Ki-43 Type 1 Army Fighter, 25th Sentai

[Old Man]

 

This model represents a machine flown by Sgt. Maj. Kyushiro Ohtake, who flew four years in China and has the distinction of being sole pilot of the 25th Sentai to survive WWII.

 

 

The Type 1 Army Fighter Ki-43 Hayabusa (Peregrine Falcon; also known by Allied reporting name 'Oscar") is in some ways a Japanese analogue to the Curtiss P-40, a type it engaged frequently in its combat service. Both machines were designed as expressions of an out of date concept of air fighting to which air service leaders remained deeply attached; both were built in large numbers, and kept in service for many years, even though they verged on obsolescence already when they went into production; both achieved solid service records which owed more to the quality of their pilots than their quality as fighting machines.

 

 

The Imperial Japanese Army requested a replacement for Nakajima's earlier Type 97 within months of that fighter's going into production. The new design was to be faster, have a longer range, incorporate a retracting landing gear, and yet be every bit as manouverable as the earlier fighter .This Nakajima managed, albeit with a bit of fudging. Wing loading was kept down with incredibly tight weight management, but in the end horizontal manouverability could only be kept comperable to the earlier type by installation of 'combat flaps', which, at some cost to speed, greatly reduced turn radius.

 

 

The paring of every structural element to lighten weight in the prototype led to damage at the wing roots of early examples once they were in service, and required a program of repair and revisions to further production. Even so, the Type 1 remained a very fragile machine. Later examples did receive some armor for the pilot, and 'bladder' style self-sealing fuel tanks, which helped somewhat. Armament was originally just the old Great War standard of two 7.7mm machine-guns, tucked under the upper decking; soon, one of these typically was replaced by a 12.7mm gun (referred to as an automatic cannon in Japanese parlance) which fired explosive rounds. Inadequate armament and a fragile structure left the pilot of a Type 1 only the recourse of extreme nimbleness. He had to avoid being hit at all costs, and could not count on delivering a solid blow when he had a firing position.

 

 

Sgt. Maj. Kyushiro Ohtake was nineteen years old when he was assigned out of flight school to the 10th Independent Chutai in China, which was redesignated the 25th Sentai in November, 1942. The unit flew against the 14th Air Force, mostly from Hankow. Kyushiro Ohtake gained a name for himself as a man with keen eyesight, often first to sight enemy aircraft. He is credited with anywhere from 10 to 15 U.S. or Chinese aircraft destroyed, but Japanese tallies are odd and hard to set accurately; victories were ascribed to the unit, or even to the aircraft, rather than the individual pilot in official reports. But his reputation, as well as his survival for four years, suggest he was good at the work. At the very end of the war, the remnant of 25th Sentai was withdrawn to Korea, and two days before the war ended, Sgt. Maj. Kyushiro Ohtake was severely injured when his fighter was set ablaze over Seoul. He survived bailing out, but never fully recovered, and died of the lingering effects of his wounds in 1951.

This model is based on a very widely circulated photograph of Sgt. Maj. Kyushiro Ohtake's machine.

 

 

I have seen it captioned as being taken at dates ranging from 1943 to 1945, and as being taken at places ranging from Hankow to Nanking. I have no opinion on the matter, beyond that it was taken on a sunny day. I believe the original finish was a sort of 'snake-weave' in green, applied in the field over bare metal without any surface preparation, as was the practice of the IJAAF in the mid-war period. Some profiles show this machine with only bare metal on the fuselage in the region of the cockpit, but I think this is a misreading of the intense glare in the photograph at that area. The machine is probably a Ki-43-2, with a more powerful supercharged engine and slightly heavier structure, likely bearing the mixed armament of one 7.7mm and one 12.7mm.

 

 

  The finish is achieved by first covering the model in foil, then dabbing dark green paint on this, rubbing it down when dry with a 3000 grit polishing pad, and repeating the process. Fabric areas are painted a pale grey basic color, and the green left more dense, as paint adhesion was better on these. Markings are improvised: a white stripe and a narrower red stripe over it, dry transfer numbers on clear film applied, then the five 'adjusted' by brush to come closer to the picture's font.

 

 

The model is the old 1/72 Hasegawa kit, in a training unit boxing. It was rescued from the 'cupboard of doom' after several years residence there.

 

 

I intended it to be an OOB standard build, and varied from this only to replace a couple of items, a tail wheel broken off and lost heaven only knows when, and a radio mast that broke removing it from the sprue. The plastic seems to have gotten a bit brittle with age, the kit was old already when I got it. There were bad sink-marks on the trailing edge of the upper surface, which I eliminated by a combination of filling with CA gel, and serious sanding with cutting grit emery. In any case, as the panel lines were raised, I would have had to scribe the thing anyway. It is a nice old kit, and I would like to take a run at another one or two of them. I cannot praise the fit highly enough. I would swear you could almost have assembled the wings to the fuselage as a snap-fit, without even glue, let alone fillers, and the same with the cowling pieces and tail pieces.

 

 

Note to the eagle-eyed: I have noticed since taking the pictures I omitted to attach the pitot tube in my hurry to have the thing done. Also, a little more embarrassing, I did not put the pilot's headrest/armor in before attaching the canopy. I don't do a lot of enclosed cockpits, and need to be in a 'zone' to tackle them. The moment was right, and I neglected to get the detail in first. For what it is worth, the canopy fit on this old kit was very, very good. I have also learned that I ought to have brought the yellow ID stripes closer to the wing roots.

 

Edited December 24, 2016 by Old Man

[Meatbox8]

A super looking Oscar and a very comprehensive and interesting history.   I really like the application of the green camouflage. 

[Thud4444]

I've always liked the long and lean looks of the Oscars.  You've made a fantastic little model there. 

 

What kind of foil did you use?

[Learstang]

Beautiful model, OM - amazing work on that camouflage!

 

Best Regards,

 

Jason

[Stew Dapple]

Good work OM, that camouflage is particularly nicely done

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[JWM]

Lovely camo!

Cheers

Jerzy-Wojtek

[Nomis61]

Wow...love the plane, love the camo job and especially love the background info.  Super stuff!

Simon

[doozer1974]

Fully agree with the comments above, outstanding camo work!

[MikeR]

Excellent!

 

Mike.

[polo1112]

yes, beautiful!!!

[stevehnz]

A very very nice piece of modelling Old Man. That paint job is right in the realms of exquisite.

Steve.

[Old Man]

On 12/23/2016 at 10:06 PM, Thud4444 said:

I've always liked the long and lean looks of the Oscars.  You've made a fantastic little model there. 

 

What kind of foil did you use?

 

Thanks.

 

I make my own foil, from ordinary kitchen stuff. Half a square foot is generally ample for a single engine type in 1/72. I rough up the shiny side with fine steel wool, and that becomes the adhesive side (MicroScale sells a very good foil adhesive, I understand adhesives used for gold leaf also work well, but have never had occasion to try them). To take the shine further off the dull side, I boil the foil (in pieces roughly 6" x 6") in water in which I have previously boiled eggshells for a good while. Anywhere from a minute to five minutes --- the longer, the darker. Tape it down to a piece of tempered glass, apply the adhesive. Don't try and do too large an area at once, but it is not necessary to do panel by individual panel. Here is an in-progress picture to give some idea of the stages....

 

[Old Man]

On 12/23/2016 at 10:06 PM, Learstang said:

Beautiful model, OM - amazing work on that camouflage!

 

Best Regards,

 

Jason

 

On 12/24/2016 at 0:54 AM, Stew Dapple said:

Good work OM, that camouflage is particularly nicely done

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

On 12/24/2016 at 1:58 AM, JWM said:

Lovely camo!

Cheers

Jerzy-Wojtek

 

On 12/24/2016 at 5:48 AM, doozer1974 said:

Fully agree with the comments above, outstanding camo work!

 

On 12/24/2016 at 9:46 PM, stevehnz said:

A very very nice piece of modelling Old Man. That paint job is right in the realms of exquisite.

Steve.

 

Thanks, guys.

 

Doing it was pretty straightforward. A small brush (about 0 size), with green paint and flick it about quick with just the point touching. One thing I found, it is a good idea to start by scattering bits widely about the surface, and fill in between. If you start from one end and work towards another, you are likely to find things look a bit more like a wave, than random.

[Old Man]

On 12/23/2016 at 9:59 PM, Meatbox8 said:

A super looking Oscar and a very comprehensive and interesting history.   I really like the application of the green camouflage. 

 

On 12/24/2016 at 3:15 AM, Nomis61 said:

Wow...love the plane, love the camo job and especially love the background info.  Super stuff!

Simon

 

The young sergeant-major rates mention in the Osprey 'Oscar Aces' number, and a bit more can be found on-line. I like to find a story to go with a model, if I don't have one to begin with. Part of the fun for me.

[Old Man]

On 12/24/2016 at 8:36 AM, MikeR said:

Excellent!

 

Mike.

 

On 12/24/2016 at 4:44 PM, polo1112 said:

yes, beautiful!!!

 

Thanks a lot, guys.

 

It was a fun build. I wish I hadn't rushed the fence on a couple of things. I would definitely do another of these.

[Plasto]

That looks great. 

Also thanks for the insight into your foiling technique. Very interesting. This kit was one of the first I did when returning to modelling as an Adult. So it was especially nice to see it being so expertly built.

 

cheers

Plasto