Jose Luis Fauste 1/72 Collection ~ Special Hobby Ki-43-III Ko

It is with great pleasure that I am able to share images from the Jose Luis Fauste collection of 1/72nd scale Japanese aircraft models. First up, and further to blogging about the release of the Special Hobby Ki-43-III Ko here, are images of Jose's model from this kit, together with his comprehensive build report:-

"These comments are also applicable to the Nakajima Ki-43-II variant also available from Special Hobby, as both kits have a lot of common parts, and problems……

The appearance of the sprue frames in the box is really nice but the assembly of the model brings noticeable problems, mainly in the fit of the cowling parts. The cowling is composed of three pieces, the upper area and frontal ring plus two additional lateral covers which include the thrust exhausts. The fit of these together is very bad as the curvature of the two lateral pieces does not follow the same curvature as the frontal piece; and even worse, as the edges of the parts are not very well defined and are too thick, it is quite easy to remove part of the covers, which means there is a lack of adjustment on the lower side of the cowling. I had to include a plastic shim at the 6 o’clock position to adjust both parts. All this area needed a lot of putty and sanding.

The wing to fuselage fit is also problematic, again due to very thick plastic parts. The fit is bad mainly at the lower rear part and heavy sanding of the thickness of this part of the wing is necessary.

The locations of the wing pylons are not indicated on the kit parts, only a dimension for reference being included in the instructions. Another problem with the attachments of the external tanks is that they appear too large when compared with pictures of the real thing. The difference between the curvature of the tanks and the attachments also impedes their proper installation, so again additional work is necessary to get them to fit.

In the Ki-43-II variant kit the lower oil radiator scoop beneath the cowling is formed by two parts and the assembly of these parts against the cowling and wing is bad, very bad; on the Ki-43-III kit this detail has been improved with only one part for the intake.

The fuselage assembly is good but with the typical problems of Special Hobby models in locating the engine or the complete cowling onto the fuselage. The fit of the canopy is fair mainly between the two sections.

Otherwise the kit and assembly is as for other Special Hobby kits; a good interior (good enough for this scale and aircraft size), very good surface detail, excellent decals (on the model I built I used Aeromaster decals to represent a Kamikaze aircraft - not included in the kit) and a very clear injection molded canopy.  With this kit Special Hobby has introduced location pins for the main parts, but in any case I removed these as the fit is better without the pins - especially at the tail area.

I painted the model with Gunze IJA gray and IJA green, the latter with a lot of variation of hues by adding small quantities of brown, yellow or off white variously in each area. The chipped areas were accomplished by airbrushing Alclad (before painting the green) and by applying Humbrol H11 Silver  with a brush, adding small touches over the green. The propeller was painted with Gunze H302 (FS 43092). The yellow wing IFF strips were painted with White Ensign models ACJ19 .

After the completing the painting and decals I airbrushed dirty thinner to reproduce the oil stains and degrading effects around the engine, oil scoop and radiator mainly on the lower part of the aircraft. Finally I applied an overall coat of Marabu matt varnish."

Thank you, Jose, for providing the photos and this useful commentary. Prior to the release of this kit the only available 1/72nd scale kits of the Ki-43-III Ko were the very hard to find (and expensive) Gartex release which included the standard Hasegawa kit with additional resin and white metal parts (we'll take a closer look at that one in due course) or the limited run AML kits which are plastic and resin hybrids. There was also a resin conversion set designed for the Hasegawa kit available from no other than yours truly*, marketed under the short-lived Zhong Kui label. This was an excellent and reasonably priced set consisting of very finely molded resin replacement fuselage (including sidewall detail) and cowling parts which were custom made by an established and expert East European resin manufacturer. It was available with a comprehensive data sheet on the type, including colour information (even actual paint chips) and detail drawings. Unfortunately, the interest and uptake were disappointingly small, precluding any further 1/72 conversion/enhancement kit projects for Japanese subjects. I may still have a few mouldering in the attic if anyone is desperate to obtain one . . .

Looking again at the Special Hobby kit in conjunction with Jose's review and images and comparing it directly with the Hasegawa kit I now notice that the rear section of the canopy is significantly under-sized and not to the correct profile.  It is suspiciously similar in appearance to the rear canopy section on the old LS 1/75th scale Ki-43 kits. It also has a prominent hole in the plate for access to the water-methanol tank spout behind the headrest whereas on the real aircraft this was a spring-loaded flap. A practical suggestion would be to use instead one of the excellent quality and inexpensive vacform replacement canopies by Rob Taurus (who have a good range of canopies for other Japanese types too) which are available from HLJ .

* Straggler, Ochi-Musha, 脱走兵 . . .

Image credits: Box art © Special Hobby 2010; Model photos © Jose Luis Fauste 2010

Update ~ Berna Decals and On The Subject of Mottles

When I saw the new Berna Decals for the Hayabusa I thought the 47th Sentai insignia on the 1/72nd sheet looked a bit large - in fact the same size as the one on the 1/48th sheet !  Have no fear, having examined an actual set there is an addendum sheet included in the 1/72nd set with the 47th Insignia to the correct size. That's good, because this option is an interesting one, an early Hayabusa in much worn dark green paint with Home Defence bands and colourful fuselage stripes.

Please note though that there are not sufficient Hinomaru in the set to do all the options, in fact there are not enough wing Hinomaru to do even two options.  My example sheet has thin, glossy decals with good colour saturation but as with all such decals it remains to be seen how they hold up when applied over dark paint. The variegation on the Hinomaru apparent in the image shown here is not present on the actual decals which have consistent and rich colour.

The instructions suggests either FS 34102 or 34036 for the green paint on all the options, presumably meant to represent # 21 "midori iro" and # 27 "ao midori iro" respectively. This is somewhat at odds with the artifact evidence presented here and here but I don't know how these FS values were arrived at. Recent evidence suggests that these two paint colours were used haphazardly on the early Hayabusa and even together on some airframes to emulate the Luftwaffe-type camouflage. (More on Hayabusa colour and camouflage in my forthcoming guide which has had to be split into separate Ki-43-I, II and III volumes because of the amount of data to be included therein).

One of the minor mysteries of the JAAF and one which continues to confuse modellers is the factory vs "field" finish. Whilst Kawasaki's Ki-45 Toryu (a fighter) and Ki-48 (a bomber) left the factory in overall camouflage finishes with a painted base coat on all surfaces, the Ki-61 Hien was (predominantly) shipped in bare metal. Most of Nakajima's products left the factory in bare metal, whilst Mitsubishi's were mostly fully painted. Why? As far as I know, no satisfactory explanation for these inconsistencies has emerged.  Recently I was sent photos of a Ki-48 model finished in green mottle over bare metal, a typical depot-style "field" finish. Of course it is impossible to rule out the possibility that some Ki-48 appeared this way but it just looked odd. We are used to seeing this aircraft with the camouflage mottles applied over a painted base colour and the available photographs support this. But bearing in mind the typical mid-war finish of the Ki-43 and Ki-61 the choice is perhaps understandable, especially by someone confronted with the subject for the first time.

I think the origin of this confusion lies in the fact that it is sometimes very difficult to discern a badly oxidised natural metal surface from a grey-painted surface in old photographs and also that some types - the Ki-43 for example - sported both variants with mottles applied over the bare metal (usually) but also over a painted base coat (sometimes). In the latter case a further complexity arises as to whether the painted base coat was applied overall or only on the upper surfaces, leaving the underside in bare metal (or a different colour paint). In some cases the mottles were sprayed so densely as to give the impression of a base coat and/or of two separate colours. It is a brave man who can resolve these questions definitively just by examining photographs.

The Revell Ki-45 Toryu instructions (from 1972) suggested painting a dark green mottle over "silver" and one still sometimes sees Ki-45 models finished that way - but again it looks odd. The subject of these green mottles over natural metal (or base colours) warrants further exploration and, as with so much to do with Japanese aircraft, the devil is in the detail. The patterns and application methods were incredibly varied (even on the same aircraft) but this seems to be rarely represented on models. Some of the patterns depicted on models (and in artwork which modellers then copy) are just too regular, too stylised and too contrived. They reflect more the airbrush skill of the builder or painter rather than any connection to the real Japanese aircraft. Sometimes it seems that the modellers have got as far as "airbrush + dark green paint + "mottle"" without going further than that. I suspect that often as they paint the "pattern" is in their mind's eye rather than referenced closely to any photograph. The result of this is usually an impression rather than a replication of the real thing. And the airbrush is not always the best method to replicate all the styles and applications to be seen in photographs.

Another aspect is wear and tear. JAAF finishes especially could deteriorate to the degree that an originally overall colour was reduced to a quasi-mottle appearance and some such worn finishes were then touched up with applications of mottle (and vice versa), very often on selected parts of the airframe rather than all of it. Airframes often give the appearance of being partially painted by different people at different times - as indeed they probably were. On single engined fighters particularly the mottle finish was often densest on the wing upper surfaces and sparse at the wing roots and sides of the cockpit. Whether this was just the result of wear, deliberate or an application dictated by circumstance is sometimes difficult to determine. Again, one seldom sees these finishes replicated on models. This is all the more surprising since the motivation of so many modellers in the face of so much internet image overload is to build and create something different! But one of the hardest things to achieve in modelling is to deliberately paint in a way that appears random or improvised.

Image credits: Decal sheet © 2010 Berna Decals; Ki-43 photo 1 © Lt Richard "Rip" Collins, 35th FG; Ki-43 photos 2 & 3 © author's collection

Hasegawa Fuji T-1A in 1/72nd Scale

Here is another look at Julien Dixon's Fuji T-1A. This depicts an aircraft from the JASDF 15th Experimental Group - also known as the Air Proving Group. It was built from the Hasegawa 1/72nd scale kit using the original decals except for the Hinomaru. These aircraft remained in service until 2006.

This model was built from one of the earlier issue kits but Hasegawa has re-released it several times and also in "Special Markings" limited editions.

Image credits: All courtesy of and © Julien Dixon 2010

JASIG Corner Bulletin #5 ~ IPMS (UK) Brampton Show at St Ives

The weather was appalling on Sunday at St Ives, however, the Brampton Branch of IPMS UK pulled out all the stops and provided us modellers another fantastic show.  There were several traders with kits new and old, with some five dealing with second-hand kits.  There were some real bargains to be had.   Anyone know who got the Revell 1/32 Jack that sold for a tenner?  There were books and decals.  It was almost like a mini Nationals.  Many clubs and branches were attendance and it was nice to meet up with old friends and even make a few new ones.

Our JASIG was again on the 1st floor and we had a good showing with John Drummond and Tim Cant helping me to carry the WWII torch with Julien Dixon bringing us into the jet era with a pair of JASDF F-86 Sabres and a Fuji T1-A (below).

Our next scheduled display will be at Telford on Saturday and Sunday, November 13th and 14th.   We've been asked to volunteer an hour or so each day to help with the running of the show and as soon as we know the taskings I'll contact those of you who kindly volunteered your time to help.

There were some new things to see at Brampton, which have been published recently and they make a good addition to the library:

Eduardo Cea has been busy and added two volumes to his Air Collection series of Japanese military aircraft:  Vol 5, Part 2 of IJN Land Based Aircraft from 1929-1945; and Vol 6, Bombers of the IJA 1939-1945.  

Mark 1 Ltd, in conjunction with 4+ has published a volume on Lockheed's T-33 Thunderbird with a decal sheet for twelve aircraft, one of which is Japanese.  The Japanese option is for a Kawasaki-built T-33A, Black 230, of 33 Sq., No.1 Air Wing, Japanese Air Self Defence Force, at Hamamatsu Air Base in the mid-1970s.  The finish is overall off-white with light grey upperwing leading edge panels and the lower surfaces of the aircraft in aluminium paint.  The fin top is trimmed in dark maroon with a yellow and black checkerboard design on the fin and rudder. The book is available with a decal sheet in either 1/72 or 1/48 scale.

Gary Wenko

Hayabusa Decals, Nichimo Kits and Douglas DC-5

Berna Decals have just released a sheet of decals for the Ki-43-I in both 1/72nd and 1/48th scales. This sheet includes two named pilots of the 64th Sentai (Nakamura and Takeushi), two from the 50th Sentai (Anabuki and Sasaki), 11th Sentai commander Sugiara and a 47th Independent Chutai example with the star (useful). More on these in due course. Saburo Nakamura is the subject of a recent book by Umemoto Horishi which will also be reviewed in more detail here.

Fortuitously in respect of these decals a little bird tells me that Nichimo are re-releasing their venerable 1/48th scale Ki-43-I Hayabusa and Ki-51 kits soon. That is good news as Nichimo's "Oscar" is still the better option for an accurate early model Ki-43 and the "Sonia" remains unique in this scale. A good opportunity here then for an aftermarket Ki-51 cockpit update based on the excellent data in the new Arawasi Eagle Eye 1 book. Arawasi also produce an interesting sheet of decals for the Ki-51. There is quite a story behind the unusual Nichimo Hayabusa box art which will be explored here in more detail, together with some interesting colour photographs. 

Reviews of Nichimo's Ki-43-I may be found at the following links:-

Review 1

Review 2

Review 3

From Planet Models comes an expensive 1/72nd scale resin kit of the Douglas DC-5 which appears to include one of the captured Japanese aircraft as a markings option. It was an interesting aircraft and if you fancy one in your Japanese aircraft collection be prepared to fork out just over £60 for the privilege!

Image credits: All © Berna Decals; © Planet Models; © Nichimo

Hasegawa A6M2 ~ Old Tooling

Hasegawa's A6M2 was probably the best of their quartet of old 1/72 Zero kits, the others - A6M3 Type 22, A6M3 Type 32 and A6M5c - all suffered from cowlings which were too long and too cylindrical in cross section. When Hasegawa revised their Zero series in 1993 the old Zeros were kept in the range but confusingly with the new box art on different boxes. I think the box art shown above was the first issue but Burns* has this kit number as being released from 1980 and the first issue as A3 (shown below in the orange banded box) issued from 1972 to 1980 and then, with the same number but in the blue banded box from 1982 to 1987. 

The box shown in the heading carries the number  JS-075:100 whilst the "A3" orange-banded boxes carry the number JS-075:200 which makes me believe they probably came later. In addition JS-075:100 offers only one markings option - that shown in the box art. The "A3" series included the instruction sheet from this version plus an additional markings sheet showing the three options offered in the box. These were:-

• AI-101 from Akagi flown by Shigeru Itaya
• DI-108 from Ryujo flown by Tadayoshi Koga (the "Aleutians Zero")
• V-107 of Tainan Ku flown by Saburo Sakai

A3 in the blue-banded box carried a new number A003:250 but the box art by Kihachiro Ueda remained the same. Mr Ueda also created the distinctive box art for many LS kits as well as the 1/48th scale Fujimi kits and the Revell (Japan) 1/32nd scale kits. The original markings for EI-111 were not included in these issues, despite the instructions, which reinforces the belief that JS-075:100 preceded the A3 series - but confirmation would be welcome. For many years the kit was issued in a brittle, dark green plastic but the last editions of the blue-banded box were molded in light grey. It is interesting how this simple change immediately improved the appearance of the kit parts in the box. There were common frames for all the Zero variants in the series so with the A6M2 came the cowlings for the A6M3 and A6M5 together with engines and drop tanks. Building a few of these one soon had a surfeit of spare parts - enough to put radial engines on a Japanese Me110 (don't ask!).

I remember the orange-banded A6M2 being available around the same time as the Ki-44 and Ki-61 (also in orange banded boxes), but these were very different kits, molded in silver plastic with fine engraved details. The Ki-61 had cockpit details whilst the Ki-44 had a "bathtub" like the Zero. This suggests that the Ki-44 and Ki-61 might have been made from unused Mania molds, in development at the time Hasegawa took that company over.

The box shown in the heading was also issued by Minicraft Models, Inc., in the USA, but in end-opening format whilst the A3 series were issued by A. A. Hales Ltd., in the UK, also in end-opening boxes of flimsier quality than the originals. Were there any other boxes or issues? Please write in if you know, thanks.

Following on the theme from my comments in the Pactra Paints blog post the instructions in the first kit advised FS 26493 for the light gray colour. The box art also showed a light, slightly blueish grey that was common in the depiction of early Zero fighters. This colour formed the basis for many hobby paints and was popular in Japan up to the mid-1990's. In the A3 series no FS value was cited but instead "35 Light grey" was suggested, presumably a reference to a Japanese hobby paint colour of the time. Probably as a result of the new box art a few Zero models appeared in natural metal or silver grey finish!

EI-111 in the first kit had some fanciful striping, but which is certainly colourful on a finished model. A fuselage band in blue FS 15180 and tail stripes in yellow FS 13538. I see nothing wrong in building and finishing vintage models as they were intended, as an art form reflecting the model itself rather than the real thing!

* "In Plastic WW2 Aircraft Kits" by John W Burns

Image credits: All box art © Hasegawa Seisakusho Co., Ltd.