Francesco Borraccino's Shimbu-Tai Hayate in 1/72

Francesco Borraccino wows with another 1/72 scale gem, this time a Shimbu-tai Ki-84 Hayate built from the Arma Hobby kit # 70053. Although the Special Attack Units kit released last year provides a 195 Shimbu-tai option Francesco elected to build another Hayate from the same unit, referencing a photo shown on the Arma Hobby website.

Francesco notes that whilst the Special Attack Units box lacks the photo-etched sheet on the other hand it offered excellently crafted 3D resin detail parts, such as seat with seatbelts, separate exhausts, and cockpit details (the 3D resin parts were only included with pre-ordered kits. Ed).  He found that assembly flowed quickly as the kit is excellent. The only two points he advises to pay attention to are the separate fuselage parts for canopy open or closed options, and the rear part of the canopy itself which created a little difficulty in setting up. 

Francesco made some small improvements such as opening of vents in the fuselage, drilling out the panel of the Ho-103 which he omitted, and adding hydraulic circuit piping for the landing gear, and gunsight glass (oddly not included on the transparent sprue), antenna wires and bomb fin stabilizer bars.  Although often on Tokkotai unit planes the armament was removed to reduce weight Francesco retained the wing Ho-5s, since they are present in the other Arma Hobby photo of the Shimbu-tai leader's aircraft.  

The entire model was first painted aluminium with the yellow leading edge IFF strips applied and masked off before the upper surfaces were finished in the # 7 olive brown colour, made with a mix of AK Real Colors RC 325 (RLM 81 v.3) and RC 330 (Olive brown # 7). Francesco applied the same olive brown colour to the cockpit interior with the pilot seat represented in unpainted natural metal, a nice touch.

For the lower surface Francesco simply added white to the same olive brown mix. He also applied the number '7'  in gouache, to the lower part of the rudder. That was a personal speculation since in the original photo it is not possible to discern whether a number is present or not. As most special attack aircraft seemed to have them Francesco decided to add one too. 

Examining the reference photo Francesco could see how the extensive paint peeling only seemed to affect the rear part of the fuselage, from the cockpit to the tail, in his opinion possibly suggesting a replacement of the entire tail section as the forward fuselage appeared unblemished. Peeling and chipping was represented by dabbing the paint with pieces of Tamiya tape and then finishing with toothpicks. Weathering was applied in his usual manner with oils, pigments and pastels. 

 

With special thanks to Francesco for sharing these images and details with Aviation of Japan. A convincingly realised representation of a factory finished Hayate awaiting a grim sortie in the final defence of the Japanese homeland. 

Image credit: All model photos © 2024 Francesco Barraccino; Box art © 2023 Arma Hobby 

Rising Decals Sally & Yagi Antennae

New from Rising Decals are sheets for the Mitsubishi Ki-21-I Ko 'Sally' bomber in 1/72 and 1/48 scales, together with two photo-etch and decal sets for the Yagi H-6 radar equipped Mitsubishi G3M3 'Nell' and Yagi experimental equipped Mitsubishi G4M1 'Betty'. Sheet RD72109 for the 'Sally' in 1/72 scale offers the following seven subject options:-

• Ki-21-I Ko of Hamamatsu Rikugun Hikko Gakko (Hamamatsu Army Flying School) at Hamamatsu  airbase, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, from 1941 to 1943. Noted as possibly the only camouflaged aircraft there the scheme is depicted as overall grey green with wavy bands of a dark green, suggested to be green, or deep (olive) green or blue green. This aircraft has the school insignia in red on the tail with a white horizontal stripe across the fin and rudder.
• Ki-21-I Ko of Hamamatsu Rikugun Hikko Gakko. Another flying school 'Sally', this time in overall grey green with a black manufacturer number '1108' on the nose. This aircraft has the school insignia in white on the tail with a lower segment of the rudder painted red and two narrow yellow bands on the rear fuselage.
• Ki-21-I Ko of Hiko Dai 60 Sentai in China during 1938-39, The aircraft is depicted in overall grey green with wavy bands of dark green. The markings consist of a diagonal red fuselage band and the white senchi hiyoshiki (war front) band on the rear fuselage. The caption speculates that this might be a 1st Shotai (Chutai?) and pre-production aircraft.
• Ki-21-I Ko of Hiko Dai 64 Sentai in dark green over grey-green with the former depicted as being slightly thinly sprayed with the grey green grinning through. This aircraft is the box art subject of the new Revell kit which depicts the green finish solid. According to Yoshito Yasuda, a former pilot in the 64th, when they camouflaged their aircraft in Indo-China before hostilities 'ordinary' green paint was used, which soon peeled off. And the colour was not constant, not only varying from aircraft to aircraft but even on the same aircraft due to the paints used and the hasty, piecemeal application*. The paint often became more olive, towards brownish with exposure as it aged. This aircraft has a large white unit arrow insignia on the tail and a white senchi hiyoshiki rear fuselage band. 
• Ki-21-I Ko of Dai Hiko 62 Sentai, 3rd Chutai, at Obihiro airbase, Hokkaido during October and November 1941; in overall grey green with the unit insignia on the tail reportedly consisting of a representation of the outline of Hokkaido island with the hiragana character 'Ko' (こ) in the centre, presumed to be an individual aircraft letter identification. Minoru Akimoto reported the outline in Chutai colours, reddish brown for 1st, cobalt blue for 2nd and yellow for 3rd. He described the aircraft colour as overall light blue-grey and depicted an example with the hiragana character 'Ha' (は). The unit was established in Hokkaido in October 1941, participated in attacks during the Malayan campaign and over Burma and the Philippines with a brief spell at Nanking in China before returning to Hokkaido in August 1942, when this marking was seen. Probably enough reason to depict this aircraft in a diorama snow scene.
• Ki-21-I Ko of 25 Hikodan Shireibu Hikohan (25 Air Brigade HQ Flight) as photographed as wreckage at Clark Field, Luzon, Philippines in October 1944.; in solid dark green over grey green with the former rather heavily weathered and patchy. Red tail insignia outlined white and a white rear fuselage band outlined in red. The insignia was said to be based on the Chinese character for 'north' (北), but representing the sun and moon to signify the Brigade's mission of protecting Japan from the north day and night. The Brigade was activated in Sakhalin in January 1943 but operated from Taiwan, Okinawa and Indo-China. From February 1945 it was designated 25 Independent Air Brigade. 
• Ki-21-I Ko of Hiko Dai 60 Sentai in March, 1939. Photographed over the Quilian Mountains during a sortie to attack targets in Gansu province, North China this aircraft appears to sport dark green wavy bands of camouflage over an overall grey green finish.  Unit insignia consists of two diagonal red fuselage bands with a white (or yellow?) five-pointed star imposed and a white senchi hiyoshiki rear fuselage bands.

All of the subjects on this sheet (shown above) are rather plain but attractive, no tricky mottles to paint but still enough opportunity for interpretation in the application of weathered finishes. The grey green depicted on the profiles is more towards your Tamiya XF-14 than your Gunze 128, FWIW the latter is my preferred choice and as suggested in the instructions. Bear in mind that variants of the finish often had an appearance towards a light blue grey as noted by Mr Akimoto and shown above in a schematic created to one of the actual values by the late Bill Leyh in collaboration with the author. Applied Gunze 128 does shift slightly towards this appearance as it ages. One Japanese researcher notes that it should be seen that there were two types of hairyokushoku; a blueish light grey and a greenish light grey. In examing the time periods he posited that the greenish variant came first, but could not confirm that it was not used during the later period so he liked to think that the two variants were used simultaneously. Some contemporary magazine and postcard images, as well as rare colour photographs also have towards light blueish grey appearance. You could choose and, away from forum pundits, feel relaxed about it. 

The 1/48 scale  Ki-21-I Ko/Otsu 'Sally' sheet RD48037, shown above and below, offers five subjects, repeating 1, 3 and 5 as described on the 1/72 sheet above, but with two additional subjects as follows:-

• Ki-21-I Ko of Hiko Dai 14 Sentai; an aircraft photographed on a sortie against Corregidor during the winter of 1941-42 and sporting an unusual camouflage of green and brown with the colours divided by thin dark lines, depicted as black. Undersurfaces and canopy framework in grey green. This aircraft has an odd arrangement of thin white lins on the tail and four horizontal bands of white on the rudder.
•  Ki-21-I Ko of Hiko Dai 14 Sentai at Lakunai, New Britain in 1943. Posited as a transport aircraft as at the time the Sentai was operating Ki-21-II. Depicted with a heavy mottle of dark green over grey green with unit insignia in white on the tail and a white senchi hiyoshiki rear fuselage band. 

Both sheets are very well printed on blue paper and with good register and colour saturation. The hinomaru are a satisfactory shade of red and the yellow is a golden yellow and not the weak, lemon yellow seen on some sheets. Also from Rising Decals more accessory sets in the form of RD Acc-021, shown above, a set of photo-etch Yagi H-6 radar antennae for the Mitsubishi G3M3 Model 23 Nell 'KEA-395' of 901 Ku for which decals are also provided and RD Acc-022, shown below, a set of photo-etch experimental Yagi antennae for the Mitsubishi G4M1 'U2-323' of 702 Ku operating from Ballale over the Solomons during Spring, 1943. Again decals for this aircraft are provided in this set which is intended for the Sword G4M1 Late Version kit. I very much like the approach of combining accessories to model variant aircraft, together with the relevant decals.

With special thanks to Mirik of Rising Decals for notice of these releases and review samples.

* Letter to author 27 October 1999

Image credits: All Rising Decals images © 2024 Rising Decals; Hairyokushoku blue grey colour schematic © 2004 Bill Leyh and Aviation of Japan

New 1/72 Kits

Special Hobby have re-released their 1/72 scale Nakajima Ki-43-III Ko kit in a 'Fighter and Special Attack Units' edition as SH72488. The kit includes options for the Hiko Dai 204 Sentai fighter with '01' tail number as photographed at Matsuyama airfield on the island of Formosa (now Taiwan) in August 1945. The tail number has led to speculation that this aircraft was perhaps flown by 1st Chutai leader Lt Tatsukichi Nishimoto or even the Hikotai leader Capt Wataru Takahashi. Although no other obvious command markings are visible instructions were given during mid-1945 for formation leaders to avoid the display of garish identity markings which might lead to them being singled out in combat, instructions which were not always followed.

The 204th, which had been re-designated a Hiko Sentai from its previous Kyôdô (教導 - instructional) Hiko Sentai status in February 1944, lost all Ki-43-II aircraft sent to the Philippines campaign, with 17 pilots including all Chutai leaders being killed there. The surviving flying personnel returned to Mito, Japan, by transport plane in December 1944. At Mito the unit re-equipped with the III Ko before moving to Saigon, Indo-China in February 1945.  In April part of the unit moved to Formosa and was assigned to special attack duties as the Makoto (誠 - honesty or sincerity) 204 Sentai to participate in the Okinawa campaign and in July 1945 the main force of the unit joined it there. At the end of the war surviving  personnel of the unit still in Saigon were transferred into the 126th Airfield Battalion and Dai 64 Hiko Sentai. 

The kit includes three other decal options for III Ko aircraft flown by special attack units:- 

• White '75' of 19 Shimbu-tai flown by Lt. Toru Shinomiya from Chofu airfield. Special attack III Ko aircraft of 19 had both guns and gunsight removed and reportedly a 250 kg bomb was carried under each wing (although a photograph shows the expected configuration of a drop tank carried under the starboard wing and a bomb carried under the port wing). '75' is the last two digits of the aircraft serial number 7475 manufactured by Tachikawa in October 1944.  The unit was formed from the 2nd Rensei Hikotai with 12 III Ko commanded by Lt Minoru Nakamura and consisting of two students from the 1st Special Training Class and nine students from the 13th Class of Boy Pilots. At first the unit was prepared to move to Singapore but in April 1945 it was moved to Chiran to participate in the Okinawa operations. The first sorties were made on 7 April led by Lt Nakamura and the following day Lt Isamu Someya with  Cpls Minoru Terada and Tokuryu Moriuchi sortied. On 18 April Cpls Kiichiro Oikawa and Sho Kamikawa sortied from Kikaijima followed on 25 May by Cpls Hiroshi Mashiko and Teruo Mino. Although the unit's III Ko aircraft were reportedly supplied new a photograph of one of them shows a white Homeland Defence band under the starboard wing, either an aircraft passed on by an air defence unit or perhaps a recognition marking applied during training sorties.   
• White 'Ku' (ク)of 2 Hakko-tai 'Ichiu-tai', flown by 1/Lt Kyoichi Kurihara from Maewatari (Mito-Hagashi), Ibaraki, Japan. This was the first special attack unit formed with the Hitachi Training Air Division with 12 officer pilots led by 1/Lt Kurihara. The unit went to the Philippines (where  4th Air Army organised Hakkou-tai  (八絋隊) from 7 November 1944 to 13 January 1945. Hakkō ichiu (八紘一宇, 'eight crown cords, one roof', i.e the whole world under one roof was a Japanese political slogan meaning the divine right of the Empire of Japan to 'unify the eight corners of the world'. The slogan was presented from the Second Sino-Japanese War to World War II and was popularised in a speech by Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe on January 8, 1940. Five aircraft of the unit were lost en route to the Phillipines but on 5 December two aircraft sortied against US vessels in the Surigao Straits and on 7 December two more against shipping in Ormoc Bay. On 13 December a single Oscar sortied against ships off Mindanao. The large blue arrow was  1/lt Kurihara's personal marking, following the Army Air protocol of leader and HQ command markings in blue colour (of which more anon).
• Ki-43-III Ko of 53 Shimbu-Tai flown by Lt Mitsuo Chikama at Chiran airfield, Kagoshima Prefecture in May 1945. 53rd was one of 57 special attack units established at Hitachi from April 1945 also with 12 aircraft. on 18 May Lt Chikama led eight Hayabusa to attack US naval vessels west of Okinawa. The red lightning flash was Lt Chikama's personal marking and the tail emblem represented his name and a stylised '5' and '3'.  

Curiously the instructions suggest painting the special attack subjects in 'Olive Green' and the 204 Sentai example in 'Olive Drab'. If the special attackers were re-painted at all from the factory applied 'brown' of ohryoku 7 go shoku it was possibly in dark blue-green or dark grey. Good to see this kit re-released and with some interesting and worthwhile markings options. Special Hobby's III Ko was last released in 2010 with optional markings for 48 Sentai (T/Sgt Só Okabe, China) 64 Sentai (Capt Hideo Mayabe, Burma) and 65 Sentai (Metabari airfield, Japan) - again good choices. 

Also of possible interest one of the subjects in the recently released Kovozávody Prostêjov Morane Saulnier MS.A.1 'Other Services' 1/72 kit KPM72455 which includes an option for a Japanese flown example from 1922. Can't vouch for the suggested colour scheme though.

Also due for release from Kovozávody Prostêjov is 1/72 scale Avro 504K kit KPM0461 as  'Japanese Users' edition with three interesting schemes designed by Rising Decals.

Image credits: SH box art and photo © 2024 Special Hobby s.r.o; KP box art and images © 2024 Kovozávody Prostêjov

50th Sentai Hayabusa Duo in 1/48 by Stéphane Sagols Part 2

The second of Stéphane Sagols 1/48 Ki-43-I Hayabusa models crafted from the Hasegawa kit, this one featuring 'Fubuki' as flown by the controversial ace Sgt Satoshi 'Lucky' Anabuki.

The same details for the previous model apply with regard to the interior and engine details as shown below. 

The models were made from Hasegawa kit 09425 Nakajima Ki-43-I Hayabusa (Oscar) '50th Flight Regiment' released in 2002 and which included markings options for all three 'Musketeers', Sasaki, Shimokawa and Anabuki.  Stéphane used the kit decals for the Kanji characters on the rudders but painted the lightning flashes, fuselage bands and hinomaru.

Satoshi Anabuki also forged his flying career over the Philippines in the Ki-27 as a 19-year old Corporal in Lt Kanamaru's shotai in the 50th's 3rd Chutai. He continued to fly over Burma in the 50th acquiring the nickname 'Momotaro of Burma' after a popular Japanese folk hero, a boy who battled demons. After flying both the I and II variants of the Hayabusa and claiming more victories he returned to Japan in February 1944. He was to claim further victories flying the Ki-84  and Ki-100 as a Sgt Maj flight instructor at Akeno.

'Fubuki' was an Aikoku-go machine donated by the Saitama Agricultural Society and Anabuki claimed 14 victories flying it until it was lost when being flown by the 3rd Chutai leader Lt Shigeru Nakazaki who failed to return from a sortie on 23 January 1943. The victory markings on the rudder represent Anabuki's first victory over the P-40 and two Hurricanes claimed on 18 January 1943. The remaining nine victory markings represent those claimed in this aircraft by Nakazaki.  Anabuki subsequently flew a second and similar 'Fubuki' in which he had amassed 200 hours by the time it was handed over to 16 Field Air Depot in Singapore on 7 June 1943. Anabuki then flew a mottled Ki-43-II with the name 'Kimikaze' said to reference his fiancee Kimiko whom he later married. This aircraft was ditched on 8 October 1943 by a wounded Anabuki who claimed he had shot down two P-38s and two B-24s then rammed a third B-24. For this Anabuki received a personal citation from the 3rd Air Army commander Lt Gen Hideyoshi Kawabe, unprecedented for a living pilot. There were no witnesses to these claims and they do not tally with any known Allied losses. Several of his previous claims also do not tally with  any reported Allied losses. Pilots of the 64th Sentai were sceptical of the truth of his claims and one of them commented to this author that the 50th Sentai's criteria for allowing claims were not as stringent as those of the 64th which required witnesses as well as evidence of fire or crashes. Anabuki's mottled Ki-43-II 'Kimikaze' has been variously depicted with dark green blotches over natural metal, blue-grey or khaki. 

Anabuki also survived the war to serve in the JASDF, also rising to the rank of Major. 

With special thanks to Stéphane for sharing these images and details of his two Hayabusa models with AoJ. 

Image credits: All model photos © 2024 Stéphane Sagols; Hasegawa box art © 2002 Hasegawa Corporation via Stéphane Sagols.

50th Sentai Hayabusa Duo in 1/48 by Stéphane Sagols Part 1

In addition to continuing colour discussions and more on Babs kits a season of Army fighter models begins with this dynamic duo of Hiko Dai 50 Sentai Ki-43-I Hayabusa superbly realised from the Hasegawa 1/48 scale kits by Stéphane Sagols. Both are aircraft flown by notable pilots, Isamu Sasaki's Tobi (Black Kite) and the controversial Satoshi Anabuki's Fubuki  (Snowstorm). First up is Tobi.

Stéphane built the models from the box but added some AML photo-etched parts for the wheel wells and Eduard seat belts in the cockpits. He also added wiring in the cockpits and ignition wires to the engine.

Minor problems attended to were filling and reinforcing the wing to fuselage joint at the leading edge and filling joins on the aileron as the wing tips on this kit are separate mouldings. He also filled the landing light aperture as the Ki-43-I did not have a landing light in the wing leading edge. Finally he reduced the thickness of the interior canopy frame for a better fit to the fuselage.

The cockpit interiors, wheel wells and landing gear inner doors were painted with Mr Hobby H63 Metallic Blue Green to represent the aotake finish. AK Interactive 2264 (Air Series) Midori iro was applied to the exterior upper surfaces with white added for the fabric control surfaces. 

Under surfaces were finished with AK Interactive Xtreme Metal AK479 Aluminium with AK488 Matte Aluminium for fabric control surfaces. The anti glare panel was applied with AK Interactive AK2066 Anti-Glare Blue-Black. The 50th used a non-standard Chutai colour sequence with red for the 1st, yellow for the 2nd and white for the 3rd. The small hinomaru on the fuselage was part of the unit's lightning flash, applied before the fuselage hinomaru appeared on other Army fighters as a standard marking.

Sgt Isamu 'Skilled' Sasaki was one three aces in the 50th dubbed 'The Three Musketeers' with Anabuki and Yukio Shimakawa. Sasaki flew the Ki-27 and claimed his first victory over the Philippines in December 1941 subsequently serving with the 50th in Burma for more than two years, claiming 32 victories. He returned to Japan and the Army's Flight Test Centre in April 1944 but continued to fly on operational sorties against the B-29s, claiming six shot down and three damaged. He was promoted to Warrant Officer and awarded the Bukosho, surviving the war to serve in the Japanese Self Defence Air Force (JSDAF) and rising to the rank of Major.

Image credit: All photos © 2024 Stéphane Sagols.