1/144 Scale Hayabusa I by Mark Smith

The second 1/144 scale build by Aviation of Japan Texas correspondent Mark Smith features the exquisite Sweet Nakajima Ki-43-I Hayabusa. Such a pity that neither the Hasegawa 1/48 scale or Fujimi 1/72 scale Ki-43-I Oscars have the fuselage lines of the smaller kit and the special magazine issue Fine Molds example in 1/72 scale is not readily available. The cowling and interior gubbins would be impressive on a 1/72 scale kit and is superior to the Fujimi kit in that scale. Over to Mark then:-

'Probably no Japanese WWII aircraft offers a greater variety of markings than Nakajima’s Ki-43 Hayabusa.  Its shape has often proved challenging for model companies to capture.  Sweet’s 1/144 Ki-43-I version, a double kit which debuted in 2021, shows remarkable fidelity in its efforts to replicate small but telling surface details, and care about those elusive contours.  Kudos to Sweet founder and mold-maker Mr Sugita Tatoru, whose company has always managed to capture the essence of his subjects despite the demanding scale. I’ll go out on a limb and say that if you opened this one and decided to, what the heck, just put it together and paint it, it would delight you. And in a matter of hours.  

'For anyone who’s already built one or more Sweet Hayabusa, or who plans to soon, and with Nick’s blessing, I’m inviting you to send some images of your finished models to Nick for all to enjoy on Aviation of Japan.  There are already several boxings of the kit which have been issued with a variety of markings and Sweet’s usual excellent decals by Cartograf. So consider taking a break from that larger project, and I look forward to seeing your builds on the blog for a ‘Hayabusa Spring’ (and Summer! Ed). 

'This model fits so well that to build it hardly needs cement. You might lose a tiny part or two along the way, but if so, there’s another kit in the box. 

'Building this one offered the chance to avoid breaking out the airbrush at all, by using a spray bomb of Tamiya AS-12 Natural Metal, and hand painting the green mottle with Tamiya XF-13 ‘J.A. Green’. I had some MYK 1/144 decals squirreled away that had always appealed to me.  They were intended for a later model Ki-43-II from 23rd Hiko-Sentai, but I decided to use them anyway, even though I have no evidence that this unit ever had any of the earlier Hayabusa variant on strength.  I didn’t see a need to add anything to the model.  The most difficult part for me was painting the canopy framing, due to the  subtle fidelity of the moulding.      

'Using plenty of magnification I found I could apply the tiny green blotches to my satisfaction for a brief period and then…I couldn’t.  So I did them in four or five different sessions.  Nevertheless, it was nice to finish something quickly and to recapture some of the enjoyment I remembered from the days when I didn’t own an airbrush or even know that I needed one.   

'And here’s hoping to see later versions of Peregrine Falcon from Sweet soon.' (Yes please! Ed.)  

Beautiful! 

With special thanks to Mark for sharing these images and details of his build of this tiny but impressive model. 

Image credits: All photos © 2025 Mark Smith      

Flying Tiger P-40E in 1/48 scale by Igor Kochan

Another exquisite RCoAF model by Igor Kochan, this time a splendid shark-mouthed P-40E in American Volunteer Group (Flying Tigers) markings. Over to Igor then:

'I was very pleased that my RoCAF aircraft models, the P-47 and P-51, received positive feedback and interest. So, I am submitting my latest completed model.

'This is the brand-new Curtiss P-40E kit from Eduard. The model is, in one word, excellent - accurate in shape and highly detailed. I only added the landing gear brake lines and drilled out the exhausts. The markings came from a DK Decals (Czech Republic) sheet. Everything else necessary was included in the Royal Class box. For camouflage, I used Mr. Paint colors, AK Interactive markers and weathering pencils.

'The photographs were taken by my modelling buddy and mentor Miloslav Hrabaň.

'About the original aircraft.

'I decided to build one of the 50 P-40E aircraft delivered to the American Volunteer Group (AVG) between April and June 1942 as replacements for the P-40B/Cs destroyed in combat in China. The Curtis P-40E with the fuselage number 106 was piloted by John E. Petach, who was originally from Perth Amboy, New Jersey. He was the son of Slovak immigrants, graduated college with a degree in chemistry and became a US Navy pilot. Later he joined the AVG and was considered one of its esteemed pilots. On 23 January 1942, among other achievements, he shot down three Japanese bombers.

'After the AVG was disbanded on July 4, 1942, John Petach was already packed and ready to leave when he was asked to stay and train pilots for the newly formed 23rd Fighter Group. This unit, commanded by Robert L. Scott, adopted aerial combat tactics developed by Claire Chennault.

'On 10 July he volunteered for a bombing attack on Japanese gunboats. Scott himself told him he did not have to go since he was assigned as a flight instructor, but Petach insisted and flew the mission. It was his last sortie. According to another pilot in the formation, John’s bomb hit one of the gunboats, but at the same moment, his P-40 exploded, probably hit by return fire from the ships. 

'Shortly before this, John E. Petach had married one of the AVG nurses, Emma Jane 'Red' Foster. He may have achieved an ace status which still remains unconfirmed.'

With special thanks to Igor for sharing images of his beautifully crafted and presented model, to Miloslav for taking the photographs and to Marian Holly for facilitating the sharing. The pilot has a special meaning for Igor and Marian as both were born and raised in Slovakia. 

Image credit: All model photos © 2025 Igor Kochan and Miloslav Hrabaň

Ki-55 in 1/48 Scale by Harvey Low

Another Harvey Low beauty, this time a 1/48 scale Tachikawa Ki-55. It is surprising that there is still no mainstream, injection moulded kit of 'Ida' in this scale, especially given the existence of a surviving museum example in Thailand  The Ki-36/55 had an extensive operational history as both an army co-operation aircraft, convoy escorter and advanced trainer. Its service in foreign air arms - China, Thailand, France and Indonesia - offers the potential for unusual schemes and markings. Therefore it would seem to be an ideal choice of subject for Fine Molds, if not Tamiya, but perhaps it does not reach the popularity bar in Japan?

Over to Harvey then:- 

'The Ki-55 was a trainer version of the Ki-36 reconnaissance aircraft, first flown as a prototype in September 1939. It was of all-metal structure, covered by a mix of light alloy and fabric control surfaces, and powered by a 336kW Hitachi Ha-13 radial engine. It was designated as the Army Type 99 Advanced Trainer. It introduced the more powerful Hitachi Ha-13a engine in later variants. When construction ended in January 1944, a total of 1,334 had been built by Tachikawa and Kawasaki. 

'This model is my 1/48 scratch-built Ki-55 'Ida'. It is scratch-built because it is based 'loosely' on the very old 1980's Gull Model vacuform kit, where I had to re-vacuform the rear fuselage and some parts of the wings due to damage to the plastic over the years. I created new vacuform canopies made from basswood molds. 

'The cockpit was entirely scratch-built thanks to my friend Kittichart Boonyapakdi who kindly took detailed interior and exterior photos of the surviving Ki-55 at the Royal Thai Air Museum (some included here). 

The model also has scratch-built flap detail, as well as over a 1000 raised rivets using Micro-Mark rivet decals, as the real aircraft had raised rivets throughout. 

'All markings were hand applied by airbrush using masks that I made on my computer, cut through my Cameo Vinyl Cutting Printer. The aircraft is based on a photo of one of the 25th Kyoiku Hikotai in Manchuria in 1944 (below).'

From Koku Fan Illustrated No.42

Harvey Low

With special thanks to Harvey for sharing these images of his superb model. More delights at Harvey's own Facebook page. 

Gull Models 1/48 Ki-36 Vacform

Some further details about 25 Kyoiku Hikotai (教育 飛行隊 - Training Air Unit). It was established in March 1944 to train officer fighter pilots in Manchuria. operating both Mansyu Ki-79 Type 2 Advanced Trainers and the Ki-55 as part of the 101st Air Training Brigade at Kungchuling which also had under command 23, 24, 26 and 27 Kyoiku Hikotai. In November 1944 it was demobilised and possibly incorporated into 5 Kyoiku Hikotai mobilised at the end of December 1944. By July 1945 101 Air Training Brigade had been expanded to include 4, 13 and 22 Advanced Air Training Units, together with 23, 24, 26 and 42 Kyoiku Hikotai, 5 Kyoiku Hikotai was a separate entity with HQ at Chinchow overseeing four Hikotai training camps at Fuhsin-Chinhai, Hsingcheng-Suichung, Koupantzu-Hsinlitun and Kaiyuan-Chuankou. Not to be confused with 25 Dokuritsu Hiko Chutai which was a Manchurian based Ki-45 Toryu air defence unit. When Manchuria was invaded by the Soviet Union some of the training units were deployed on ground attack sorties against the advancing columns. 

Image credit: All model photos © 2005 Harvey Low; Cockpit photos © Kittichart Boonyapakdi vua Harvey Low; Aircraft photo © 1988 Bunrindo Co., in Koku Fan Illustrated No.42 'Japanese Imperial Army & Navy Aircraft Color, Marking' via Harvey Low.'; Gull Models box art Shigeo Koike via Gull Models

Aichi D3A1 'Val' in 1/144 Scale by Mark Smith

The first of two 1/144 scale features by Aviation of Japan Texas correspondent Mark Smith. this one presenting his build of the Aichi D3A1 'Val', Type 99 Carrier Attack Bomber (Kyu-Kyu Shiki Kanjoh Bakugeki-ki  - 九九式艦上爆撃機 or in short Kyu-Kyu Kanbaku - 九九艦爆). There has been a resurgence of interest in kits of this scale with a greater variety of types available but this one appears to be hard to find. Over to Mark then:-

'In 2005 Monochrome released a very welcome kit for 1/144 modelers of the Aichi D3A1 'Val'.  There had been a couple of kits in the scale which took a stab at the type, including an LS kit from over 35 years ago, but this one was streets better. Its details, especially considering the scale, were superbly rendered, with the exception of the laughably thick dive brakes and overwrought panel lines. But those brakes could be scratchbuilt, I thought. These came with two kits in the box, with attractive decals a little spoiled by hinomaru that were too orange. So I found MYK decals that looked much better. I couldn't read the Japanese instructions for them, but decals are decals, right? 

'Well sort of, it turned out.  The MYK decals were intended to have the carrier film gently removed after 24 hours, either with the tip of a blade or low-tack tape - a concept that works, but I knew nothing about it, and they curled up with handling in ways that I made worse trying to repair them. If knowledge is power, ignorance is trouble, and the build suffered, needing retouching, especially of the fuselage stripes and tail, which I had made worse. Eduard later used a similar type of decal, which some love and some hate. There are English instructions for the MYK decals now available online, which were also included in the instructions of their later releases. MYK decals are much harder to find now and often prohibitively expensive online - when one can find them. The earlier WWII Japanese ones have become quite rare. 

'This has one of my best cockpits in a model, as the kit gives a decent start and I had lots of info to try to approximate the rest. I had planned to open the pilot's canopy, but for some reason, I just couldn't pull a tight vac-formed copy of the canopy with clean edges, so used the over-thick kit canopy. In keeping with the rest of the project, I planned to use decals strips for canopy framing, but the same paint had a very different appearance when applied over the clear Monochrome plastic. Between this and the mess I made with the kit decals, I was discouraged with the project, and only finished it much later, sticking the terrible dive brakes on and calling it finished. However, I still like this model because the shape looks like a Val, a remarkably attractive design. And it's proof that it is better to finish an abandoned project than to abandon the project. And hopefully, encouragement to sooner or later build another and better one. 

'I'll close with a mystery. I opened by calling this a welcome release in 2005. But it immediately disappeared. If my old college roomie and modeling buddy P F Simmons hadn't presented me with the kit I would never have seen it. Then when I tried to get another from the same place where he found it, or any other place for that matter, no joy. Finally in the last few years, two friends who knew of this frustration found one for me at model shows, though not cheaply. While Trumpeter picked up the 1/144 Mavis and F-86 that Monochrome first released, the Val came and went very quickly, and looking at that invaluable site Scalemates, it notes only the 2005 release/boxing. Why it became a rare kit, I don't know.  There are only so many railroad or maritime accidents involving kit molds to go around :-)'

Mark Smith 

With special thank to Mark for sharing these images and notes. The Monochrome box art for the kit  is shown above. The relationship between Trumpeter and Monochrome for some kits seems obscure as to which is the 'chicken' and which the 'egg'.  In addition to the LS kit mentioned by Mark, shown below and later released as a double kit with the Aichi B7A2 'Grace', there was also a Crown kit issued in 1975. The Crown kit - and others - had originally been devised by Ikko-Mokei but were never released under that brand name and in 1979 were taken over and re-marketed by Arii. A D3A1 kit # H-1002 was also included in the Revell (Japan) 'Mini Series' range of 1/144 kits circa 1975 previously featured in the blog here. Not having seen an example of this kit I do not know if it originated from one of the kits described above.

Mini Series 1/144 D3A1 from Revell (Japan) Catalogue 1975 

Image credit: All model photos © 2025 Mark Smith; Box art © Monochrome, LS, Crown, Arii & Revell (Japan)