Special Hobby Tachikawa Ki-54Hei/Hickory (SH72270) 1:72

[Mike]

Tachikawa Ki-54Hei/Hickory (SH72270)

1:72 Special Hobby

 

 

The design that was to become the Ki-54 was requested as a response to the need for a twin-engined trainer aircraft to teach novice pilots that had already learned to fly single-engined aircraft to specifics of flying a multi-engined aircraft.  Tachikawa was a major aircraft manufacturer between the wars, and it was their design that won the contract and first flew in the summer of 1940, successfully entering service during 1941 before the Japanese Empire attacked Pearl Harbour and brought the USA into WWII.  It was one of those aircraft that most multi-engined pilots spent time earning their wings on at the time, before they moved on to fly the Ki-21 bomber, which had similar flight characteristics to the Ki-54, so was ideal for the task.  The initial Ki-54a variant was designed for pilot and navigator training, and given the suffix Koh, followed by Ki-54b, a Gunnery and Wireless trainer variant called Otsu, and finally the Ki-54c Hei, which was a transport and liaison variant that was also used in civilian service.  A few airframes were converted to Ki-54d standards as anti-submarine bombers that were named Tei, with a total of just over 1,300 aircraft produced spanning all types.  Named ‘Hickory; by the Allies for ease of identification, the aircraft survived the end of the war, with numerous airframes used by the Allies for sundry roles, and more finding their way to different parts of the world in civilian hands.  It is perhaps for this reason that two still exist in China and Australia.

 

 

The Kit

This is a 2021 tooling of this lesser-known type, and arrives in a small top-opening box with a painting of the subject matter flying over a coast that is covered in thick jungle.  Inside the box is a resealable clear foil bag that contains four sprues in grey styrene, the wing sprue in a different hue in my example, a small clear sprue and decal sheet in their own separate bags, plus the A5 portrait instruction booklet that is printed in colour on satin paper, with painting and decaling profiles on the rearmost pages.  The wing sprue gives the impression that it is from a slightly earlier period, partly due to the colour of the styrene, but also because the fabric control surfaces are a little softer than those of the tail surfaces.  Detail is good overall, and includes a seating area in the main fuselage behind the cockpit, gear bay details and a representation of the Hitachi radial engines that will be seen through the front of the cowlings.

 

 

 

 

 

Construction begins with joining the two halves of the centre console together, then building the two crew seats from four parts each, with decal lap-belts on the sheet.  Both crew members also have a two-part handed control column made, and the instrument panel has a decal applied to depict the dials, and a small V-shaped coaming to the front, after which the assemblies can be brought together on the small floor, starting with the centre console that also acts as the base for the instrument panel.  The seats and control columns are mounted behind on raised location points, then the passenger seats are built with two short C-shaped legs under each cushion, adding the seat back to the rear, making six of them in total.  They mount on the floor after it has the two spar sections glued across it, locating the seats on short rails moulded into the floor, and fitting raised sides that represent the inner root of the wings.  A scrap diagram shows the location of the three bulkheads in red, which are fitted next along with what looks like overhead lockers along the insides of the fuselage above the side windows, cutting an extra window for one decal option that is marked by a depression from inside, all of which are glazed after the fuselage is closed, although for the sake of losing one or more inside, it might be wise to glue them into position beforehand.  The cockpit bulkhead door has a small window added, fitting the cockpit in front, and the tail-wheel bay in the rear, then closing the fuselage, dealing with the seams in your preferred manner, and gluing the canopy over the cockpit cut-out.  If you’re wondering why the passenger floor hasn’t been mentioned in closing the fuselage, it’s because it can be installed from beneath, locating on tabs moulded into the bottom of the bulkheads, taking care that the seats are facing forward.

 

As you may have already surmised, the lower wings are moulded as a single full-span part, and once the seams with the upper halves are dealt with, you should paint the underside of the wing where the gear bay will be a suitable green shade before adding the three struts that begin the landing gear assembly.  The nacelles are built in a slightly unusual manner, as the upper wing has the cowling moulded-in, requiring just the lower halves of the nacelles to be glued under the wing after inserting a bulkhead that is previously mated to the main gear legs and separate oleo scissor-links.  A scrap diagram helps you with this, and two additional small parts are added while the lower nacelles are brought up to complete the shape.  Another jack is fitted after the nacelles are complete, and a line drawing of the completed gear mechanism is shown to help with alignment of the parts.  The two engine cowlings are each split horizontally, and are assembled in preparation for the engines over the page, first joining the wings to the fuselage and fitting the two elevators, one either side of the tail fin, their tabs slotting into holes beneath the fin with moulded-in rudder.  The engines are each moulded as single parts that have a bulkhead moulded into their rears, mounting on the nacelles by way of a keyed peg that slots into a hole in the rear, covering them over with the nacelles, then adding an auxiliary intake and exhaust to the outer nacelle sides.

 

The model is flipped over onto its back to complete the landing gear, adding two-part wheels to the axle on each strut along with a narrow captive gear bay on the forward side, inserting the tail-wheel with moulded-in strut into the tail, and the crew step under the port trailing-edge of the wing.  Righting the model, the two-bladed props and separate spinner are slipped into the bell-housings on the front of the engines, clear landing lights and wingtip lights are inserted into the leading-edges of the wings, plus a pitot probe in the starboard side.  Another clear light is inserted in the end of the fuselage, an antenna mast over the cockpit, and the side access door is fitted with a small window before it is fixed to the fuselage in open or closed position.  If you plan on closing the door, it might be best to glue it in before the fuselage is closed, as this will give you the best chance of getting it nice and level with the surrounding fuselage skin.  Incidentally, a scrap diagram shows that the landing light parts have a circular depression moulded into them for you to fill with paint to depict the reflector around the bulb if you wanted to add a little extra detail.

 

 

Markings

There are four decal options on the sheet, three of them have a green squiggle camouflage over the entire upper surface.  Happily for the squiggle averse, one option is painted the basic grey/green shade worn by many/most Japanese aircraft of the day wore.  From the box you can build one of the following:

 

• C/n 5541, 38th Sentai, Noshiro Base, Japan, 1943  Recovered from Towada lake and on display in Misawa Museum
• 28th Dokuritsu Hikotai, Chofu Base, Japan, 1945
• 10th Dokuritsu Hikodan Shireibu, Borneo, 1945
• 10th Dokuritsu Hikodan Shireibu, Borneo, late 1945 operated by the Japanese Capitulation Delegation.  Currently intact in Australia

 

 

 

The decals are printed using a digital process and have good registration, sharpness, and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut loosely around the printed areas.  This means that the carrier film on their decals can be coaxed away from the printed part of the decal after they have been applied, effectively rendering them carrier film free, making the completed decals much thinner and more realistic, and obviating the need to apply successive coats of clear varnish to hide the edges of the carrier film.  It’s a great step further in realism from my point of view, and saves a good quantity of precious modelling time into the bargain.

 

 

Conclusion

A well-detailed kit of this minor type from the Allies point of view, but an important one for the Japanese pilots that trained in them.

 

Highly recommended.

 

 

Review sample courtesy of

[psdavidson]

nice looking model but those schemes are scary

Maybe you should have posted the review tomorrow instead

[alt-92]

The surrender markings are quite correct too.

Sheer coincidence, but I saw this yesterday:

 

 

[Graham Boak]

The worst thing about this kit is the half-relief engine moulding with back-to-back bulkheads.  Definitely evidence of the earlier age of the tooling, something betrayed by the early kit box number.  I have the gunnery trainer version - it is a bit retro having to cut out the holes in the roof.  All in all a fairly straightforward kit, after the usual sanding down of wing joins to get a decent trailing edge.  Certainly fills a gap in important Japanese aircraft.

 

The roof is marked for an alternative blister for a navigator training alternative, but the part not provided.  I can see another release with markings for other users - including the French and the RAF (although probably not with British roundels).  Presumably the Chinese too.