Lifelike Decals

1/48 Ki-27 Otsu Type 97 Fighters Part 3 decal sheet

Decal sheet product # 48-022 

Review by Steve Bamford on Sept 26 2007

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This latest release from Lifelike Decals decal sheet features seven different Ki-27 Otsu Type 97 Fighters.  This is Part 3 of  a series dealing with the Ki-27 Otsu Type 97 Fighters in Japanese markings from May/June 1939 to March of 1945. 

The first plane is a Ki-27 Otsu Type 97 Fighter (s/n 326) flown by Sgt. Moritugu Kanal, 11th Sentai, 1st Chutai, Nanking/ China, 1940.  The overall colour for this plane is a "greenish gray" (gray color with slight green tint, and is slightly lighter than RLM 02 color).  Markings include 2 crossing red diagonal bands on the rear fuselage a white rear fuselage band and a white diagonal lightning bolt on the tail.  Sgt. Moritugu Kanal(as the wingman of WO Shinohara) was an ace (score 7) already in the Nomonhan Incident.  He moved to the 25th Sentai on sept 1943 and contributed to fight the Pacific War, finally riding a Hayate in 1945 (aircraft #4 on Lifelike Decals sheet 48-014) and lived through the war as a 1st Lt with a score of 26.

The second plane is a Ki-27 Otsu Type 97 Fighter flown by 2nd Lt. Iichi Yamaguchi, Leader of the 68th Shinbu-tai, Tenryu AB/Shizouka Pref., March 1945.  The colours for this plane is Dark Green on the upper surfaces and grey on the lower surfaces with a white fuselage band.  The leading edges of the wings are yellow and will need to be painted.  Markings include a large red with white outline on the forward side of the fuselage.  The Hinomarus on the fuselage have the white outline painted over in Dark Green.  On the tail are the numeral 6 and 8 in white which denoted the 68th Shinbu-tai and above it is the pilot's name.   

 

The third plane is a Ki-27 Otsu Type 97 Fighter of the 13th Sentai, 3rd Chutai, Taisho AB in Osaka Pref in the summer of 1942.  The overall colour for this plane is a "greenish gray" (gray color with slight green tint, and is slightly lighter than RLM 02 color).  The leading edges of the wings are yellow and will need to be painted.  At the time of these markings the 13th Sentai was engaged in home defense, so the markings include a  wide white fuselage bands and white bands on the wings with Hinomarus on the white bands with a large red arrow mark on the side of the fuselage.  On the tail are 3 horizontal red stripes (to denote 3rd Chutai) with the Japanese character dai (first Japanese character of Taisho AB) in the center.  You'll need to put some white decal sheet below this dai character as the decal soesn't include that....or use white paint.  It's a slight ommision on the decal sheet.  There is a white #9 on the top of the tail that is missing.  

The fourth plane is a Ki-27 Otsu Type 97 Fighter of the 47th Sentai, 2rd Chutai, Narimasu AB in Tokyo in 1944.  The overall colour for this plane is a "greenish gray" (gray color with slight green tint, and is slightly lighter than RLM 02 color).  The leading edges of the wings are yellow and will need to be painted.  The markings include a  wide white fuselage bands and white bands on the wings with Hinomarus on the white bands with a large red lightning bolts Sentai emblem on the side of the tail.  On the rear fuselage is 2 vertical bands to denote 2nd Chutai.  

The fifth plane is a Ki-27 Otsu Type 97 Fighter with the 11th Sentai, 1st Chutai, Manchuria in May-June of 1939.  The overall colour for this plane is a "greenish gray" (gray color with slight green tint, and is slightly lighter than RLM 02 color).  Markings include a white lightning bolt on the tail denoting the 1st Chutai with a red band on the red fuselage and a red engine cowling ring.  There are 8 red star kill markings under the canopy. 

The sixth plane is a Ki-27 Otsu Type 97 Fighter flown by 2nd Lt. Kawabata of the 1st Sentai, 2nd Chutai, Harbin, China in January 1941.  The overall colour for this plane is a "greenish gray" (gray color with slight green tint, and is slightly lighter than RLM 02 color).  Markings include 2 red and white diagonal bands on the tail.  The rudder is red with two thin red horizontal stripes.  

The seventh plane is a Ki-27 Otsu Type 97 Fighter flown by Capt. Shigetoshi Inoue, leader of the 1st Sentai, 1st Chutai, Nomonhan, China in Sept 1939.  The overall colour for this plane is a "greenish gray" (gray color with slight green tint, and is slightly lighter than RLM 02 color).  Markings include 3 red and white fuselage bands.  The rudder is yellow denoting the 1st Chutai with the blavk character na at the top of the tail.  The is a white cherron with red outline on the side of the forward fuselage.  There is red and white on the wheel covers included as decals although considering the compounded curves on the wheel covers....painting the the white  part may be easier.   

The quality of these decals is of very good quality.  The decals themselves are clearly printed and in perfect register on 3 decal sheets.  Some decals come in 2 layers to ensure perfect registration. You also get 2 full pages of text telling about each of the aircraft.  The instruction sheets show the placement of all the decals.

You can purchase these decals either directly from Lifelike Decals at fax number is +81-3-5680-6733, and e-mail is lifelike@eos.ocn.ne.jp. or from HobbyLink Japan.    

Other shops that stock Life like Decals are *Hannants/UK, *Mister Kit/Italy, *Revi (publisher)/Czech Republic, *SkyGrid/Canada, *Roll Models/USA, *Great Models Webstore/USA, *FlightDecs/Canada, *Victory Models/USA
*M & Models/USA, *
Zed Hobbies/Australia, *AB &S Enterprise/Australia, *Desert Miniature/USA 

Yet another very nice Ki-27 sheet with some excellent aircraft marking to choose from 

Steve

I would like to thank Lifelike Decals for providing me with this review sample.

Click on images below to see larger images

  

Photos and text © by Steve Bamford