The
Imperial Japanese Army Air Force ordered a development of an twin engine, two
seater fighter, due to the rapid developments in Europe in 1937. Kawasaki
Shipbuilding was proposed and assigned the designation of the Ki-38. This design
only went as far as a mockup, but by the end of 1937 the Imperial Japanese Army
ordered a working prototype of the Ki-45. The prototype Ki-45 was fitted with 2
Nakajima Ha-20 Otsu engines, and its maiden test flight was during January 1939.
The results from the test flight did not meet the Imperial Japanese Army
expectations, as the Nakajima Ha-20 Otsu engine was underpowered and prone to
failures. The Imperial Japanese Army insistent on having a working
twin-engine fighter, and ordered Kawasaki
to continue with the development. After many improvements the Ki-45 was finally
fitted with Mitsubishi Ha-102 engine and officially adopted for use by the army
in February 1942. Initially it was used to as a long range bomber escort but was
no match against the American single engine fighters. The Ki-45 went through
many design changes since its introduction to service in 1942 with different
fuselage and armament configurations, Towards the end of the war, the Ki-45 were
placed into an Interceptor roles against Allied Bombers during the Japans
homeland defense.
Click on
images below to see larger images
The
latest reissue of Hasegawa’s 1/48 Kawasaki Ki-45 Toryu or Nick as the
Allied’s called it has been boxed in a Limited run with schemes from Japan’s
Mainland Defense during the last stages of the Second World War. The kit its
self hasn’t changed from its previous releases, so if you have any of the past
releases you should know what you are getting. http://www.hlj.com/product/HSG09909
Opening
the box lid you are greeted with one large plastic bag containing 162 parts on 7
medium gray and 1 clear spures. The cockpit is jammed packed with detail on 34
parts, depending on what version and scheme you decide to go with. The couple of letdowns
to this area are, there are no seat harness’s supplied as a decal or Photo
Etch parts, but there are few aftermarket options out there if you wish to add
them. The two rear side wall parts have injection pin marks that will need
to be cleaned up, these parts could been easily turned and facing the other way
during the tooling process as there is no detail on the other side.
The
engine detail is very basic and simplified. The assembly is provided as a single
drop in plug, and most of the engine detail will be hidden away by the nacelles.
The kit also includes optional exhaust pipe types for the Thrust and Collective
type of pipes and the corresponding option of engine nacelles are provided too.
The
transparent parts are crystal clear and are free from any scratches. Optional
parts are supplied for the different versions of the Ki-45, mainly for the
closed rear compartment or the opened version with the Type 98 7.7mm machine
gun. Also supplied is open or close canopy parts for the front and rear
compartments. As per all Hasegawa kits, they include the navigation lights as
clear parts which you will have to remove the molded on areas on the
corresponding locations.
As
mentioned early, the 3 schemes included in the box are for aircraft during
Japans Homeland Defense -
1.
Ki45 Hei, 5th Flight Regment, Maj Yoshiaki Yamashita, Kiyosu Air
Base, June 1945.
2.
Ki45 Hei, 5th Flight Regment, Kiyosu Air Base, spring 1945.
3.
Ki-45 tei, 4th Flight Regiment, First Attack Corps, Ozuki Air Base,
1944.
The
decals are in good register, majority of the decal sheet contains the yellow
leading edge stripes, the white bands for identification markings and the
Hinomaru’s. The rest are for the tail unit markings and stencils. My only
groan with Hasegawa kits in the past has been the colour of the white they use
as it appears as a cream colour, in this case for this kit is the white is
white! Hoary!
Overall
exterior details are fantastic with very fine recessed panel lines and rivet
with raised details for the fabric covered ribs for the elevators and ailerons
areas. The parts show no signs of molding flash, sink marks or major seem lines,
but there is a couple of annoying injection pin locations on a couple of the
parts.
I
would like to thank HobbyLink Japan (www.hlj.com)
for providing this review sample.
Dave
Johnson
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