We are proud to feature on our blog the exquisite Nakajima Ki-4 or Army Type 94 Reconnaissance by Chas Bunch, from Bellingham, Washington.
Chas explained:
"Planet Models resin kit 1:48, can't remember any real problems with it, I hollowed out the exhaust stacks, added some cockpit details and made a new instrument panel with Airscale decals, rigged with flat wire from RB Products, wired the engine. Paint is Model Master enamel hand mixed until it looked about right, Alclad II Polished Aluminum on the prop, kit decals."
Enjoy the beautiful photos!
In 1938, following the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the IJAAF issued orders for it's aircraft fighting in China to remove the hinomaru on the fuselage sides because it was thought that it gave target to enemy aircraft. This particular unit flying Ki-4s in an act of defiance painted question marks instead, as if to say "our nationality is...?". When Army high brass saw them they were not particularly happy and the "question marking" was quickly removed.
1 comment:
That is a model?
Seriously now; exceptional work and a GREAT choice of markings. I have never seen the question mark nor read of the story behind it.
So many of us in the West tend to think of WW II era Japanese as humorless fanatics. Needless to say, they were actually just people like us for the most part. What a clever idea for that unit to use the question mark; and I can imagine the brass were quite PO'd about it!
The spirit behind the question mark reminds me a little of Sakai and his comrades putting on a display of aerobatics over an Australian air base early in the war.
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