The Seiran was designed to fly from the I-400 class submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy. One of these huge subs could carry more than one aircraft in its cylindrical hangar, housed in the long superstructure. There are numerous informative sources on it for anyone inclined to know more.

Like all numbers from the Tamiya War Bird Collection, the kit itself (#37) is a very fine piece of work. For myself, I had no way of showcasing the plane on a 1/72 scale submarine — maybe there should be a kit for this vessel like the 1/72 U-Boat by Revell — so I show it on land, sitting on its trolley in a generic sort of Pacific War setting…