50th Sentai Ki-43 in Colour and Will Alcott's Ki-43-III Ko in French service

From the same source as yesterday's CAF images, courtesy of Mark Haselden, is this 50th Sentai Ki-43 rear fuselage section. Of note is the quite bright and fairly light hue of the green camouflage paint (quite possible the result of environmental degradation), the painted interior which appears to be a dusty matt dark grey (also encountered in other types such as the Ki-46) and a patch of what appears to be red primer on the fin, possibly a repair. It is difficult to determine whether the camouflage is a badly worn mottle or a very badly worn solid finish.

Will Alcott used an airbrush and hairspray technique adapted from armour modelling to very successfully replicate the worn finish on a Ki-43-III Ko in post-war French service, as described on his excellent Air War over French Indochina website. Remarkably this beautifully convincing model is the AML 1/72nd scale example and not to a larger scale. Details like the solid finish on the fabric covered control surfaces really add to the effectiveness of this presentation too. Will has examples of other 1/72nd Japanese aircraft in French service models at his site which is well worth bookmarking and exploring.

Image credit: Colour photo Jack Canary Special Collection, San Diego Air & Space Museum via Mark Haselden; Ki-43-III Ko model photos with the kind permission of Will Alcott © 2013 http://www.hedgehoghollow.com/awoic/index.html