New 1/72 Kits

Special Hobby have re-released their 1/72 scale Nakajima Ki-43-III Ko kit in a 'Fighter and Special Attack Units' edition as SH72488. The kit includes options for the Hiko Dai 204 Sentai fighter with '01' tail number as photographed at Matsuyama airfield on the island of Formosa (now Taiwan) in August 1945. The tail number has led to speculation that this aircraft was perhaps flown by 1st Chutai leader Lt Tatsukichi Nishimoto or even the Hikotai leader Capt Wataru Takahashi. Although no other obvious command markings are visible instructions were given during mid-1945 for formation leaders to avoid the display of garish identity markings which might lead to them being singled out in combat, instructions which were not always followed.

The 204th, which had been re-designated a Hiko Sentai from its previous Kyôdô (教導 - instructional) Hiko Sentai status in February 1944, lost all Ki-43-II aircraft sent to the Philippines campaign, with 17 pilots including all Chutai leaders being killed there. The surviving flying personnel returned to Mito, Japan, by transport plane in December 1944. At Mito the unit re-equipped with the III Ko before moving to Saigon, Indo-China in February 1945.  In April part of the unit moved to Formosa and was assigned to special attack duties as the Makoto (誠 - honesty or sincerity) 204 Sentai to participate in the Okinawa campaign and in July 1945 the main force of the unit joined it there. At the end of the war surviving  personnel of the unit still in Saigon were transferred into the 126th Airfield Battalion and Dai 64 Hiko Sentai. 

The kit includes three other decal options for III Ko aircraft flown by special attack units:- 

• White '75' of 19 Shimbu-tai flown by Lt. Toru Shinomiya from Chofu airfield. Special attack III Ko aircraft of 19 had both guns and gunsight removed and reportedly a 250 kg bomb was carried under each wing (although a photograph shows the expected configuration of a drop tank carried under the starboard wing and a bomb carried under the port wing). '75' is the last two digits of the aircraft serial number 7475 manufactured by Tachikawa in October 1944.  The unit was formed from the 2nd Rensei Hikotai with 12 III Ko commanded by Lt Minoru Nakamura and consisting of two students from the 1st Special Training Class and nine students from the 13th Class of Boy Pilots. At first the unit was prepared to move to Singapore but in April 1945 it was moved to Chiran to participate in the Okinawa operations. The first sorties were made on 7 April led by Lt Nakamura and the following day Lt Isamu Someya with  Cpls Minoru Terada and Tokuryu Moriuchi sortied. On 18 April Cpls Kiichiro Oikawa and Sho Kamikawa sortied from Kikaijima followed on 25 May by Cpls Hiroshi Mashiko and Teruo Mino. Although the unit's III Ko aircraft were reportedly supplied new a photograph of one of them shows a white Homeland Defence band under the starboard wing, either an aircraft passed on by an air defence unit or perhaps a recognition marking applied during training sorties.   
• White 'Ku' (ク)of 2 Hakko-tai 'Ichiu-tai', flown by 1/Lt Kyoichi Kurihara from Maewatari (Mito-Hagashi), Ibaraki, Japan. This was the first special attack unit formed with the Hitachi Training Air Division with 12 officer pilots led by 1/Lt Kurihara. The unit went to the Philippines (where  4th Air Army organised Hakkou-tai  (八絋隊) from 7 November 1944 to 13 January 1945. Hakkō ichiu (八紘一宇, 'eight crown cords, one roof', i.e the whole world under one roof was a Japanese political slogan meaning the divine right of the Empire of Japan to 'unify the eight corners of the world'. The slogan was presented from the Second Sino-Japanese War to World War II and was popularised in a speech by Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe on January 8, 1940. Five aircraft of the unit were lost en route to the Phillipines but on 5 December two aircraft sortied against US vessels in the Surigao Straits and on 7 December two more against shipping in Ormoc Bay. On 13 December a single Oscar sortied against ships off Mindanao. The large blue arrow was  1/lt Kurihara's personal marking, following the Army Air protocol of leader and HQ command markings in blue colour (of which more anon).
• Ki-43-III Ko of 53 Shimbu-Tai flown by Lt Mitsuo Chikama at Chiran airfield, Kagoshima Prefecture in May 1945. 53rd was one of 57 special attack units established at Hitachi from April 1945 also with 12 aircraft. on 18 May Lt Chikama led eight Hayabusa to attack US naval vessels west of Okinawa. The red lightning flash was Lt Chikama's personal marking and the tail emblem represented his name and a stylised '5' and '3'.  

The decal sheet is by Dead Design, sharply printed and gloss. Curiously the instructions suggest painting the special attack subjects in 'Olive Green' and the 204 Sentai example in 'Olive Drab'. If the special attackers were re-painted at all from the factory applied 'brown' of ohryoku 7 go shoku it was possibly in dark blue-green or dark grey. Good to see this kit re-released and with some interesting and worthwhile markings options. Special Hobby's III Ko was last released in 2010 with optional markings for 48 Sentai (T/Sgt Só Okabe, China) 64 Sentai (Capt Hideo Mayabe, Burma) and 65 Sentai (Metabari airfield, Japan) - again good choices. 

Also of possible interest one of the subjects in the recently released Kovozávody Prostêjov Morane Saulnier MS.A.1 'Other Services' 1/72 kit KPM72455 which includes an option for a Japanese flown example from 1922. Can't vouch for the suggested colour scheme though but more on this particular aircraft later.

Also due for release from Kovozávody Prostêjov is 1/72 scale Avro 504K kit KPM0461 as  'Japanese Users' edition with three interesting schemes designed by Rising Decals.

Image credits: SH box art and photo © 2024 Special Hobby s.r.o; KP box art and images © 2024 Kovozávody Prostêjov