Yahu 'JustStick' 1/72 Instrument Panels

If, like me, you are a modeller of a certain vintage whose fingers have inexplicably turned into bananas  but you just can't give up the one true scale, this product, new to me, might be of interest. I admire pre-painted photo-etch but can't get on with it, especially those sandwiched multi-layer instrument panels that require the  glue application precision of a neurosurgeon. 

Yahu, a Polish company, have released a small range of pre-assembled panels for a relatively moderate cost like this Ki-44 'Tojo' example, listed as suitable for the Sword or Hasegawa kits.  Some of their panels are also available for self-assembly and can be obtained in the UK via this eBay store. The Ki-44  is the only Japanese subject so far, although they also make Gloster  Gladiator panels which would be suitable for Chinese operated aircraft. Hopefully more Japanese subjects will be released in future if the idea doesn't bomb.

Image credit: All ©  2014 Yahu Models

Danilo Renzulli's 1/72nd scale Ki-61-II Kai 'Bubbletops'

This superb 1/72nd scale model of a 56th Sentai 'Tony' bubbletop - Kawasaki's svelte Mustang - is a hybrid - a very skilful combination of two separate Finemolds kits (Ki-61-II and Ki-100) and a Falcon canopy so that you can't see the join by correspondent Danilo Renzulli! It remains something of a puzzle why Finemolds never released their own new Ki-61-II Kai bubbletop using the fuselage pieces from their limited edition 1989 kit (which combined those parts with the old Hasegawa Ki-61-I Tei) together with the new parts from their revised Ki-61-II fastback kit in 2000.

The Hinomaru were airbrushed using masks Danilo cut himself as with most of his Japanese subjects. There is no clear coat on top of the camouflage green, Danilo instead waited for the matt paint to dry to  touch then carefully rubs it with a finger-tip to obtain a semi-gloss finish close to that of a paint job when new or nearly so. The undersurface natural metal finish was achieved by mixing silver paint (of non-modeling type), matt white and vitreous gloss paint (used to finish plasticine). This is a recipe of Danilo's that he uses on many models.

Below is Danilo's model compared to an earlier Ki-61-II Kai 'bubbletop' that he made from the old Revell kit in the 1970s "using the rear section of a Ki-84 canopy (most probably) and by vacuforming the other sections (the toaster had its moment of glory)". Danilo first sprayed the aluminum paint and then the green and the grey paints. Once dry he scratched the paint using a knife tip and tape. The sliding section of the canopy has suffered from some contraction over time, he says, perhaps because he used acetate sheet that was too thick. 

Danilo is no mean artist either. Here is his very evocative painting of a Yokosuka D4Y 'Judy' accomplished with  tempera  on cardboard in the 1990s.

Image credit: All photos and artwork © 2014 Danilo Renzulli

Fabrizio Tommasini's Ki-84 Hayate

Further to 'Hayate Thoughts', 'More Hayate Thoughts' and 'Yet More Hayate Thoughts' correspondent Fabrizio Tommasini from Italy has very kindly contributed these images of his excellent 1/48th scale Tamiya Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate finished as an aircraft of the 85th Sentai's 1st Chutai in Korea  during 1945. The weathering and paint loss depicted on the airframe are especially convincing as are the colours chosen. 

The Tamiya Hayate kit is no spring chicken, having been  first released in the mid 1970s, but the near fifty year old scrubs up nicely as Fabrizio has more than ably demonstrated here.  'Still More Hayate Thoughts', exploring some of the more unusual Hayate schemes, seldom modelled, will be featured shortly. . .

Image credit: All model photographs © 2014 Fabrizio Tommasini

Massimo Giugnoli's Hien and Shoki

Correspondent Massimo Giugnoli of Rome very kindly sent these images of his superb Hasegawa  1/32nd scale Kawasaki Ki-61 Hien 'Tony' and 1/48th scale Nakajima Ki-44 Shoki 'Tojo'. The splendid Hien represents s/n 3295, one of the colourful aircraft flown by the famous 244th Sentai CO Captain Teruhiko Kobayashi. Massimo used the figure of Captain Kobayashi included in the kit, painting it very convincingly with Vallejo acrylics, and added the MG 151/20 wing gun compartment detail from a Wolfpack accessory set. The model was painted with Tamiya and GIS Creos (Gunze) paints using a Tamiya airbrush operated at low pressure to achieve the excellent representation of the mottle.

The basic natural metal finish was applied using Mr Color # 8 with Aqueous Hobby Color H60 IJA Green for the mottle. The red tail feathers are Tamiya XF-7 and the control surfaces a mix of H62 IJA Grey and H74 Sky. Yellow leading edge IFF  strips are H24 Orange Yellow.

The Ki-44-II Hei model was built from the box as 'Asakaze' (Morning Breeze), an aircraft of the 104th  Sentai active in the air  defence  of  Mukden, Manchuria  in the autumn of 1944. Massimo describes  himself  as  a  "fanatic of  IJA  aircraft" and his passion shows in these two splendid models of classic Army fighters. I hope that we will be able to see more of them from him in future.

Image credits: All model photographs © 2014 Massimo Giugnoli

RTAF Museum Ki-55 'More Than' Walkaround Part 1

Thanks to Johan de Wolf and the very kind auspices of his wife Ms. Sasinee Sornimsart and staff of the Royal Thai Air Force Museum Mr. Paitoon Lailerd, Mr Kiatisak Reunak and Ms Jariyaporn Somsaard, Aviation of Japan is privileged to present the photographic results of an unprecedented access session to the museum's surviving Tachikawa Ki-55 'Ida'  trainer, which includes comprehensive coverage of the interior. Here are the first 12 of of a total of 121 photographs. 

Boarding step - left side wing root only

Boarding access pins -  left side only

Inner flap - left side

Outer flap - left side

Inner flap -  left side

Outer flap -  left side

Outer flap - left side paint surface detail

Inner flap -  left side paint surface detail

Inner flap - left side paint surface detail

Flap arrangement - left side

Aileron actuator - top surface left wing

Aileron left wing - note prominent diagonal rib pattern and hinge slots

Unfortunately there is currently no large scale kit of the Ki-36/Ki-55 available that would benefit from these details but hopefully that will be rectified in the not too distant future. Colour commentary will be included in subsequent instalments. If referring to or re-posting these images online kindly attribute them © 2014 Johan de Wolf via Aviation of Japan and provide a reciprocal courtesy link to www.aviationofjapan.com, thank you!

Image credits: All © Johan de Wolf

Hisao Saitoh's 1/48th scale Junkers Ju-160

  

It is always a delight to be able to feature more unusual foreign and/or especially civil types in Japanese service and here are images of a superb build of the 1/48th scale Master X resin kit by master modeller and artist Hisao Saitoh contributed via Ken Glass.  The  fuselage windows were made from polished acrylic and many small parts were replaced with scratch built or spares box items. The markings were painted except for the Aikoku (patriotism) characters which are decals.

The Junkers Ju 160 was designed as a six-seat commercial transport for fast airline services and first flew in 1934. Aikoku 129 was one of three imported  Ju 160 aircraft assembled by Mitsubishi at Nagoya during May 1935 with a view to licensed production, two of which  entered IJAAF service as flying ambulances. This particular aircraft was donated to the Kwangtung Army in 1938 and subsequently saw limited service with Manshû Kôkû Kabushiki Kaisha - Manchukuo Aviation Company Ltd., or MKKK.  One of the Ju 160's was registered as J-DAAF on the Civil Register in April 1939 but subsequently crashed on landing at Taichu on 7th October 1939.

Image credits: Model photographs all  © 2014 Hisao Saitoh;  MX4824 kit layout © 2009  Master X  via  Unique Master Models USA (UMM-USA)