she wore Edo Model K-4650 floats. The sketch here, and the marked
up casting, show the difference in the lengths between the two models.
The struttery for installing the two float models on the Vega 5C was
totally different too. The struttery was custom tailored to each type
of airplane.
“The J-5300 was also used on other types including the Fairchild
F-71, which – coincidentally – is also kitted by Khee-Kha.
Khee-Kha is presently making a master for the shorter K-4650 and will
be offering it for sale soon and then you can build Vega NC47M correctly
as she was pre WWII. DRAW Decals are considering issuing correct decals
for NC47M and her sister ship, NC49M, both before and after their post
WWII overhauls. Whiskey Jack Decals are issuing decals for a Fairchild
F-71 with J-5300 floats.
“There will be a detailed article with drawings on the K-4650
and J-5300 float and their installation details in a future issue of
this magazine. The drawings will be similar to those for the Edo Model
Wa-4665 in the REFERENCE section of this magazine.
“The MPM Vega on floats was reviewed in the FIRST LOOKS
section of the September 2004 issue of this magazine. There are some
errors in that review which will be corrected in the forthcoming article
on these floats.”
 Included
here are Jim’s drawings for strut locations on the Vega, photos
of the Khee Kha and MPM Edo’s side by side and a mark up for how
to shorten your J-5300’s into K-4650’s if you can’t
wait for the Khee Kha release. As you can see, there is a world of difference
between the MPM floats and the Khee Kha examples.
Modelers everywhere owe Lars Opland of Khee Kha Art Products and Jim
Schubert a debt of gratitude for opening this can of worms; the end result
can only be better for the modeling world.
Thanks to Lars for the sample floats and to Jim for making me look good
by supplying so much information, otherwise this review would just be
me crooning about how great these floats are.
The Edo J-5300’s are available from Khee
Kha Art Products via their website for $10 plus $5 domestic shipping
($7.50 overseas). This shipping cost covers up to four items, so do yourself
a favor and pick up his Fairchild 71, Bellanca CH 400 Skyrocket or CH
300 Pacemaker. Don’t forget to check out the Whiskey Jack Decals
sheets for Lars’ kits on the site as well.
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