Ki-27 'Nate' Aces

Osprey Ki-27 'Nate' Aces has been published this month and features covert art and colour profiles by Ronnie Olsthoorn. Ronnie has very kindly given permission to show some samples of his excellent work here. Having been close to their production I am in awe of his skill and attention to detail beginning with the painstaking manufacture of a complete 3D model, reconstructed from various engineering drawings, photographs and wartime movies, which emerged from construction in gleaming metal and could be viewed from all angles.

Ronnie addressed and resolved several aspects of the airframe for the first time even to the extent of the canopy closure and the colour of certain stencil markings.

In the book the colour profiles have been arranged and presented to 1/48th scale whilst the plan drawings are to 1/72nd scale. There are 31 profiles in total plus a top and bottom view of Capt Inoue's colourful machine of the 1st Chutai, 1st Sentai which benefited from very clear photographs courtesy of Dr Yasuho Izawa.

The original manuscript for Ki-27 Aces proved too long for Osprey's standard format and some of the more obscure forays not directly related to aces had to be edited out. To ensure the work is not lost the "missing" sections will be presented here in due course. 

Image credits: © 2013 Osprey Publishing Ltd and Ronnie Olsthoorn (www.aviationart.aero)