Early Birds Rising ~ Part II

The latest decal sets from Rising Decals include Japanese Early Birds Pt.II (RD72077) offering a fascinating and eclectic selection of no less that ten colourful civil and military types, with biplanes, floatplanes and a monoplane from the WWI and Interwar periods.

• Sopwith Pup c/n 534 J-TALO is a Loire et Olivier built machine flown in Japan during the mid-1920s. It sports quasi-military style markings on the wings and fuselage of red stars on white roundels. The colouring suggested by Rising is speculative but colourful.
• Sopwith Pup c/n 536 J-TITY is another Loire et Olivier built machine registered to T Aiba at the Nippon Flying School in April 1924.  This aircraft retains its military colouring of PC10 or PC12 and has the civil registration on white rectangles together with legends on the fuselage and tail in kanji characters. 
• Sopwith Pup 'II' was flown off the battleship Yamashiro duting the early 1920s and is in plain clear doped linen finish with black or dark blue cowling. There are no national markings and just the 'II' marked on the fuselage sides.
• Nakajima Ko 2 -Nieuport 83 E.2 c/n 504 J-TIZE, a trainer version of the Nieuport 10 registered to J Aoshima in June 1924 and displaying Hinomaru on its silver doped finish. 
• Avro 504L c/n 424 J-TOWC registered to E Munesato of First Aeroplane School in September 1924 and sporting an unusual and striking scheme of black diagonal stripes on a yellow finish, the colours being speculative.
• Avro 504S floatplane R-613 of IJN of Kasumigaura Ku during the mid-1920s in clear or silver doped finish and displaying Hinomaru in six positions.  
• Hansa Type W.29 floatplane J-BAFI registered to Nihon Koku Yuso Kaisha (Japan Air Transport Research Association) in July 1928. This registration was later re-allocated to a Nihon Hikoki NH-1 Hibari in June 1936. This aircraft is finished overall in aluminium dope with Hinomaru-type roundels on the wings displaying a white plan view of a Hansa.
• Hansa Type W.29 floatplane Ka-189 of Kasumigaura Ku during the late 1920s in overall alumnium doped finish with Hinomaru in six positions.  
• Nieuport IV monoplane '3' used as a taxi trainer with clipped wings. National markings on this aircraft consist only of a Hinomaru on the white painted rudder. 
• Nieuport NG monoplane flown during the Japanese siege of Tsingtao, China, October-November 1914, in clear doped linen finish with Rising Sun insignia on rudder.

This is a brilliant set and the inclusion of the historically important Nieuport NG monoplane with that tricky to paint Rising Sun on the tail is especially welcome. The Imperial Japanese Army Flying Corps detachment at Tsingtao under the command of Lt Col Yoichi Arikawa deployed four Maurice Farman biplanes and a single Nieuport NG 2 monoplane from Lungkou airfield. These aircraft together with the IJN Maurice Farman seaplanes (one Type Ro-Otsu equipped with two-way wireless and three Type Fu) flown during the siege achieved a number of aerial records, including the first use of a seaplane carrier during war (Wakamiya Maru), the first dropping of bombs with fins (converted artillery shells 14lbs up to 45lbs) against ships, the first night bombing (on 28 October 1914) and the first air-to-air combat (disputed by the French). Hotchkiss-type machine guns were fitted to the Maurice Farman and possibly the Nieuport. The Army contingent flew 86 sorties achieving 89 hours of flight time and dropping 44 bombs in 25 sorties. The IJN contingent flew 49 sorties achieving 71 hours of flight time and dropped 199 bombs. The German aviator Lt Gunter Pluschow flying the single Etrich Taube monoplane opposing the Japanese claimed to have shot down one of the Farmans using a 9mm Mauser pistol, possibly killing a Lt Shigematsu.

Recommended kits are HR Model for the Pups and Nieuport 83, A-Model for the Avro 504s and Nieuport monoplanes and MPM or Toko for the Hansa floatplanes. The older Airfix Pup and Avro 504 could also be used.

With special thanks to Mirek of Rising Decals for providing the review sample.      

Image credits: All © 2017 Rising Decals