December 1941 ‒ Encounter over Rangoon

[Toryu]

 

 

On the sidelines of the dramatic events in the Central Pacific and the Philippines, this confrontation occurred between 23 and 28 December 1941 when the American Volunteer Group intercepted attacks on Rangoon. The Japanese bombers were escorted by 'Oscars' of the JAAF's 64^th Hiko Sentai.

 

The pilot of Hell's Angel No. 68 was Flight Leader Charles H. Older of the AVG's 3^rd Squadron. Several builds of this well-known 'Flying Tiger' have been exhibited here recently. My model represents Chuck Older's plane at the time of this battle when it carried just five kill marks and the blue colour of the sharkmouth appeared still unfaded. The Flying Tiger decal might not have been applied yet.

 

This Curtiss Hawk 81-A2 (P-40B/C) is the vintage Monogram kit from 1964. It's not on a par with the new Airfix product but there was no alternative in 1992 when I built it. The general shape is accurate and in scale (with the exception of a too narrow rudder), and I did my best upgrading it with a number of aftermarket items and home-made decals.

The Nakajima Ki-43-I was the personal mount of Captain Katsumi Anma, leader of the 3^rd Chutai. Captain Anma was a China war veteran with 12 victory claims. He finally fell victim to Hawks of the ‘Hell's Angels’ on 8 April 1942.

 

His Hayabusa was built from the 1977 Nichimo kit which I finished in 1995. There are a few minor shortcomings that needed to be improved (e.g. the canopy), but apart from those the model is still a good and detailed representation of the early 'Oscar' with a more authentic fuselage contour than some of the later kits offer (if you don't mind that it's about 2 mm too long after the cockpit).

 

 

A fascinating aspect of this juxtaposition is the different path in fighter design that Nakajima and Curtiss took. The Allison V-1710-C15 delivered 1040 hp at 14,300 ft which gave the Hawk a top speed of 340 mph and a climb performance of 6 minutes to 15,000 ft. The Ki-43-I had a Nakajima Ha-25 rated at 970 hp (11,200 ft). It achieved 310 mph and reached 15,000 ft in 4.5 minutes. The Curtiss fighter, true to type, was sturdier, carried four more machine guns and had some pilot protection, which resulted in a gross weight of 7,600 lbs vs. 4,500 lbs of its adversary.

 

In terms of manoeuvrability the Ki-43 was Japan's best. As demonstrated in the title picture a typical evasive action of Hayabusa flyers was a steep climb which the P-40 shouldn't try to follow. A competent Japanese pilot could easily perform a Hineri-komi manoeuvre ending up on the tail of his pursuer. The Curtiss jockeys in turn relied on their superior dive speed to escape a hairy situation. Taking their relative strengths and weaknesses into account, the pair met on equal terms.

 

 

I hope you enjoyed this comparison. More of the 'Emporer's Eagles' will follow soon.

 

Happy modelling, Michael

 

 

REFERENCES

CURTISS P-40B/C - TIGER IN THE SKY ... THE SAGA OF THE AVG, AIR ENTHUSIAST QUARTERLY NO.4, LONDON, 1977

FLYING TIGERS, DANIEL FORD, WASHINGTON, 1991 *

AMERICAN VOLUNTEER GROUP COLOURS & MARKINGS, AIRCRAFT OF THE ACES 41, TERRILL CLEMENTS, BOTLEY, 2001 *

TIGERS OVER CHINA – THE AIRCRAFT OF THE A.V.G., EAGLE FILES EF#4, THOMAS TULLIS, HAMILTON, 2001 *

CAMOUFLAGE & MARKINGS OF TYPE 1 FIGHTER HAYABUSA, MODEL ART NO.395, TOKYO, 1992 *

NAKAJIMA KI-43 HAYABUSA “OSCAR“, AERO DETAIL 29, TOKYO, 2000

JAPANESE ARMY AIR FORCE FIGHTER UNITS AND THEIR ACES 1931-1945, IKUHIKO HATA / YASUHO IZAWA / CHRISTOPHER SHORES, LONDON, 2002 *

KI-43 'OSCAR' ACES OF WORLD WAR 2, OSPREY AIRCRAFT OF THE ACES 85, HIROSHI ICHIMURA, BOTLEY, 2009 *

* Highly recommended reading on the subject

 

[mahavelona]

Fantastic research and models

[wellsprop]

Beautiful, I particularly like the Nakajima. 

[S. Uehlinger]

Great Stuff!

[Maginot]

Very interesting presentation and potted history. Excellent work on the title pic. Models look great, too.

[Blanketyblank]

Lovely and a very interesting, well researched back story 

[RMCS]

Outstanding 

[Andy Dyck]

Hi Michael,

 

Fantastic models! Superb modeling and photography! Especially like the first picture! How did you arrange that! Looks very nice!

 

Cheers Andy 

[Zigomar]

Great show! The Nichimo kit is still a great old model! Good stuff!

[Wulfman]

Great builds and presentation !

 

Wulfman

[Toryu]

Thank you guys! I just came back to the site and was pleased to find your generous comments and more likes than the models deserve. Much appreciated!

 

On 29/12/2021 at 06:05, Andy Dyck said:

Especially like the first picture! How did you arrange that!

 

Hi Andy - Photoshop helped a bit in arranging it... Thanks for your kind words. A great encouragement from such a superb reality modeller like yourself!

 

Everybody have a great year end tomorrow, Michael

 

[Sky Keg]

Nothing but good stuff in this posting.  Well done 

 

Mike

[Roberto]

Absolutely great works 👍