Danilo Renzulli's 1/72 Kawasaki Ki-48 'Lily'

Danilo Renzulli's second Japanese Army twin, the Kawasaki Ki-48 'Lily' Type 99 light bomber (99 Shiki Soh-hatsu Kei Bakugeki-ki  -九九式双発軽爆撃機, informally referred to as 99 Soh-kei  -九九双軽) was built from the much older but unsurpassed Hasegawa kit, first released by Mania in 1973 with the mould taken over by Hasegawa and the kit re-issued under their label and with new box art in 1977. Danilo's kit was the first Hasegawa release with the strange green sky box art of Shigeo Koike, stored unbuilt for over 40 years and surviving a few moves.

The busiest step for Danilo was the interior construction, a task that he accomplished with the help of a dedicated Eduard photo-etch fret and a few modifications. As shown in his photos the front and rear guns mountings were constructed with 0.3 mm brass tube. The forward machine gun was cemented to the clear part from inside while the gun barrel was inserted from outside at a later stage.

Danilo fabricated new undercarriage leg covers cut and bent from aluminium sheet. The rear transparencies were partially substituted by Pavla vacforms after the original was broken. 

The engine air intakes were modified to  Ki-48-II standard. Exhausts were made from copper tube while the pitot tube was made with  0.5 and 0.3mm brass tubes. The wing navigation lights were fabricated from transparent (blue and red) toothbrush handles.

Danilo cut the Sentai tail insignia masks himself, with the hinomaru spray painted using Maketar masks. The camouflage colours were his personal mix using Mr Color paints.

Danilo's model represents an aircraft of Hiko Dai 208 Sentai, (Yasushi No.8328) originally formed in March 1941 as Kyodo Hiko Dai 208 Sentai, an Air Instruction Regiment based at the Paichengtzu Air School in Manchuria (together with the 204th Air Instruction Regiment and 95th Air Instruction Regiment) as part of a planned build-up in anticipation of possible war with the Soviet Union. In August 1941 the Kyodo units were re-designated as the Paichengtzu Instruction Air Brigade under a Brigade HQ. In November 1942 the Brigade HQ and 208th were transferred to the 6th Air Division in the Southern Area together with an Air Sector Command and the 209th Instruction Airfield Batalion.    The tail insignia shown, representing '208', was adopted after May 1944 but it is not known whether it was applied in distinguishing Chutai colours. The previously used insignia was applied in white for the 1st Chutai. The unit actively participated in the second and third New Guinea operations and subsequently in the Philippines campaign, by February 1945 being reduced to only six aircraft.   

With very special thanks to Danilo for sharing these images and details of his build of this classic kit.

Image credit:- Box art © 1977 Hasegawa Corporation; All model photos © 2023 Danilo Renzulli