Another Ki-61-II Kai Bubbletop

In the blog post comments on Art McNitt's 1/32nd scale Ki-61-II Kai Bubbletop, correspondent Ken Glass mentioned Art's previous 1/48th kit bash made from combining Hasegawa's Ki-61 and Ki-100 kits. Well, here are some views of that excellent model, courtesy of Ken. Correctly speaking I think this should be considered a Ki-61-I Otsu Kai rather than a Ki-61-II Kai, as Art used the Hasegawa Ki-61-I kit nose. The Ki-61-I Kai designation is sometimes used for the Ki-61-I Tei where the nose was lengthened to accommodate the 20mm Ho-5 cowling guns. Art's model retains the distinctive nose configuration of the Ha 40 powerplant and is representative of an even rarer Hien bubbletop!

It's probably too much to hope that those who argue interminably about the paint colours shown in wartime colour photos will take note of (and on board) the very different hues seen on the same model in the images here even though the red of the Hinomaru (or other chosen "control" colour) appears similar in each. You can write pages of objective colour analysis based on the surface measurements and pigments of actual paint and it will sink like a stone but along comes a wartime colour photo at the end of a long and dubious processing journey and the enthusiastic speculation and opinion about colours is endless.

Image credits: Model © 2012 Art McNitt; Photos © 2012 Ken Glass

Art McNitt's 1/32nd scale Kawasaki Ki-61-II Kai "Bubbletop"

Courtesy of Ken Glass come these images of Art McNitt's splendid 1/32nd scale model of the "Japanese Mustang" built from the Hasegawa kit with the Alley Cat Kawasaki Ki-61-II Kai Late Production Conversion resin set. Previously Art used another Alley Cat conversion set to produce a beautiful Ki-100 "bubbletop" here. The combination of Art's modelling and Ken's excellent photography showcase the superb lines of this rare but alluring fighter. It is a pity that its very limited operational use precludes much variety in the display of colour schemes and unit markings and this is probably the reason there are so few kits of the type. However there are always "what-if" projects that conceive engine reliability and manufacturing problems being overcome to make this a very formidable opponent for the USAAF Mustang. It would look superb in polished natural metal finish.

Art's model is depicted in the markings of the 56th Sentai, formed at Taisho in March 1944 and the only unit known to have operated the type when it re-equipped with the Ki-61-II in May 1945. By that time as part of the static force developed from the Sei-Go Operation the 56th was part of the 11th Air Division in the Central Air Defence Sector together with the 5th, 55th and 246th Sentai. The 11th had been re-organised from the 18th Air Brigade when that command was reinforced following the increased intrusion activity into Japanese air space in June 1944. At that point the Osaka and Nagoya areas were designated a single defence area which was satisfactory for administrative arrangements but the Suzuka mountain range running between Osaka and Nagoya hindered effective air operations. Because of this and the number of critical targets in both areas  a single Air Division could not provide adequate air defence and on 6 September 1944  the 23rd Air Brigade was formed at Komaki airfield. Although nominally part of the 11th Air Div the 23rd, formed around the 55th Sentai was given significant autonomy to conduct operations. Meanwhile, in August 1944 the 56th with 18 aircraft had transferred to Tachiarai in north-central Kyushu to operate with the 12th Air Division. Their zone of operations extended from Tachiarai to Omura airfield and depot near Nagasaki. From November 1944 they were based at Itami. 

From 14 May 1945 the 56th moved to the Naval airfield at Saeki in north-east Kyushu to conduct interceptions as part of the "gauntlet" operations against enemy formations using the Bungo channel approach. These operations lasted barely a week before the 56th returned to Itami via Ashiya to re-equip with the Ki-61-II. Thereafter they encountered intruding USAAF Mustangs for the first and last time on 9 July 1945. When the war ended the 56th were at Itami with 22 Ki-61 aircraft on strength. 

For 1/48th scale modellers there was a resin conversion kit for the Hasegawa Ki-61 made by Monochrome GK and available in Japan circa 2002 which consisted of new fuselage halves, prop, exhausts, supercharger intake, radiator fairing, rudder and a decal sheet for 56th Sentai options including full sets of numbers. Alas, I have not been able to confirm whether this conversion set is still available or a link for it. The 1/72nd releases of this unique fighter type were discussed here.

Image credits: All © 2012 Ken Glass (photos) and Art McNitt (model)

New Kugisho E14Y Glen Book!

The many and diverse floatplanes of the Imperial Japanese Navy continue to hold a fascination for aircraft enthusiasts and modellers. Technical data is hard to come by and often conflicting. The identification and movements of units is much argued over. Of all the types in use the diminutive Kugisho (sometimes called Yokosuka) E14Y "Glen", carried aboard submarines as a spotter aircraft, is one of the most intriguing. It was the only Japanese aircraft to drop bombs on the continental USA and it also overflew ports in South Africa.  In April 1942 the Imperial Japanese Navy's 8th Submarine Squadron commanded by Vice-Admiral Ishikazi deployed submarines I-10, I-18, I-20 and I-30 to conduct operations along the East African coast and South African coastline. These were large I-15 class boats equipped with hangars to carry Type A midget submarines and the I-10 carried a "Glen" floatplane to conduct dawn and dusk overflights of ports. On 29 April 1942 this particular "Glen" spotted a Queen Elizabeth class battleship and tanker at anchor in Diego Suarez, information that resulted in the launch of midget subs from I-18 and I-20 and an attack that badly damaged HMS Ramillies (subsequently in dry dock for almost a year) and sank the tanker. 

Now a new book scheduled for release on 15 November by MMP promises to lift the lid on "Glen". It is authored by Ryusuke Ishiguro and Tadeusz Januszewski, the team that brought us the excellent and authoritative 'Japanese Special Attack Aircraft & Flying Bombs' from the same publisher. In the 144 pages of the book they have assembled all the available photos and included many color illustrations of the E14Y, together with a special article by Dan Farnham about the discovered aircraft in Kwajalein Atoll with many color photos.

The E14Y is a popular modelling subject and the best known kit in 1/72nd scale is the Fujimi gem (above) which comes complete with a submarine launching ramp for display. The new book will assist in correcting the kit's most glaring error of a flat undersurface with incorrectly shaped and sized observation window. The Fujimi "Glen" somewhat eclipsed an earlier limited run release by MPM and previous vacforms in this scale by various manufacturers such as Eagles Talon and Airframe. A+V Models offers a 1/72nd scale resin kit of the first prototype E14Y. There is also a Wings 48 vacform to 1/48th scale but I'm not aware of any other mainstream injection molded kits in this scale despite its obvious potential as a subject and I hope that this new book might stimulate manufacturers to consider 1/48th or 1/32nd kits. The Nichimo 1/200th scale I-19 submarine kit came with a "Glen" mini-kit and there is an excellent build review here. This new MMP book and a selection of "Glen" kits offers the prospect of a very enjoyable winter modelling project. Anyone for a 1/72nd scale I-10?

The MPM limited-run kit

The A+V Models resin kit of the prototype E14Y

Nichimo's 1/200th I-19 Sub kit came complete with "Glen"!

Image credits: Book cover © 2012 MMP Books courtesy of Ryusuke Ishiguro; Photo via Defence Media Network; Box art & kit images © 2012 Fujimi, A+V Models, Nichimo

Ki-46 Colour Matters

In response to a comment about Ki-46 colours some additional observations might be helpful. I always render colour chips against a neutral grey background but individual perception and monitor vagaries come into play when viewing them. The colours are rendered in sRGB which is not real paint colour and therefore cannot be taken to a nearby window to view and appreciate under full daylight illumination. It is best to use the information to "triangulate" with other data using other colour references such as Methuen, FS595b, RAL, or JPMA (which uses Munsell values). I was remiss in not providing these additional comparisons for the chips posted on Tuesday.

The right hand fabric chip was rendered as Munsell 5 Y 6.0/1.0. The closest FS 595b value to that is 36357 @ 2.61 where 2.0 or less is a close match. FS 36357 is Munsell 7.3 Y 6.3/1.1. The closest Munsell pure neutral grey is N6 @ 6.49 and the difference can be appreciated in the schematic shown above. By comparing the colour to a true neutral grey the degree of yellowish or amber tone becomes more apparent. Juxtaposition is everything. Let's look at the actual pigments in the closest FS value 36357. Titanium dioxide (white), yellow iron oxide, red iron oxide (blue shade) and carbon black. So definitely not a neutral grey of pure black and white. The closest RAL colour value to 5 Y 6/1 is 7030 Steingrau (Stone grey) @ 2.40 which is Munsell 6.7 Y 6.0/0.7. It is slightly darker and greyer in appearance. In Methuen terms 5 Y 6/1 is just a tad darker than 5 C 2 which is described as "brownish grey". In Pantone the closest value is 415 C -  just a little less amber @ 3.11

As the grey is offered up to an even warmer toned grey such as 2.5 Y 5/2 (as shown above as the background colour) it begins to appear cooler and more neutral. This is deceptive. Some modellers and illustrators, in trying to reproduce these greys on Japanese aircraft, omit the "warm" aspect entirely and tend towards either cool greenish greys or cool blueish greys. The two chips below illustrate this tendency. Note also the difference in reflectivity. The warm Japanese greys had low reflectivity even though they were moderately light in appearance. A Google search in Japanese for Ki-46 brought up many images of models and illustrations where the colours fall into one of these two categories but none depicting the warm, brownish greys revealed by examination of the actual paint.

Those with an interest in Japanese colours are encouraged to obtain a RAL deck such as K1 Classic as it will be helpful in physically visualising the warm, yellowish, olive and khaki greys typically used by the Japanese - as well as other colours. The early A6M2 Mitsubishi Zero colour is very close to RAL 7034 Gelbgrau (yellow grey) and the Nakajima colour close to RAL 7008 Khakigrau (khaki grey). Unfortunately these warm but very subtle greys are ill-served by hobby paints which tend towards the cooler grey-greens, blue greys or browns that are just too brown! They are best represented by adding incremental yellow ochre pigments in varying proportions to available neutral greys. In most cases this will also create a fugitive green caste to the colour.

Image credits: All rendered chips © 2012 Straggler

Ki-46 Tiger Tail Artifact

Courtesy of Jim Lansdale here is an image of an access cover retrieved from the actual Dokuritsu 18 Hiko Chutai Ki-46 in the heading photograph I posted yesterday. It was recovered by a member of the 1st Air Commando who was at the crash site. The exterior paint which is in pristine condition and is an olive or khaki grey colour close to FS 16350 - or exactly similar to the factory paint found on many early Zero fighters. Jim has reported on the paint colours of another Ki-46 artifact in his collection, part of the tailplane and elevator, at j-aircraft.com here and I have rendered the colours described in that report as shown below.

Image Credits: Ki-46 artifact © James L Lansdale; Rendered colour chips © 2012 Straggler

Ki-46 Tiger Tail

This photograph provides a close up look at the well-fed tiger on the tail of a Dokuritsu 18 Hiko Chutai Ki-46 brought down by the 14th AF in a bamboo grove "somewhere in China". The aircraft appears to have the construction number 2696 and note how the fabric covered rudder appears lighter than the rest of the airframe, similarly to other Mitsubishi constructed aircraft like the Zero. Some more images of this unit's aircraft can be found here. The tigers were painted on each aircraft by an artist H Takaki who lived in Hankow at the time and each one was different. The tiger marking was first adopted by Captain Yoshitsugu Aramaki in April 1939 and painted in the Chinese style on the fuselage of a Ki-15. In 1942 a member of the ground personnel Mamoru Tanaka painted an enlarged version of the tiger on the tail of the aircraft to depict a "tiger running in the skies" and alluding to a Chinese myth where the tiger could roam 1,000 miles in a day and return home.

The 18 DHC spent virtually the whole war operating in China with brief detachments in Indo-China from October 1940 to April 1941 and again from March to August 1942. The unit originated in August 1938 from the Rinji (臨時 - temporary or provisional) Dokuritsu No.1 Hiko Chutai which in turn had been expanded from a detachment of two Ki-15 aircraft forming the Aoki Unit which had been created within the Rinji Koku Heidan (Provisional Air Army Corps) in August 1937. On 1st October 1944 it was amalgamated with Dokuritsu 55 Hiko Chutai to become the 82nd Sentai but its aircraft continued to display the tiger insignia until the end of the war, as shown in the image above taken at Nanking sometime after August 1945. Note the differences in style between the two tigers.

Both the Japanese and Chinese have an ancient saying that tigers can roam a thousand miles and return safely home. In Chinese mythology the tiger also represents courage and valour in battle and is sometimes depicted with wings to invoke its celestial nature as it was once considered to be one of the Four Auspicious Creatures (四神), now supplanted by the mythological Kirin (Qilin 麒麟). The Chinese Goddess of the Wind Feng P'o-p'o (literally "Madam Wind") is also sometimes depicted riding on a tiger across a path of clouds in the sky.

Image credits:- 18th DHC Ki-46 NARA; 82nd Sentai Ki-46 Don Thorpe/Juzo Nakamura via LRA; Tiger Scroll Web