A photo from a vintage publication dated October 8th, 1943, of a Nakajima Ki-43-II Ko.
Another photo taken a few seconds before this one is featured in Model Art #395, p. 79.
According to the caption the plane belonged to the 1st Chutai of the 25th Sentai and the boarding pilot is 1st Lt. Okumura Masao. On August 23, 1943 the 25th took off from their base in Hankou (Hubei province), made a stop in Yichang (Hubei province) and then proceeded attacking the then capital of Nationalist China, Chongqing.
The photo is retouched by the war-time censor and the air intake at the top of cowling as well as the machine gun muzzle ports are missing. Nevertheless, this angle still provides interesting information regarding the colour of the wheel wells (not aotake), the camouflage pattern and the brilliant tent that gives plenty of diorama ideas.
Thank You for posting that excellent photo.
ReplyDelete