Lily in Shumshu

Our friend Igor Lish sent us a heads-up for a Kawasaki Ki-48 Lily wreck found a few years back in the northern island of the Kuril island chain, Shumshu.

It was located near the former Japanese airport of Kitanodai. Unfortunately the nose and the tail were gone with all the equipment. Two years ago it was taken to Moscow in the Victory Park Museum. Igor reports that hai-ai-iro colour of the landing gear and flaps is very well preserved.

 

Below are some photos featured here with Igor's permission from his blog. Visit HERE for more photos.

 The upside warning says "ココヲノセル" (koko o noseru) meaning "lift here".

 The upside down stencil says "1515migi" (1515 right)

 Traces of the wing hinomaru are still visible.

 

 

Storage number of the aircraft.

Artist Kabashima Katsuichi - Sokei

Beautiful pen illustration by artist Kabashima Katsuichi from a vintage, July 1942, publication, entitled: "Flying over the nountains of Arakan, sokei are attacking India". "Sokei" is the nickname of the Kawasaki Ki-48 "Lilly", from the Japanese designation "Kyu kyu shiki Sokei bakugekiki" (Type 99 Twin-engine light bomber). The "双" (so) part means "twin" while "軽" (kei) means "light".

Yokosuka/Kawanishi K5Y1 & K5Y2 #Willow" kits - 1/48 & 1/32

OTAKI

ARII

DOYUSHA

Yokosuka/Kawanishi K5Y2 #Willow" kits - 1/72

ARII

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AZ Model

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VALOM

 

 

Indonesian Yokosuka K5Y1 "Willow" by Jacob Terlouw

This is my LS K5Y1. I built it some 40 years ago in AURI colours, did not bother then about cockpit details and guessed the Indonesians painted the undersurfaces grey. Arawasi proved some years ago that I was mistaken about that. This kit survived a lot of moving to other cities with the family ( many other kits did not). Last year I bought the AZ kit of the Akatonbo which is more up to the standards of nowadays. You can build it as the K5Y1 or K5Y2 and comes with some resin & P.E. parts for the cockpit and armament. Nicely detailed and decals for 205th  Special Attack Unit,
Takao Ku, Takuma Ku and Indonesian Airforce.

Jacob Terlouw

 

The Willow with the Duch markings as seen at the ESM (Euro Scale Modelling fair) 2012. Although you can’t see it the owner did a tremendous job with the rigging!

Yokosuka/Kawanishi K5Y1 #Willow" kits - 1/72

As promised we would like to introduce the various "Willow" kits, starting with the 1/72 scale. There will be different postings for each scale that will be updated with new kits, comments, etc.

 

LS released their "Willow" in 1/72 after 1966. It's an old but really pretty kit in orange plastic, small windshields, no help for the wire bracing and decals for one orange trainer plane belonging to Kasumigaura Kokutai, tail marking "か-835" (Ka-835). The marking should be one on the centre of the top wing and one under the port and starboard lower wings, but there is decal for only one. Curiously there are a couple unnecessary markings in white.

I am building one now so I will comment on the difficulties, fit etc as I make progress.

In 1992 LS went bankrupt and the kit molds ended up in ARII which re-released the Willow kit in 1/72 with a different box (but retaining in the centre the old design), different instructions, different decals and in slightly less orange plastic. From 2004 ARII changed their name to MICRO ACE and the kit boxes started to appear under this name.

The decals offer two options, one for an all silver plane belonging to Kasumigaura with tail marking "か-821" (Ka-821) and another orange with green camo belonging to Mineyama Kokutai, tail marking "2ミホ-827" (2MiHo-827).

 

 

AZ Model 

VALOM

 

Unfortunately AZ Model and VALOM kits are quite expensive in Japan, so if you have any of them I would appreciate it if you could send photos of the kits.

 

GUNZE

All the parts of the Gunze kit are metal and need plenty of work to make a dissent model.
Feel free to leave a comment and send us photos of your finished model if you have built any of these kits.