History and Development
In June 1935 the Japanese Army issued a specification for a
monoplane fighter and invited tenders from 3 major Japanese aircraft companies;
Kawasaki, Nakajima and Mitsubishi. Kawasaki created the Ki-28, while Mitsubishi
submitted a de-navalized version of their A5M carrier fighter, the Ki-33. In the
meantime, Nakajima decided to refine a private venture refinement of an earlier
design which lost to a Kawasaki bi-plane in an earlier fighter competition, into
an entirely new machine, designated Ki-27.
The first Ki-27 prototype flew on 15 October, 1936. It was a
low-wing cantilever monoplanes with fixed, spatted undercarriages, powered by
the Nakajima Ha-1a engine, a 650-hp nine-cylinder radial driving a two-bladed
variable-pitch propeller. Among the features of this new aircraft was the
“butterfly” or “combat” flaps, which Nakajima used in all of their
wartime fighters to improve their maneuverability. In tests against its
competitors, the Ki-27 came last in top speed, 2nd in climb rate but was the
best in maneuverability, and it was due to this that it made history by becoming
the Imperial Japanese Army's first monoplane fighter. Further refinements were
made, including increased wingspan and an enclosed canopy, and by the end
of the year, the new fighter was accepted for service as the Army Type 97
Fighter Model A, or Ki-27a.
The Ki-27a was powered by a Nakajima Ha-1b engine rated at 780
hp at 9,515 feet, and was armed with a pair of synchronized 7.7mm machine guns
in the forward decking of the upper fuselage. By March 1938, the type was in
action over Northern China and was swiftly recognized as an excellent fighter as
it wrested control of the skies from the Chinese. That spring, the Imperial
Japanese Army Air Force (IJAAF) reorganized its air units; mixed units of
fighters, bombers, and recon planes were replaced by specialized Hiko-Sentais
(Air Combat Regiments) of only one aircraft type.
Eventually, production gave way to the Ki-27b, which was
characterized by clear vision panels in the canopy’s rear section to improve
rearward visibility, a redesigned oil cooler, and provision under the wing
center section for the carriage of either four 55-lb. bombs or two slipper-type
28.6-gallon drop tanks. When this type was employed in gunnery training, a small
movie camera could be attached to the port wing near the wing root. In addition
to combat operations over China, for three months in the summer of 1939, the
IJAAF was engaged in combat against the Soviet Union in the region called
variously Khalkin-Gol, or Nomonhan, where the IJAAF and it's pilots further
blooded themselves, combat experience which was to prove decisive in the opening
months of the Pacific War.
At the beginning of the Pacific War, five Ki-27-equipped Sentais
were deployed to support the campaigns in the Philippines, Malaya, Burma, and
the Dutch East Indies, while others continued holding the line in China and the
Japanese puppet government of Manchukuo (Manchuria). Still others provided the
main air defense of the home islands until 1943. With newer types entering
service, the the Ki-27 was restricted to second-line duties in Japan and
Manchukuo and some were eventually sacrificed as Kamikaze suicide planes
at the end of the war. Indeed, the Manchukuo Air Force used the Ki-27b for the
entire war. Total production came to 3,399 with 2,020 by Nakajima and the rest
in Manchuko.
The 11th Hiko-Sentai over
Singapore
When the 15th and 25th Armies of the Imperial Japanese Army
swept down towards their objectives in Burma and Singapore on the 8th of
December 1941, they were supported overhead by aircraft of the Imperial Japanese
Army Air Force's 3rd HikoShidan (Air Division). Subdivided into 4 Hikodans
(Air Brigades) each equipped with 3-4 Hiko-Sentais of approximately 40
aircraft (including reserve aircraft) in each Hiko-Sentai operating
aircraft like the Ki-21 Sally and Ki-48 Lily light bombers, as well as the
modern Ki-43 Hayabusa (Allied name Oscar) monoplane fighter. Completing
the lineup was the IJAAF's numerically most important fighter type during the
invasion, the Ki-27 Nates of the 1st, 11th, and 77th Sentais.
The first task of the IJAAF aircraft was to provide air cover
for the invasion fleet from their bases in newly-occupied French Indo-China.
With the capture of airfields in northern Malaya and southern Siam (Thailand) in
the opening days of the invasion, the 11th Sentai under the command of
Major Sada Okabe at Kukan moved to the airfield in Singora (Songkhla) in Siam.
Throughout December, the 11th Sentai was actively involved in the air
battles over Malaya and even Burma, escorting bombers, conducting fighter sweeps
and airfield strafing attacks to prevent the Allied Air Forces from putting up a
concerted air resistance to the Japanese advance, which was proceeding at an
astonishing pace. By early January, the 11th Sentai had moved again, this
time to the airfield at Kuantan on the East Coast of Malaya and taking part in
the combined Army-Navy air offensive against Singapore.
The first big significant action involving the 11th Sentai
occurred on 12th January 1942, when 72 aircraft from the 1st and 11th Sentais
took part in a massive fighter sweep over Singapore. A small force of 14
Buffaloes from 488 Sqn RNZAF was scrambled to intercept with 8 making contact,
and the wild melee that followed saw the Ki-27s coming up tops, shooting down
two Buffaloes and damaging 5 (although the Japanese pilots claimed 10 Buffaloes
destroyed!) for no losses. That afternoon, another sweep by 70 Nates from the
same units saw the tables turned, with claims of six Nates shot down by the
Buffaloes of 243 Sqn RAF and 2-VIG-V of the Netherlands East Indies AF, in
exchange for the RAF and Dutch losing losing a single Buffalo each. Another
sweep by the 11th Sentai over Singapore on the 14th saw no engagements
with defending fighters, but the Japanese pilots amazingly sighting an aircraft
carrier in Singapore's Keppel harbour, which resulted in the Mitsubishi G4M
Bettys of the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Force being sent on a wild goose chase
over Singapore the next day when they were tasked with destroying the
non-existent flattop! Within a month, Singapore had fallen, and the 11th Sentai
moved on to new battlefields, eventually converting to the Nakajima Ki-43 Oscar
soon after.
It is often misunderstood that the Allies were using
qualitatively inferior aircraft against the Japanese invaders over Singapore.
While the Buffaloes and tropicalised Hurricanes were definitely less
maneuverable and slower in the climb than the Japanese fighters (in part due to
Japanese fighter design philosophy which favoured agility over other
considerations), the Allied aircraft held significant advantages in armour and
diving ability over their opponents. The aircraft were relatively evenly matched
in armament and top speed as the following table shows:
Aircraft
Type
|
Top speed
|
Armament
|
Nakajima
Ki-43 Oscar
|
305 mph @
15,000 ft
|
1 x
12.7mm cannon; 1 x 7.7mm MG
|
Nakajima
Ki-27 Nate
|
290 mph @
13,000 ft
|
2 x 7.7mm
MGs
|
Mitsubishi
A6M Zero
|
316 mph @
16,400 ft
|
2 x 7.7mm
MGs; 2 x 20mm cannon
|
Hawker
Hurricane Mk.IIb
|
308 mph @
18,000 ft
|
12
(sometimes 8) x 7.7mm MGs
|
Brewster
339 Buffalo
|
290 mph @
16,500 ft
|
2 x
12.7mm MG, 2 x 7.7mm MGs (some 4 x 0.303s)
|
While the Buffaloes can be considered inferior to the
Zeros and Oscars, the difference that decided the aerial battle over Singapore
was in the end, not the aircraft, but the men flying the aircraft. While the
Japanese aviators were well-trained and blooded in battle, the Allied pilots
were poorly trained and inexperienced in their mounts. This was not an
indictment on the Allied pilots, for they fought bravely and did well against
more experienced opponents with superior numbers and better tactics. Coupled
with the lack of a reliable early air raid warning system and an Allied High
Command whose war priorities lay elsewhere, there was only going to be one
conclusion to the battles in SE Asia in early 1942. As future battles showed,
Allied fighters with similar qualities to those used over Singapore, when used
correctly, were more than a match against supposedly superior Japanese fighters.
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The Kit
The Hasegawa 1/48 kit of the Nate is actually not one of
Hasegawa's original moulds. It was originally released in the mid-1970s by a
Japanese model company called Mania. It would suffice to say that Mania was the
1970s version of Accurate Miniatures, and in an era when other Japanese
companies like Tamiya and Hasegawa were producing poorer quality kits, Mania
sprang out with excellent 1/72 renditions of kits like the Kate torpedo bomber
and Nate, then followed up with their 1/48 Nate (which cost the 1970s equivalent
of AM prices!). Unfortunately the company eventually went under, and most of
their moulds were picked up by Hasegawa, which releases them under it's label
even up to this day.
The kit I have is a Limited Production version of the Hasegawa
Nate, kit No. 09310. However there is no difference from the standard production
Nate kit, with the exception of the decal sheet. Opening the box one is greeted
by three small light grey and one clear sprues of parts, with panel lines and
rivets being very finely engraved. If anything, the kit box is oversized, with
the length of the sprues being no more than 2/3 of the box length. The kit
cockpit and engine are nice considering its mid-1970s lineage, and while simple
compared to today's wunderkits, would still have no problems holding
their own. The butterfly flaps are moulded fixed in the retracted position,
although cutting them to show them deployed is not much of a problem. The kit
offers 2 different canopies, with both the older, heavily framed canopy of the
early Ki-27a as well as the Ki-27b's canopy with its better all-round view. With
both decal options being for early Ki-27s, it would appear that the later canopy
option is for different boxings of this kit. The parts appear to be well-moulded
overall, though some parts have some flash on them and ejector pin marks mar
some of the cockpit sidewall detail.
The instruction sheet is simple, assembly being broken down into
6 steps. One thing to note, the instruction sheet included is that from
Hasegawa's original Nate kit (Box. No J8), containing painting and decal
instructions are for options not included in the decal sheet. The included decal
options are for 2 Ki-27a of the 59th Sentai (Flight Regiment) during the
Nomonhan Incident, with separate instructions for the painting and markings of
this release's decals included. Decals are the "new" Hasegawa, i.e.
thinner than the older Hasegawa kit decals but still with an ivory colour
representing white. However they certainly seem well printed.
Overall, this is a wonderfully simple kit which looks great in
the box despite it's age.
Construction
Interestingly construction doesn't start with the cockpit. The
first two steps in the instructions are the assembly of the engine and then the
cockpit. The engine is a one-piece affair, and overscale push rods, and a large
oil cooler are included in the kit as part of the assembly. The assembled engine
is then fixed into the 2 piece cowling. The simple 10-part cockpit assembly was
joined next, and in common with most aircraft of that era, was spartan, although
very little could be seen once the fuselage was joined. The colour callout in
the instruction sheet for the cockpit was Navy Blue, but the consensus on the
j-aircraft website was that it would either be Nakajima Interior Green or NMF. I
chose the former, using the Gunze Mr. Colour lacquer line of paints. The
instrument panel was painted a very dark Grey while Black was used for the
instruments. Tamiya Clear Gloss was painted over the instruments while details
were picked out using Tamiya Metallic Grey.
Next up were the major components. This kit is a shake-and-bake!
Everything went together with a minimum of fuss and putty. The small fuselage
seams were easily fixed with Gunze Mr. Surfacer 1000 (great stuff). I've had
some issues lining up the one-piece bottom wing to the fuselage, but some putty
and sanding took care of that. One tip, assemble the bottom of the wings to the
fuselage before gluing the wing tops. I did this and the wing tops dropped into
place! There was also a small gap at the joint lines of the 2 piece cowling, but
being a natural panel line, I filled it with Tamiya putty and let it stand for
about 30 minutes before using a Q-Tip (or cotton buds as it is known here in
Singapore) soaked in Nail-Polish remover to wipe off the excess putty.
I added the wing slipper tanks without actually intending to,
the instructions did not mark them as optional parts when it actually was. I
realised that only too late, so the kit will have to depict the aircraft on a
ferry flight. There was also a hole opened up in the wing for the movie camera
used in training, but the instructions mentioned that this was optional so I
left it off and filled the hole (at least I caught this one!). The fixed landing
gear was then attached, with attention paid to the angle of the landing gears.
Painting, Decals and Final Construction
Painting this kit is straightforward, with the only issue being
the 11th Sentai Lightning-bolt marking on the tail. No decals I know of
exist for this unit's Nates, so I would have to fashion my own markings. The
tail area was sprayed Flat White first, then the profile of the 11th Sentai
found on the book by Peter Scott on IJAAF markings (see References) was scanned
and enlarged to the correct size in 1/48 before printing it out. The printed Sentai
marking looked a bit anemic to me when compared to a photo of the real aircraft
found in the book, so I made some modifications to the marking before cutting it
out and tacking it to the appropriate are of the tail using White Glue.
The rest of the model was painted using Grey-Green from the
Gunze Mr. Colour Lacquer paint line. The instructions actually called for IJA
Grey for the colour, but the research articles on the j-aircraft.com website
(See References) indicated that like the Navy's Zeros, the Army's Nates were
finished in a factory applied scheme of Glossy Grey Green over primer. So it
would make sense that the colours were similar to the Zero Grey-Green, and that
was what I used. After the paint had dried I peeled off the mask for the Sentai
marking and touched up the paintwork where appropriate.
The decals were then applied, and no problems were encountered,
the decals reacting well to the Mr. Mark Softer decal softener I applied. This
factory applied finish was of a high quality and very tough, so aircraft
finished this way hardly exhibited any paint peeling. Therefore I restricted my
weathering to a dark grey pastel chalk wash to highlight the panel lines. This
was then sealed in using Gunze Semi-Gloss Clear sprayed straight from the can,
to replicate the glossy Grey-Green finish after being exposed to the elements
after some time.
Final construction was then performed with the propeller and
other small details added. These were mainly painted in Grey Green, with the
exception of the propellers which were painted NMF for the forward prop blades
with black for the rear of the blades. Two stripes of Flat Red were painted on
the front face of the blades to complete the propeller.
Conclusions
To sum it up in 1 sentence, this kit would be a wunderkit
(by today's standards) from the 1970s! A fuss free build and simple kit that
looks really excellent before and after building, even straight out of the box.
Definitely highly recommended for all modelers from the beginner to those
wanting a quick OOB build to break a terminal AMS cycle!
References
WWII Tech's page on the Ki-27 at
http://www.wwiitech.net/main/japan/aircraft/ki-27/
The J-Aircraft website at http://www.j-aircraft.com
Francois P. Weill's excellent research article on Japanese
paints and camouflage (at the J-aircraft website) at
http://www.j-aircraft.com/research/weathering_question.htm
(MUST-READ for anyone wanting to paint IJN or IJA models!)
"Bloody Shambles Volume 1: The Drift to War to the
Fall of Singapore" by Shores/Cull/Izawa, Grub Street Books.
Emblems of the Rising Sun: Imperial Japanese Army Air Force Unit Markings by
Peter Scott, Hikoki Publications
Mike
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