Kawasaki Ki-100 in 1/48 by Michael Thurow

Michael Thurow has kindly shared images and details of another of his excellently built and improved classic Otaki 1/48 kits, this time the bubbletop Kawasaki Ki-100. Over to Michael then.  

Celebrating Otaki's Ki-100

by Michael Thurow

Did I mention that I enjoy exploiting vintage kits? Otaki are among my favourites, motivated in some way by the considerable number of Japanese models which I bought in the seventies and eighties when only a few brands were available. Another, more heroic reason is my penchant for challenging projects. And so I've started a decade ago to refurbish antiques that I built in those years, like the Ki-61-I Hei of my last post here.

This Ki-100-I Otsu from 1974, however, comes from my stash of 'new' kits. As it happened I acquired it twice, the second one around 1995, as an Arii relaunch. I was misbelieving that the one in my possession was a Ki-100-I Ko with the high-back fuselage. Now I had a couple of outdated kits (I wished one at least were from Hasegawa), so latterly I decided to take them on. It proved to be an unwarranted providence that I had two of those kits!

My subject is a Go shiki sentoki of the 111th Hiko Sentai established at the Akeno Training Air Division, so enticingly portrayed in Nick's 'Ki-61 and Ki-100 Aces'. It's possibly c/n 16280 flown by Lt Mamoru Tatsuda of the 2nd Daitai.

Like all kits, Otaki products have good and bad features, and this is exactly the case with this one. Overall dimensions are accurate, and their classic rendition of engraved panel lines and rivets appears to be more or less in the right place. Some proportions of the fuselage are miscarried, however, as are the nose profile and the wheel wells. This is where my duplicate kit comes in. The next picture indicates some modifications - for those with an asterisk* I cannibalised secondary parts.

For other areas I used aftermarket items to upgrade the model (engine, cockpit, wing racks, landing flaps, gear doors, canopy) ...

... and added a few scratch improvements like the wing roots, wheel wells and landing light.

Not only were the various modifications quite demanding but also the complex tail markings which are largely home-made. I struggled with the Sora iro Blue # 34 as described by Nick. Finally I resorted to Tamiya X-14 Sky Blue which I toned down with a thin medium grey overspray. For Olive-brown # 7 Colourcoats ACJ22 Ohryoku nana go shoku is an excellent choice. It has a rich volume and covers and dilutes very well.

I hope my efforts make this classic kit look 40 years younger (I wish it were true for me, too...)

Michael

References

KAWASAKI ARMY TYPE 5 FIGHTER, FAMOUS AIRPLANES OF THE WORLD NO.23, TOKYO, 1990

KAWASAKI ARMY TYPE 3 "HIEN" & TYPE 5 FIGHTER, MECHANIC OF WORLD AIRCRAFT 2, JAPAN, 1994

I.J. ARMY KAWASAKI TYPE 3 & 5 FIGHTER, MODEL ART NO.428, TOKYO, 1994

JAPANESE AIRCRAFT INTERIORS 1940-1945, ROBERT C. MIKESH, MONOGRAM AVIATION PUBLICATIONS, STURBRIDGE 2000 KAWASAKI KI-100 GOSHIKI-SEN, AERO DETAIL 32, GIUSEPPE PICARELLA, TOKYO, 2009

KAWASAKI KI-61 HIEN / KI-100, KAGERO MONOGRAPH 18, LESZEK A. WIELICZKO, LUBLIN, 2014

KI-61 AND KI-100 ACES, NICHOLAS MILLMAN, OXFORD, 2015

With special thanks to Michael for providing this article and images of his build.

Image credit: Article box art by Rikyu Watanabe © 1980 Otaki Model Toy Mfg Co.; All model photos © 2023 Michael Thurow; Ki-100 photo via author's article 

Ki-43-III Ko in 1/48 by Francesco Borraccino

Francesco Borraccino has made this model of a Nakajima Ki-43-III Ko from the Fine Molds 1/48 scale kit, representing an aircraft of No. 39 Kyōiku Hikō-tai (教育 飛行隊 - Instructional Air Unit),  a fighter training unit based at Yokoshiba, Japan from the end of July, 1944. This unit was equipped with a variety of aircraft including the Ki-79 advanced trainer and Type 3 Ki-61 fighters.

Francesco describes the Fine Molds kit as not a 'shake and bake' experience but believes an average modeller should be able to build it without problems. He riveted the completed model using FAOW drawings for reference. Some details were scratch built such as copper wire spark plug cables to the engine, lead wire and stretched sprue for the landing gear hydraulic cables, but he also added aftermarket generic Eduard JAAF seat belts and a Yahu instrument panel.

He felt his real challenge was trying to nail the correct shade of paint for the Tachikawa factory finish to emphasise its brown tone. Eventually he settled on a mix of Gunze paints - H70 RLM 02 + H81 Khaki + H84 Mahogany + H421 RLM 81. For the under surface colour he mixed Tamiya paints XF52 Flat Earth + XF55 Deck Tan based on the description of Mr Noburo Shimoune in a 1968 Koku Joho magazine supplement, reported here in February 2009 as follows: 'I want to say that the underside colour was gray, but it was not Nezumi-iro (rat or mouse colour). Rather it was a colour similar to the top colour but lightened with white.' In 2004 an extant sample of this paint was compared as close to FS 36405 Gray. 

The prop and spinner were painted with a mix of Gunze H302 Green FS 34092 with a drop of H53 Neutral Gray but Francesco considers it a little bit lighter. He painted the cockpit grey green and added light weathering effects using oils, pigments and pastels with reference to photos.

All the markings were painted on using masks except the unit insignia decal which unfortunately broke up and had to be repaired at best endeavour. The insignia represented the numbers '3' and '9' said to be in the form of a swallow.  

Wheel wells were finished aotake. According to Mr Shimoune's description 'The landing gear wells were totally painted in blue anti-corrosive primer. The commercially available Humbrol metallic blue is a close colour.' although Francesco noted several models of this Hayabusa variant with aluminum painted or bare metal wells. Francesco used the new Mr Paint formula for aotake which he considered better than the old one, that being too dark and too blue.

Tachikawa had begun manufacture of the Ki-43-II in May 1943 and began manufacture of the Ki-43-III Ko in parallel from July 1944, based on Nakajima engineering, ceasing II production in September of that year and continuing III Ko production until August 1945 with a total of 1,727 produced. In 1944 Tachikawa Hikoki KK, founded in 1924, was responsible for the manufacture of about nine per cent of Japanese aircraft and operated plants at Tachikawa, Okayama and Kofu, the latter two being small assembly factories. Despite an air attack in February 1945 the Tachikawa plant was ordered to remain in production, only obtaining permission for dispersal arrangements in May 1945. As a result the building of two forest sheltered and semi-underground and underground plants at Ogose and Ninasaki resopectively were started but were not completed by August 1945 and dispersals were made to breweries, spinning mills and even private houses. The February 1945 attack by USN aircraft impacted Oscar production with 40% of the wing spar jigs, 90% of the welding equipment and 30% of the main wing assembly jigs destroyed, but even so 90 Oscars were manufactured that month, representing 85% of production the previous month, and the following month 155 aircraft were manufactured representing a  47% increase on the January total. B-29 attacks were made on 4 April, 24 April and 10 July 1945 with the 24 April attack being the most destructive and the 10 July attack causing negligible damage. Despite the attacks production continued with 70  Oscars manufactured during April, 120 in May, 93 in June, 80 in July and 35 in August.

Build Pics

With special thanks to Francesco for sharing these images and details with Aviation of Japan. 

Image credit: All © 2023 Francesco Borraccino

Update on Tamiya Myrt

Added a little Airfix magazine nostalgia from 1966 to Mark Smith's excellent August 2022 retrospective on the Tamiya 1/50 scale C6N1 Saiun 'Myrt'.

(Well I thought it was quite interesting . . . .)

Sally Duo in 1/72 by Gonzalo Guzmán Part 2

The second Takara issue Ki-21 'Sally' built by Gonzalo Guzmán is the Ki-21-II Otsu variant provided for in the kit, representing an aircraft of the 3rd Dokuritsu Hikotai (Independent Flying Unit - sometimes incorrectly referred to as Chutai) prior to its participation in the Giretsu (義烈 - Heroism) commando raid against Yontan airfield on Okinawa. 

Operation Gi, the Giretsu attack on Yontan, is well known and has been widely documented elsewhere so the details, although some are contradictory or obscure, will not be repeated here. One of the best accounts may be found in the Arawasi Eagle Series No.3 on the Mitsubishi Ki-21 'Sally' and Fiat BR.20 'Cicogna' (undated) which is highly recommended.  

According to the Arawasi book the personnel for the 3rd DH were drawn from the Hokota Instructional Air Division for medium and light bombers, expecting to be operating the Ki-46. According to Minoru Akimoto the unit was established at Hamamatsu in October 1944, which seems logical given their intended operation of the Ki-21. The unit was one of three established for the purpose of raiding US airfields in the Marianas, the others being 2nd DH and 4th DH. The unit's tail insignia represents the character for '3' -  San 三. 

Gonzalo's model depicts a 3rd DH aircraft prior to modifications as a transport aircraft for Operation Gi, intended to be force landed at Yontan with a complement of suicide commandos, and with all armament removed including the dorsal turret. Although often depicted with dark green mottle over natural metal after carefully studying photographs Gonzalo elected to apply the mottle over a grey base coat. The subject of Army mottles will be further explored here in a future blog article. 

With special thanks to Gonzalo for sharing these images of his excellent 'Sally' model, testimony to both the quality of the near 50 year old Revell-Takara kit and his modelling skills in bringing it to such impressive life.

Image credit: All photos © 2023 Gonzalo Guzmán