Rising Decals Sally & Yagi Antennae

New from Rising Decals are sheets for the Mitsubishi Ki-21-I Ko 'Sally' bomber in 1/72 and 1/48 scales, together with two photo-etch and decal sets for the Yagi H-6 radar equipped Mitsubishi G3M3 'Nell' and Yagi experimental equipped Mitsubishi G4M1 'Betty'. Sheet RD72109 for the 'Sally' in 1/72 scale offers the following seven subject options:-

• Ki-21-I Ko of Hamamatsu Rikugun Hikko Gakko (Hamamatsu Army Flying School) at Hamamatsu  airbase, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, from 1941 to 1943. Noted as possibly the only camouflaged aircraft there the scheme is depicted as overall grey green with wavy bands of a dark green, suggested to be green, or deep (olive) green or blue green. This aircraft has the school insignia in red on the tail with a white horizontal stripe across the fin and rudder.
• Ki-21-I Ko of Hamamatsu Rikugun Hikko Gakko. Another flying school 'Sally', this time in overall grey green with a black manufacturer number '1108' on the nose. This aircraft has the school insignia in white on the tail with a lower segment of the rudder painted red and two narrow yellow bands on the rear fuselage.
• Ki-21-I Ko of Hiko Dai 60 Sentai in China during 1938-39, The aircraft is depicted in overall grey green with wavy bands of dark green. The markings consist of a diagonal red fuselage band and the white senchi hiyoshiki (war front) band on the rear fuselage. The caption speculates that this might be a 1st Shotai (Chutai?) and pre-production aircraft.
• Ki-21-I Ko of Hiko Dai 64 Sentai in dark green over grey-green with the former depicted as being slightly thinly sprayed with the grey green grinning through. This aircraft is the box art subject of the new Revell kit which depicts the green finish solid. According to Yoshito Yasuda, a former pilot in the 64th, when they camouflaged their aircraft in Indo-China before hostilities 'ordinary' green paint was used, which soon peeled off. And the colour was not constant, not only varying from aircraft to aircraft but even on the same aircraft due to the paints used and the hasty, piecemeal application*. The paint often became more olive, towards brownish with exposure as it aged. This aircraft has a large white unit arrow insignia on the tail and a white senchi hiyoshiki rear fuselage band. 
• Ki-21-I Ko of Dai Hiko 62 Sentai, 3rd Chutai, at Obihiro airbase, Hokkaido during October and November 1941; in overall grey green with the unit insignia on the tail reportedly consisting of a representation of the outline of Hokkaido island with the hiragana character 'Ko' (こ) in the centre, presumed to be an individual aircraft letter identification. Minoru Akimoto reported the outline in Chutai colours, reddish brown for 1st, cobalt blue for 2nd and yellow for 3rd. He described the aircraft colour as overall light blue-grey and depicted an example with the hiragana character 'Ha' (は). The unit was established in Hokkaido in October 1941, participated in attacks during the Malayan campaign and over Burma and the Philippines with a brief spell at Nanking in China before returning to Hokkaido in August 1942, when this marking was seen. Probably enough reason to depict this aircraft in a diorama snow scene.
• Ki-21-I Ko of 25 Hikodan Shireibu Hikohan (25 Air Brigade HQ Flight) as photographed as wreckage at Clark Field, Luzon, Philippines in October 1944.; in solid dark green over grey green with the former rather heavily weathered and patchy. Red tail insignia outlined white and a white rear fuselage band outlined in red. The insignia was said to be based on the Chinese character for 'north' (北), but representing the sun and moon to signify the Brigade's mission of protecting Japan from the north day and night. The Brigade was activated in Sakhalin in January 1943 but operated from Taiwan, Okinawa and Indo-China. From February 1945 it was designated 25 Independent Air Brigade. 
• Ki-21-I Ko of Hiko Dai 60 Sentai in March, 1939. Photographed over the Quilian Mountains during a sortie to attack targets in Gansu province, North China this aircraft appears to sport dark green wavy bands of camouflage over an overall grey green finish.  Unit insignia consists of two diagonal red fuselage bands with a white (or yellow?) five-pointed star imposed and a white senchi hiyoshiki rear fuselage bands.

All of the subjects on this sheet (shown above) are rather plain but attractive, no tricky mottles to paint but still enough opportunity for interpretation in the application of weathered finishes. The grey green depicted on the profiles is more towards your Tamiya XF-14 than your Gunze 128, FWIW the latter is my preferred choice and as suggested in the instructions. Bear in mind that variants of the finish often had an appearance towards a light blue grey as noted by Mr Akimoto and shown above in a schematic created to one of the actual values by the late Bill Leyh in collaboration with the author. Applied Gunze 128 does shift slightly towards this appearance as it ages. One Japanese researcher notes that it should be seen that there were two types of hairyokushoku; a blueish light grey and a greenish light grey. In examing the time periods he posited that the greenish variant came first, but could not confirm that it was not used during the later period so he liked to think that the two variants were used simultaneously. Some contemporary magazine and postcard images, as well as rare colour photographs also have towards light blueish grey appearance. You could choose and, away from forum pundits, feel relaxed about it. 

The 1/48 scale  Ki-21-I Ko/Otsu 'Sally' sheet RD48037, shown above and below, offers five subjects, repeating 1, 3 and 5 as described on the 1/72 sheet above, but with two additional subjects as follows:-

• Ki-21-I Ko of Hiko Dai 14 Sentai; an aircraft photographed on a sortie against Corregidor during the winter of 1941-42 and sporting an unusual camouflage of green and brown with the colours divided by thin dark lines, depicted as black. Undersurfaces and canopy framework in grey green. This aircraft has an odd arrangement of thin white lins on the tail and four horizontal bands of white on the rudder.
•  Ki-21-I Ko of Hiko Dai 14 Sentai at Lakunai, New Britain in 1943. Posited as a transport aircraft as at the time the Sentai was operating Ki-21-II. Depicted with a heavy mottle of dark green over grey green with unit insignia in white on the tail and a white senchi hiyoshiki rear fuselage band. 

Both sheets are very well printed on blue paper and with good register and colour saturation. The hinomaru are a satisfactory shade of red and the yellow is a golden yellow and not the weak, lemon yellow seen on some sheets. Also from Rising Decals more accessory sets in the form of RD Acc-021, shown above, a set of photo-etch Yagi H-6 radar antennae for the Mitsubishi G3M3 Model 23 Nell 'KEA-395' of 901 Ku for which decals are also provided and RD Acc-022, shown below, a set of photo-etch experimental Yagi antennae for the Mitsubishi G4M1 'U2-323' of 702 Ku operating from Ballale over the Solomons during Spring, 1943. Again decals for this aircraft are provided in this set which is intended for the Sword G4M1 Late Version kit. I very much like the approach of combining accessories to model variant aircraft, together with the relevant decals.

With special thanks to Mirik of Rising Decals for notice of these releases and review samples.

* Letter to author 27 October 1999

Image credits: All Rising Decals images © 2024 Rising Decals; Hairyokushoku blue grey colour schematic © 2004 Bill Leyh and Aviation of Japan