Alex Angelopoulos' Ki-44 Shoki ~ Hasegawa 1/32nd Scale

It is a delight to be able to share these images of Alex Angelopoulos' stunning model of the Nakajima Ki-44 Shoki built from the excellent 1/32nd scale Hasegawa Kit and depicting a skull adorned aircraft of the 29th Sentai. 

Alex has been working on this model over 7 months but the build was quite straightforward. He cut out and re-positioned the elevators, scratch built the gun sight and added some cockpit wiring. The exhausts and machine guns were replaced with Quickboost's magnificent resin detail items.

The model was given an enamel aluminium undercoat with Humbrol Metalcote and the Maskol technique was used to replicate paint chipping. Paint colours used were GSI Creos (Gunze) acrylics - IJA Green and IJA Light Grey.

Weathering was added using an airbrush, Mig pigments and oil paints. Not a single decal has been applied to the model. All the markings were painted on using home made masks with the exception of the tail emblem where a Montex mask was used. Beautiful!

This particular aircraft, a Ki-44-II Hei of the 29th Sentai photographed at Hsiaochiang, Formosa, in August 1944, shortly before a brief deployment to Wuchang in China,  was chosen as one of the profiles for Osprey's 'Ki-44 Tojo Aces'.

Thanks very much to Alex for kindly sharing these wonderful images of his model here.

All images ©2012 Alexander Angelopoulos

Rex Wadsworth's Sweet'n'Yellow Zeros

Rex Wadsworth has kindly shared images of two recent Japanese aircraft model builds. The Sweet 1/144th Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero is a little gem and modelled to depict a Tainan Ku aircraft flown by Saburo Sakai. Rex notes that the detail in this kit is wonderful and painted it using a Testors Model Master mix suggested by Greg Springer and included in Osprey's 'Modelling the Mitsubishi A6M Zero' book by Brian Criner. This is 2 parts SAC Bomber Tan (FS 34201), a little under one part Green Zinc Chromate and one part Flat White. Rex warns that if the Green Zinc Chromate is exceeded the Zero colour turns a "nasty green"!  He lightened the mix with additional white bearing in mind the scale.

Rex used the kit canopy frame decals which, although they work well, are based on Sweet's own colour suggestions and do not quite match the paint mix he used. Kit decals were applied but Rex thinks the fuselage band might be the wrong colour. These went on well and after a gloss coat he highlighted panel lines with Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens from a six-pack of "Shades of Grey".

For the new Airfix Zero in 1/72nd scale Rex decided to go with overall yellow-orange to depict the kit subject aircraft before the camouflage green was added. Considering that many Japanese trainer models have paint that is too orange he decided to try a better mix:-

"In the end, I mixed Testors Flat Red and Flat Yellow. These were the paints I had on hand. And with a low budget, I opted not to buy the Tamiya paint that I had a mix formula for. It worked for the best. I started with the Yellow and found that even a small drop of Red will send the Yellow to full blown Orange. That is not what I wanted. In my mind's eye I wanted a true "Yellow-Orange", not an Orange color. I had about 3ml of Yellow and added what was basically a bamboo skewer moistened with the Red to the mix. Perfect! At least to my eye."

Rex wanted to add white-outlined Hinomaru to the undersurfaces but was unable to obtain suitable aftermarket decals so he settled in the end for the kit's plain ones.

The cowling and canopy decking were painted blue-black using a mix of Model Master Dark Sea Blue with a few drops of Flat Black. Cockpit interior was British Interior Green with a tiny drop of Flat Yellow added. The pilot was used to model the aircraft wheels up as this is a kit option and Rex added a wooden base from an art and craft store painted orange and decorated with a Hinomaru. Although "not a perfect kit but at the price a very good investment" he gives two thumbs up for the Airfix Zero - "More detailed than Hasegawa on the inside. The Fine Molds 1/72 Zero is a work of art, but art at a price!" - and plans to build more of them.

Thanks to Rex for sharing these images of his excellent Zero models in two scales. I've seen dismissive comments around the forums about the new Airfix Zero kit in comparison to the superlative Fine Molds version but I think this is unfair (and no doubt involves Airfix snobbery too). It is much cheaper, perfectly reasonable, more readily available (even than the Hasegawa kit) and a proper "model shop" kit, not something you have to buy mail order from Japan in two large plain A4 boxes with two magazines. I intended to provide a link for the Fine Molds kit but had to give up after much fruitless searching on the HLJ site. Hopefully the Airfix kit will reach a wider audience, encourage a plethora of adventurous schemes and versions, become the basis for further variants from Airfix and stimulate a more discerning interest in accurate paint colours. 

Image credits: All © 2012 Rex Wadsworth 

Rising Decals Photo-Etch Sets for Japanese Aircraft

From Rising Decals - a decal company with an established reputation for innovative and original Japanese aviation related subjects, come new and very welcome photo-etch sheets for Ki-48 dive brakes in 1/72 and 1/48th scales together with a plethora of radar antennae for various IJN types. A Good Idea and one that I hope they will be able to develop further.

A really neat aspect of the presentation is that each set contains appropriate decals and a colour guide for an aircraft equipped with the gear. The Ki-48 example is from the 8th Sentai's 2nd Chutai with the distinctive "octopus eight" tail insignia, as operating over Burma in early 1944 (you get two of the  sheet shown above). The dive bomber capability of the Ki-48-II was developed in response to its growing obsolescence and vulnerability in the air, reflecting the earlier capabilities of the Junkers Ju-88, with an intention to deploy the type nocturnally to make precision moonlight dive-bombing attacks against enemy airfields. In China in early 1944 the 5th Air Army HQ directed that:-

"Type 99 light bombers will assault and destroy enemy aeroplanes in night attacks on enemy airfields."

The 16th and 90th Sentai were specially trained in this form of night dive-bombing attack together with radio guide beam usage and long range navigation techniques. To improve performance the crew was reduced to three and all daylight operating equipment removed. This allowed the installation of additional fuselage fuel tankage  to increase the operational range to 1,100 km and in this form the Type 99 light bomber was used against the B-29 airfields in China. Displaying a Type 99 crewed up, in dive-bombing mode with the flaps deployed and the bomb bay open and bomb crutch extended would look impressive - and different - especially painted black!

The other photo-etch sets provide radar arrays for IJN types - the B5N2 "Kate" (Okinawa Ku), B6N2 "Jill" (131 Ku), P1Y1 "Frances" (762 Ku - nice this one with graffiti on the fuselage and weathered Hinomaru borders), B6N1/2 "Jill" (Naval Air Technical Arsenal Air Test Unit) and E13A1 "Jake" (901 Ku).

Thanks to Mirek of Rising for samples. Highly recommended.

Image credits: All © 2012 Rising Decals

Japanese Armour Colours Primer - Now Available

A PDF e-guide to this thorny subject in similar format to the Zero colours guide. 20 pages of analysis and summary with colour chips and colour schematics. Shown above are ten sample pages as also shown here.

Contents:-

Introduction

Official Camouflage Instructions + 2 colour illustrations

Camouflage Schematics + 9 colour illustrations

Camouflage Styles +  3 colour illustrations

Tank Colour Paint Sets +  6 large colour chips with analysis, comparisons and matches

Japanese Army Khaki + 1 colour chip

Colour Photo Section + 3 colour photos

Hobby Paints 

As before registered purchasers will be entitled to all revisions and updates at no extra cost. Email order 

Not Nessie but Hickory! Ki-54 Revealed in the Depths.

Courtesy of a regular correspondent, some interesting film of a very well-preserved Ki-54 discovered 320m down at the bottom of a freshwater lake in Japan, here, here and here.

Tail emblem appears to be from the 3rd Chutai of 38th Sentai/Dokuritsu Hikotai. Note white senchi hiyoshiki  (戦地標識 - war front sign) fuselage band and plain Hinomaru.  Upper wing and tail surfaces seem to be coated with silt (?).

Restored Zero Film

Nice film footage of the restored Dakota Blayde Zero A1-1-129. This aircraft, a Nakajima-built A6M2 s/n 1498, was restored from a wreck discovered in the Ballale Island jungles in the Solomons in 1965. The airplane's restoration has been praised by Japanese aeronautical engineers and other world experts. Everything is original on the aeroplane except the engine, a Pratt & Whitney R-1830. The restoration took several decades to complete. Note the colour and the presence of yellow IFF strips on wings and white-outline fuselage Hinomaru.

Hat tip to Ronnie.

Since blogging this Ryan Toews has commented. His comment is so interesting and informative (and corrects the information above) that it deserved to be included with the blog post (I hope Ryan doesn't mind):-

"Please allow me to provide you with some background on the Zero in the linked YouTube video. In 1968 Bob Diemert of Carman, Manitoba, recovered several wrecked Japanese aircraft. The recovered pieces bore the serial numbers 6345, 5355, 4362, 5459, 3471, 7830, 2985 (Nakajima A6M2 21); 3285 (A6M3 32); 3753 (A6M3 22) - 3753. Of the tail codes only three are known: W1-106, W1-187 overpainted with 6-136, and 5-136 overpainted with 3-174. Diemert also mentioned that none of the recovered tails came from any of the fuselage sections that he took from Ballale Island. Diemert completed two Zeros from the wreckage he brought back to Canada. Frustratingly, he kept no records of what parts were used for each rebuilt aircraft. 

His first Zero was sold to the USMC Museum in Virginia and is now part of the Naval Air Museum in Pensacola, Florida. The second Zero was built for the Confederate Air Force and has since been sold to the Pacific Aviation Museum in Hawaii. In the mid-90s Diemert sold all of his remaining Japanese material to John and Earl Calverley, the owners of Blayd Corporation, also located in Carman. The new Blayd Zero was constructed as a Nakajima built A6M2 by duplicating about 14,000 components using the original parts as templates. Thus the plane has only about 5% original parts. I was fortunate to become involved and was asked to come up with a paint scheme. Initially I hoped to duplicate the one of the Ballale wrecks but it proved impossible to establish any link between the known serial numbers and tail codes. Attention then turned to one of the few Nakajima A6M2s for which, at the time, both the tail code and serial number were known. This was A6M2, s/n 6544, tail code A1-1-129, downed over Russell Island on 4 February, 1943. This Zero was photographed by the Americans when they occupied Russell Island. Some artifacts which confirmed the serial number were also collected. The tail code identified this aircraft as being from the Zuikaku. The serial number 6544 also provided a date of manufacture in late December, 1942. Given the markings and date of the loss of A1-1-129 it must have been flown by one of the two Zuikaku pilots lost on February 4, 1943. Circumstantial evidence seems to suggest that the pilot was CPO Soji CHIBA. 

The overall paint colour was based on existing artifacts in the Blayd collection and mixed using modern aircraft paint. The final colour was slightly lighter than FS 16350, which is very close to the paint colour Nick has arrived at in his research. The completed airframe the Zero was transported to Tri-State Aviation in Wahpeton, North Dakota for installation of the engine and instruments. As stated, the Zero had been given a serial number that bore no relationship to any of the Diemert/Blayd artifacts. However, for export purposes it was necessary to assign an “official” serial number to the plane. Therefore a sub-assembly plate with the serial number 1498 was used. This plate was not an actual A6M2 identification plate, but was in fact a manufacturer’s plate for an A6M2 flap (Part number 4611). Fortunately, customs showed no interest in the actual provenance of this serial number. The Zero was completed in Wahpeton and was kept initially at the Fargo Air Museum in Fargo, ND, after its purchase by several Minnesota and North Dakota warbird collectors. After the tragic death of Gerry Beck, the owner of Tri-State Aviation, the plane was moved to the Dakota Territory Air Museum in Minot, ND. It has recently again been resold to the Texas Flying Legends Museum in Houston. The YouTube video is from a DVD that was shot by a Japanese film crew in the autumn of 2010 in Minot ND. I was able to go out to see at least part of the video shoot. Unfortunately, while on the previous day the crew completed several hours of aerial photography, on the day I was out heavy thunderstorms prevented any flying time. This was particularly disappointing as I was assured that there was an extra seat available for me in the Beechcraft chase plane."

Thanks Ryan!

Image credits:-© http://www.web-wac.co.jp/

AZ Models 1/72nd Mitsubishi Ki-30 "Ann" ~ Part 1

The seasonal break provided an opportunity to take a closer look at this recent AZ Models kit and to compare it directly to a Pavla example. It does not appear to be just Pavla with added surface detail and an injection molded canopy. The re-working, if it is re-working, goes further than that. Whilst the basics are similar, butt-joined main components, including that intimidating separate fin without location tabs or slots, there are a number of important differences. There is a nice build of the Pavla kit here. Follow the AZ Models link to see sprue shots of their Ki-30 kit but the parts handled "in the plastic" look even nicer than that.

The JAAF version was examined but there are kits of RoCAF and RTAF variants available too. The JAAF version comes with decals for three options but the units are not identified on the colour guide on the back of the box. At top is a Ki-30 in tricolour "China" camouflage described as "sand", "dark red brown" and "Japan dark green" over "light blue grey" (of which more anon). The unit insignia is unidentified but the scheme appears to originate from Model Art # 533 'Camouflage & Markings of I.J.A. Bombers' where the colours are identified as An ryoku shoku (暗緑色 - dark green colour), Chakasshoku (茶褐色 - tea brown or dark brown colour) and Kokasshoku (黄褐色 - yellow brown colour). There is a photograph of this aircraft on p.66. The respective FS equivalents for these colours are given in the book as 34079 & 34083, 30117 & 30215 and 33434 - but please treat them with some caution. The comments accompanying the printed colour swatches in the book are translated as follows:-

Dark Green - "This colour had the opportunity to be introduced in full scale during the Japan/China incident and in the Pacific war, this colour only was used as a mainstream camouflage pattern of every kind. Although in the photo and illustration captions in the book, this colour is quoted to be used, we have to remember that there were many variations in the tone since it was used for a long period and on many types of planes. From the broad variations of FS numbers, those chosen are picked from clear colour photos of Type RO transporter, Type 97 heavy bomber etc captured by US Forces in the Philippines, New Guinea etc."

Dark Brown - "A camouflage colour used during the Japan/China incident. Actually, to understand the tone of the colour, three photos of a Type 100 heavy bomber were used, two taken by the Japanese and one by the Americans. The two photos taken by the Japanese are very old and their colour has faded remarkably while the one taken by the Americans is too yellowish, so it was very difficult to understand the exact colour. The FS numbers given are those the author is guessing."

Yellow Brown - "This colour was also used during the Japan/China incident as the above. There is not a certain tone of this colour, so the FS numbers given were decided by the author from the same colour photo taken by the Americans of the Type 100 heavy bomber (same photo as of Chakasshoku) of the 74th Sentai and various photos of Type 97 light bomber, Type 98 light bomber etc., which were artificially coloured (hand tinted monochrome photos). Generally, this is the impression of the "yellow ochre" paint."


From this it is difficult to distinguish between the formal colours known as # 30 Karekusa iro (枯草色 - dry grass colour) and # 33 Khaki iro  (カーキ色) which were both "yellowish browns". 

Some references show the scheme as a brown with two greens, light and dark, as does the Pavla box art (above), but that might be a misinterpretation of the tricolour scheme as applied to the Ki-27, of khaki (yellowish brown), green and indigo, where the dark, greenish-blue of the indigo is perceived to be a dark blue green. Pavla's suggested colours are "Green A3" - FS 34092 or Humbrol 149 Matt Dark Green, "Brown N17" -FS 30266 and "Light Green" - FS 34423. However there are no obvious light greens in the JAAF paint colour standards to the Rikugun kokuki tosou kitei (陸軍航空機塗装規程- Army aircraft painting regulations). The undersurface is described as "Grey A/N2" - FS 36492 or Humbrol 196 Satin Light Grey.

The second option is a 31st Sentai aircraft in a scheme of "medium green" blotches over "light grey", which probably equates to the JAAF # 21 Midori iro (緑色 - green) over # 1 Hairyokushoku (灰緑色 - ash green colour). This aircraft also appears to have command stripes and a stylised eagle victory or mission marking, but the yellow wing IFF strips are unlikely on those aircraft participating in the early offensives of 1942 as they were only introduced from September 1942. JAAF # 21 was the "standard" Army green colour, a Chrome Oxide based green of strong and deep chroma with a subtle olive hue. There is no useful FS equivalent but RAL 6020 Chromoxidgrün (Chrome Oxide Green) is, unsurprisingly, similar and matched in the Revell paint range by semigloss 363 Dunkelgrün. Another closer option is White Ensign Models Colour Coats ACJ05 Nakajima Army Green.

The final option is an aircraft of the Air Academy in an unusual scheme of "Army green" in kumogata pattern over "light grey" with the green further added as a snake weave over the light grey sections. The reference source for this interesting scheme is a photograph of a derelict Ki-30 in 'Meatballs and Dead Birds' by James P. Gallagher*, but for those who want something less challenging there is a photograph of a similar Air Academy aircraft on p.65 of MA 533 in plain grey-green. 

Interior colour is suggested to be "Japan Interior Green", whatever that is, but based on a snippet of research that came up with a personal description of the Ki-51 interior the cockpits of early Mitsubishi Army aircraft might have been painted a malachite green, a slightly gloomy blueish-green. There is a close RAL equivalent to the typical darker variant of this colour - 6004 Blaugrün (blue green). The closest FS 595b value is 34058 but whilst it is de-saturated, lighter and greyer, it is possibly ok  for a 1/72nd model. Again, those old friends Humbrol 88 Matt Deck Green and 104 Matt Oxford Blue in combination lightened with a touch of 89 Matt Middle Blue can be used to approximate the malachite interior colours.

The Ki-30 was the Japanese Army's first single-engined light bomber and perhaps in a category to be compared to the Heinkel He-70 and Fairey Battle. I suspect the fixed undercarriage followed the same considerations as for the Ki-27. Originally conceived with a retractable undercarriage it was found the weight did not justify the reduction in drag. The original fully spatted undercarriage was altered to  a half spat configuration to better facilitate maintenance on the muddy airstrips in China. This aircraft is relatively obscure in terms of documentation, there being no Maru Mechanic or FAOW on the type. 

Directives were issued to Kawasaki, Mitsubishi, Nakajima and Tachikawa in February 1936 to design an aircraft to succeed the Type 93 Single Engine Light Bomber. In May, 1936, after a preliminary review of submissions only Kawasaki and Mitsubishi were instructed to produce prototypes (Kawasaki ultimately producing the Ki-32). Mitsubishi completed their prototype in February 1937, with the Ha-6 engine, but the second prototype and 16 pre-production aircraft built between September 1937 and January 1938 had the Ha-5 installed. The design was formally adopted by the JAAF in 1938 as the Type 97 Light Bomber (九七式軽爆撃機 - Kyu-Nana Shiki Kei Bakugeki-ki)  abbreviated in service use to Kyu-Nana Kei-baku (九七軽爆).

Standard bomb load was 300 kg - 20 x 15 kg, 6 x 50 kg or 3 x 100 kg but with reduced fuel up to 400 kg could be carried, using both the internal bomb bay and wing racks. The AZ Models kit includes what appear to be two resin 100 kg bombs for fitting on underwing racks but there is no provision for displaying the bomb bay interior. Other resin parts are the engine (as a relief molding) and an especially nicely detailed pair of wheels. The kit also includes two injection molded canopies to allow for accidents in cutting one apart to display the open position shown in the instructions.

* Thanks Ken!

Image credits: Box art and decals © 2011 AZ Models; Box art © Pavla 

Ki-44 Profiles by Ronnie Olsthoorn

Artist Ronnie Olsthoorn did absolutely sterling work on the profiles for 'Ki-44 Tojo Aces' but the publishing size constraints for the Osprey series meant that a lot of wonderful detail was lost or reduced in the final printed versions in the book. Ronnie has kindly given permission to show some larger size examples here, together with some of the full size details from the profiles. He is now very busy working on the 3D model and profiles for 'Ki-27 Aces' with a surprise in store for the cover art. The heading image shows (top) an 85th Sentai machine reportedly flown by ace Capt Yukiyoshi Wakamatsu and one of the Burma based 64th Sentai aircraft with 4th Chutai tail insignia.

Pre-production Ki-44 (5th prototype) of Maj Toshio Sakagawa of the 47th Dokuritsu Hiko Chutai, Saigon, December 1941 and (lower) Ki-44-I of Akeno Flying School painted to play the part of an RAF 'Buffalo' in the Toho 1943 film 'Kato Hayabusa Sentôtai' and flown by future 68th Sentai ace Lt Hiroshi Sekiguchi.

Ki-44-II Otsu of the 87th Sentai, Meiktila Burma in May 1944 and (lower) Ki-44-II Otsu of 3rd Chutai, 70th Sentai at Anshan, Manchuria in August 1944.

Ki-44-II Hei of the 50th Sentai at Meiktila, Burma in late 1943 and (lower) Ki-44-II Hei of the Sentai Hombu, 29th Sentai, Clark Field, Philippines, November 1944. The hard-edged camouflage blotches on the 50th Sentai aircraft are replicated from a photograph. The 29th Sentai example is in the late war factory applied scheme of JAAF # 7 Ohryoku nana go shoku (黄緑七号色 - yellow green no.7 colour), an olive brown paint similar to US Olive Drab. Under surfaces are painted JAAF # 1 Hairyokushoku (灰緑色 ash green colour). The senchi hiyoshiki - white so-called 'combat stripe' (literally war front sign) - appears to have been painted out on this machine.

Three view of Ki-44-II Hei of Capt Teiichi Hitano, 3rd Chutai/Hikotai and 'Sakura' leader, 47th Sentai, Narimasu, Japan, early 1944.

Detail of tail fin, rudder and insignia of 64th Sentai example. The camouflage pattern is carefully replicated from a rare photograph of this aircraft. Typical paint colour was JAAF # 21 midori iro - (緑色 green colour) a deep olive green of strong chroma.

Detail of the cowling of the 70th Sentai example. The paint colour is depicted as the dark blue green JAAF # 27 (青緑色 ao midori iro) and the lustre is replicated from photographs of the actual aircraft. 

Close up detail of the fuselage markings and serial presentation on Capt Jun Shimizu's 47th Sentai Ki-44-II Otsu with 40mm wing armament.

Detail of the Ta-dan air-to-air cluster bombs carried under the wings of Capt Yasuro Masazaki's 2nd Chutai, 47th Sentai Ki-44-II Hei and replicated from a photograph of the actual aircraft with this ordnance. Ronnie went to great pains to get the stencil detail correct - note red-painted retractable step, flap guides and marking under wing.

Top view of the cowling anti-glare panel on Capt Hitano's 47th Sentai aircraft. The colour is a deep blueish-black, JAAF # 32 Koku Ran Shoku (黒藍色 black indigo colour).

All images © 2011 Ronnie Olsthoorn/www.skyraider3D.com