Monday, 30 July 2018

Japanese Aircraft Online Model Contest 009


ARAWASI would like to invite you to our ninth online model contest.
Theme: "KAMIKAZE TOKKO-TAI - IJAAF & IJNAF Suicide Attack Aircraft"*

Submissions: Send as many photos as you like of your model and accompanying information to contact@arawasi.jp or arawasi_g2@hotmail.com. At the very least please send: your name and country, model scale and kit maker. Your entry will be posted within 24 hours. You can enter the contest with more than one model in any scale.
If you decide to start a model for our contest you can send work-in-progress photos.

Voting: you can vote for each model from 1 to 10 (no decimals) either by leaving a comment on each entry or by sending an email to the above addresses. No anonymous votes will be taken into account (nicknames are ok). The model with the most points wins.

Deadline: September 30 (but it can be extended) 

Prizes: The winner (or winners) will receive a book and a kit from our on-line store, free of any charge, courtesy of Arawasi.
 
*The theme for the next online model contest is Kawanishi N1K "George" Kyofu, Shiden, Shiden-kai and will start from October 16.

Thursday, 26 July 2018

NEWS - "Kate" Wreck Found!

The day before yesterday Asahi Shimbun featured the following article, here.

Diver in quest to recover remains from warplane as Aug. 15 looms

By MIHO KATO/ Staff Writer
NISHINOOMOTE, Kagoshima Prefecture--A sunken wartime Japanese aircraft that lies off the southern coast of Kyushu could contain the remains of its crew, says a diver who has been exploring the site since 2015.
Tetsuro Hayashi, a diving shop operator here on Tanegashima island, is on a mission to retrieve the remains and return them to their families ahead of the Aug. 15 anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II.
Hayashi, 71, learned about an aircraft probably resting off the island from a local fisherman in 2000, but could not start diving on the site until years later. Strong tides provide only a one-hour window each day to do so.
Also, the depth of 18 meters restricts dives to just 20 minutes or so, leaving little time to explore.
The prospect that the crew members died in the crash prompted Hayashi to contact the welfare ministry, which is in charge of collecting the remains of the nation's war dead both in Japan and overseas.
A ministry official met with Hayashi in late June to learn more about his search and inspect components recovered from the plane wreckage.
The site is about 300 meters off Cape Kishigazaki at the northern tip of Tanegashima island, which lies between Kyushu and Okinawa Prefecture.
Hayashi said the aircraft appears to be a Type 97 carrier attack bomber used by the Imperial Japanese Navy.
During his second dive in June 2015, Hayashi and his three colleagues spotted a wheel and a wing buried in white sand on the seabed. The dive team has concentrated on digging into the sand around the wreck to uncover the rest of the aircraft.
On their 12th dive last November, Hayashi and his colleagues made it to the cockpit.
Hayashi decided the plane must have gone down with its crew members aboard, so he consulted city government officials and requested the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in March to research the matter.
The ministry has designated the period through fiscal 2024, the year before the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, as one for intensive efforts to collect the remains of Japan's war dead.
“We will discuss, on the basis of findings from the visit to the site, whether our ministry will do its own research on the site,” said a ministry official.
Hayashi said the Type 97 carrier attack bomber took part in Japan's 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.
Officials of the Nishinoomote city government and other sources noted that the aircraft was also used in kamikaze attacks during the waning days of the Pacific War.
They made sorties from the Kushira naval air base in today’s Kanoya, Kagoshima Prefecture, to stage suicide attacks off Okinawa, the sources said.

There is a video of one of the dives on UTube, here.

Wednesday, 25 July 2018

Mitsubishi G3M "Nell" in 1/32 by Bill Bosworth

The Mitsubishi G3M "Nell"  Genzan Naval Air Group Saigon
 
I have always had a thing for twin tail, twin engine aircraft. And it appears that I have also had a thing for 1:32nd Japanese subjects. I didn't really realize this last fact until I looked at the pile of boxes where they all live and rediscovered just how many of these I have scratch built. I guess I should pay more attention to what I am doing. Nah...Too late. The list?.. So far an Aichi D3A-1 Val, Kawasaki Ki 45 Nick, Kyushu J7W1 Shinden, Mitsubishi G4M Betty with Ohka, and a Nakajima B5N2 Kate. And now this one which has been on my to-do list for a few decades. Finally, through the kindness, sharing and knowledge of George and the Arawasi archives, I felt I had enough data to build something that at least resembled a Nell. I just don't like my stuff to resemble a "toy" and with this help, I think/hope it passes muster.
I like to historic AC and had decided to do one of the planes that took part in the attacks on HMS Prince of Wales and Repulse on December 10, 1941. This particular ship attacked the PoW and was hit by anti-aircraft fire. I'm sure that the true experts will see the errors, but for me, I am satisfied that it looks like a small Nell. Except for the enormous wing! Nothing small about that.
I had this one come together in pretty short order. About 3-4 months. I never have kept track of hours or week or months. I Have never seen the relevance in building a model and watching the clock. We all build at different speeds. I have been doing this scratch building thing for a long time now and have evolved my techniques to what works for me.  Everyone is different. I don't build "multiples".  I have barely enough patience to build one! So I make many pieces from solid sheet plastic and vac form the rest. I have always enjoyed making wood patterns and with the aid of really nice plans (Thanks again, George) the wood elements came together pretty quickly. Vac forming the basic fuselage, tail, cowls, nacelles, etc. and wings took a nice Sunday afternoon. All of the "little pieces" were done in no particular order as I like to deliberately do them "out of order for assembly". This requires, a constant measuring and test fitting and I feel really, really helps keep things "honest".  There is no way to rush this sort of thing. They MUST fit or I will have to do them over. Remember. I have zero patience. The engines where an example of how lazy I am. There are no off-the-shelf pieces for the Kensai units I needed. But there are some very nice 18 cylinder resin engines that have the same basic cylinder shapes and configurations, etc. as the ones I needed. Building new valve trains and "reversing a few things" allowed me to end up with a couple of engines that when buried in some nice tight cowls look convincing enough to my eye. The various gun blisters and canopies took a bit of time to measure, measure, measure and fit but in the end, they went and stayed where they all belong. I feel the interior is somewhere north of acceptable. Interiors are always a problem for me as this is an area that never seems to get adequate coverage. And if it was covered, finding data is often next to impossible.
Thanks to the earlier research done for the torpedo I hung under the Kate, the Nell version came together a little easier. But definitely not quickly.
This little bugger was far more involved than I would have wished. But it definitely looks the part when finished and gives a purposeful look to the plane. Except for the enormous square footage (meter-age) of the wing and the relatively tiny engines, it looks like this plane could hardly get off the ground let alone carry a torpedo like this one. Paint was as close as "accurate reporting" comes with Japanese AC. "Correct shades"?  Just shoot me. I mixed all of them from Tamiya thinned with lacquer thinner.
Markings...Thanks again to George, we were able to identify one of the torpedo carrying ships so I could duplicate the markings. Painting the Round Red Things isn't much of a problem and is done faster than looking for 1:32nd decals.
This one was fun for me. It is now comfortable boxed up and has gone into storage with the rest of the stuff. One of these days I need to take 'em all out and get a group photo. Now that I have realized that I actually HAVE a group.

- Bill Bosworth -

 
  
 
 
 
  
 
 

Tuesday, 24 July 2018

Essex Model Show

Sunday was a good day out at the Essex Model Show in Billericay, and was the first time we've attended, now in its seventh year.   It was a friendly show and we were made most welcome, albeit a late booking filling in for a club who had to cancel.  There were vendors with new and old kits as well as tools and supplies.  We displayed models from four SIG members, Paul Bebbington, Julian Dickson, Peter Terry  and I.  John Drummond was one of the organizers of the show and had his Japanese subjects on his branch stand.
 
- Gary Wenko -
 
 
 

Monday, 23 July 2018

Nakajima Ki-84 "Hayate" (Frank) - Nakajima Ki-115 "Tsurugi - Factory photos

In the previous post, George Bryant noticed that possibly one more "Hayate" did not have anti-glare panels. D. Chouinard asked:  "Did they ever stop painting the anti glare panel at the factory to save time during the finishing process?"
 
Below is a set of most interesting photos of "Hayate" and Nakajima Ki-115 "Tsurugi" I recently discovered HERE. Lovely "Tsurugi" cockpit photo, right?
 
  
 
  
 
Indeed it seems that all the "Hayate" are without anti-glare panels but why are the "Tsurugi" (a suicide a/c) with one? Note that in the bottom photo, the "Tsurugi" in the foreground are painted in "green" camo WITH anti-glare, the "Hayate" without. What's the logic behind that?

Michael Thurow offered some thoughts:
My suggestion: The anti-glare panel was intended to protect pilot's view from reflecting natural metal surfaces. Until the introduction of brown-olive camouflage at factory level at the end of 1944 Army planes had either a silver or grey-green factory finish. All dark green paint (solid or in blotches) was depot-applied. The new matte brown colour eliminated the need for additional anti-glare protection.
A similar transition can be observed for IJN aircraft (and in reversed order for USAAF planes).

An afterthought on the camouflaged Tsurugi WITH anti-glare in the last picture. It looks like they were initially intended without camouflage and consequently received an anti-glare area while the Hayate are already built to the latest colour spec. I wouldn't be surprised if the Tsurugi remained silver on the undersides.

Correct Michael but the official instructions called for the brown-olive finished aircraft to have anti-glare. That's why we have the "Hayate" of the 102 Sentai and other units covered before.
I just checked Gakken #46, p.44-45 and the caption says that although not immediately visible the anti-glare is there and was applied to factory a/c until the end of the war. The photo on the lower of p.45 shows anti-glare and if you look very closely at some of the aircraft in the above photos you can barely see the anti-glare on some of them at the very edge of the nose. Curious that it is not that visible.

Sunday, 22 July 2018

Nakajima Ki-84 "Hayate" (Frank) - Decals and markings pt. 4 - 58 Shimbu-tai

The 58th Shimbu-tai was mentioned briefly in the previous post. It is the last option in the Tamiya decal set.
 
There are very few photos of this unit. The most famous is the one below.
 
The unit was organized in Akeno Kyodo Hikoshidan together with 57, 59 and 60 Shimbu-tai, all equipped with "Hayate". Unit Commander was 2Lt Takayanagi Takashi with 11 other pilots. They received their aircraft at Shimodate airfield, Ibaraki Prefecture, and started training. On May 17 together with the 57th relocated to Hofu airfield, Yamaguchi Prfecture and seven days later advanced to Miyakonojo East airfield. The next day nine "Hayate" carrying two 250kg bombs took off and attacked enemy ships in the Okinawa area. On the 28th the last surviving pilot, 2Lt Konda Hiroshi took off on a suicide mission.
The unit's marking is a skull with crossbones over a boiling cauldron which in Japanese is called kamayude. Check the story of Ishikawa Goemon, a legendary outlaw hero, to see how he was executed.
 
Nohara Shigeru created artwork featured in Model Art #451 
 
and Model Art #493.
 
And while things may look straightforward enough, unfortunately, as of is the case with Japanese aviation, there are a couple issues. First of all "4" doesn't have anti glare panel in front of the canopy which is highly unusual and puzzling. If the aircraft was finished at the factory as the hinomaru with white surround suggests then it should have anti-glare. Note also that it is definitely brighter than "7" which has anti-glare.
Below is artwork I found on the net by a Japanese illustrator called "tamamichi8749".
I think it's more accurate overall.
 





 
 
We hope you enjoyed this series of postings. We will come back to the subject in the future. Stay tuned!

Monday, 16 July 2018

Nakajima Ki-84 "Hayate" (Frank) - Decals and markings pt. 3 - 1 Rensei Hikotai

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for...Tamiya's 1st decal option.
 
"Plane piloted by Staff Sergeant Joten Naito of the Kurai Unit of the 502nd Temporary Interception Corpse (March - May, 1945. Nakatsu Airfield)"
We can immediately see plenty of unusual details. The top color is mentioned as "Dark green" in the side view and as "Light greyish blue" in the top view. The bottom color is "blue", the lower parts of the wheel covers as well as the spinner are in red. Note the absence of anti-glare, the hinomaru with square white surrounds, the unusual radio antenna and ofcourse the "rabbit" on the cowling.
 
As mentioned before it is important to see who said what, when and where.
AFAIK the first time this scheme and markings were mentioned and depicted in print was in the October 1968, No.246, issue of the magazine "Aireview".
That issue featured an article by one of the most respected aviation artists in the world, Watanabe Rikyu (who I was very fortunate to meet in person and unfortunately passed away late last year), based on information and photographic material supplied by Corporal Naito Noboru or Joten (for the onyomi and kunyomi read of Japanese words and names check here).
Naito and Watanabe were both graduates of the 15 Class of Shonen Hikohei, Naito became a pilot Watanabe became a mechanic due his poor, for a pilot, vision. The article explains that Naito flew "Hayate" Model 1 Ko and belonged to the 520 Rinji Boku Sentai (Temporary Air Defence Squadron). The main duty of this unit was intercepting B-29 bombers, and although their nick name was "RinBo 520" their official name was "1 Rensei Tai" (1st Training Unit) and came under the command of the 1st Koku Gun (Air Army). The unit trained young skillful pilots to the new fighter and as it was to be an interceptor unit the aircraft had a white band wraped around the fuselage, near the tail, while also sporting a red line on the tail, the unit's marking. The aircraft were overall "light blue" with dark green "madara" (mottled) camouflage on the upper surfaces with excessive chipping and weathering on the cowling and the center of the fuselage. The light blue was not the standard bright hairyokushoku but more bluish, closer to the German hellblau.
Naito's aircraft had three kill markings which comprised of a white star with a blue circle in the center and a red tail and represented one B-29 shot down and two probables. The bomber was shot down on January 28, 1945 over Shirahama, Chiba Prefecture, the other two were on February 7 over Choshi, Chiba Prefecture, and on March 6 over Oshima.
The propeller, spinner and wheel covers were in red, the color of the "Kurai Unit". The yellow corresponded to the "Yamamoto Unit" and the blue to the "Tokoro Unit".

Watanabe created artwork of this particular aircraft in the fold-out accompanying the article.
In February 1945, over Tatebayashi, Gunma Prefecture, Second Lieutenant Kurai flew against a group of B-29s in a diamond formation and crashed against the leading bomber. The nose of the bomber went up and collided with another B-29. As a result two B-29s were shot down during one attack. Kurai was able to escape with his parachute but bomber fragments cut the parachute cords and he fell to his death.

The B-29 kill record of the "Kurai Unit" is:
Captain Kurai                     --  4 B-29 shot down, 1 probable (2 rank promotion posthumously)
2Lt Gashu                           --  1 B-29 shot down, 1 probable
SgtMaj Fujiya (Fujitani?)   --  1 B-29 shot down, 1 B-29 and 1 B-24 probable
SgtMaj Ogiwara                 --  2 B-29 shot down
Corporal Naito                   --  1 B-29 shot down, 2 probable

Two weeks after the death of Captain Kurai the "520 RinBo" was disbanded and from the remaining members the Shonen Hikohei of the 13, 14 and 15 class were assigned to tokotai units. 48 of them perished in suicide attacks in March, 24 in April and 12 in May. From March until May the "Hayate" of Corporal Naito got a personal marking, a hare. The upper surface were repainted in glossy noryokushoku (dark green) and all the hinomaru got a white square surround.
Below is how Watanabe depicted Naito's aircraft as featured in the article and is ofcourse the source for the Tamiya decals.
The article continuous explaining that there were variations in the fuselage white band. Some planes had one, some two and some none at all. There was a "Hayate" with an eagle marking on the tail flown by Corporal Kuroiwa, a 14 Class Shonen Hikohei.
Watanabe's depiction is below.
After May all the markings except the underwing hinomaru were deleted and a very dark mat black green (kokuryokushoku) was applied; a characteristic of tokotai aircraft. Nevertheless pilots applied their own personal markings before toko missions.
On June 30, Naito got injured on the left leg with rocket fragments during an attack against a Dauntless over Nakachu airfield. Due to his injuries he was not able to fly again. As a side note the article explains that the adopted father of Corporal Naito was LtCol Naito Kunitaro who participated in the aerial attack against Tsingtao.

The Watanabe/Naito article caused quite a stir especially when Tamiya released their "Hayate" kit. The surviving veterans of the unit urged and helped noted aviation historian and prolific author Watanabe Yoji to write an article detailing the history of the unit, correcting the various innacuracies. This appeared for the first time in the September 1990 issue, no. 549, of Aireview magazine. The 12-page article features 21 extremely interesting and detailed photos (before you ask, the magazine is ofcourse out-of-print) which will not be reproduced here due to copyright restrictions.
The article is not a direct reply to the Watanabe/Naito article but offers many details about the "Hayate". From that article we put together the following brief history of the unit.

The organization of the 1st Rensei Hikotai ("1st Fighter Operational Training Unit" affectionately called by the veterans "1 RenHi") begun in the end of March 1944 and was completed on July 22 when the unit was officially established. The base of the unit was the Sagami airfield, Kanagawa Prefecture. The particular airfield, located between the Sagami and Nakatsu rivers, was used by a branch of the Kumagaya Hiko Gakko which was dissolved two days before the 1st RenHi was founded. "Sagami airfield" was the official name but everybody called it "Nakatsu airfield".
The 1st RenHi was under the 1st Air Army and their tsushogo (not their nickname as has been suggested) was Tobu 133 (East 133) or Kon 520 (Navy blue 520); don't be lazy, check the link for more information.
The unit's first commander was Captain Uchitoku Takayuki who changed from light bombers to fighters. On August 16 was reassigned as commander of the 52nd Sentai and later died in a night take-off accident.
The second C/O was Captain Ehara Hideo who took command on August 17, the same day Captain Tokoro Kojiro was assigned as commander of the flight training which commenced on June 30 when the first group of students arrived from the 1st Kyoiku Hikotai ("1st Fighter Training Unit"). They were graduates of the 7, 8 and 9 Type Ko Kambu Kohoshei, also graduates of the 1st Class of Tokubetsu Shoju Minarai Shikan and graduates of the 13th Class of Shonen Hikohei. Some of them had the rank of 2Lt. This first entry of students was split into two kutai (can be simply translated as "group") led by 1Lt Yamamoto Toshiaki and 1Lt Yoshikawa Haruo respectively.
In the middle of summer with more students arriving, a third kutai was organized, the leader of which was Kurai Toshizo who had the rank of 2Lt at the time. On November 30, Yoshikawa was dispatched to another unit so the 1st RenHi had again only two kutai.
The unit had about a dozen instructors and assistant trainers and about 100 students.
The training of the 1st kutai was completed in December having flown Tachikawa Ki-55 "Ida", Nakajima Ki-43 "Hayabusa" and "Hayate". Training with "Hayate" consisted of flying 24 times for a total of about six hours. Taxing, take-off/landing and flying around the airfield was 14 times, the rest was formation flight and basic combat.
The second entry arrived to the unit in the beginning of December and consisted of graduates of 14, 14 Otsu and 15 Shonen Hikohei. They trained with Nakajima Ki-27 "Nate", 2-seat and then single seat "Hayate."

When B-29 bombers started arriving from the Marianas, there were orders to reinforce the 10th Hikoshidan, responsible for the air defence of the Kanto area. The 1st RenHi came under the 10th Hikoshidan and organized two chutai with instructors and assistant trainers, the 1st led by Kurai, the 2nd by Yamamoto. There is absolutely no mention of any "520 Rinji Boku Sentai".
Members of the 1st Chutai were: Kurai, SgtMaj Fujitani and Sgts Kawakami and Oshima. Later they were joined by 2Lt Yoshioka and Corporal Eto (?).
The 2nd Chutai consisted of: Yamamoto, SgtMajs Saigo, Mochizuki and Ogiwara, Sgt Machuyama, Corproral Sakata and later 2Lt Kaneko.
Later some graduates stayed with the unit, became assistant trainers and joined the 2nd Chutai.
Their first battle was when they received signal from the 10th Hikoshidan on November 1st, 1944 and took off to intercept a lone B-29 F-13 on a reconnaissance mission over Atsugi, the area assigned to the 1st RenHi, with no results.
Their first kill was on December 3 when Kurai as leader located a formation of six B-29s over Atsugi on a mission against the Musashino factory of Nakajima. During the attack he was credited with one bomber confirmed and two probables.
In the 1st Air Army there were mostly training units and CO Lt Gen Yi Un (check him out) was particularly impressed by the success and presented Kurai with a citation of "having flown for many hours without any accidents".
Following that incident Kurai sewed kill markings on the sleeve of his uniform and painted one kill and one probable marking on the nose of the "Hayate" he usually flew, making his maintenance crew feel very proud.
After the death of Kurai, leader of the 1st Chutai became 1Lt Hosono. The Watanabe article agrees with the details of the death of Kurai minus the damaged parachute.
While the 1st and 2nd entries of students completed their training, a 3rd entry never arrived and the unit had no chances to engage in combat. In the spring ten students from Akeno arrived to the unit to train with "Hayate" fighters; they were all from Burma i.e. Burmese nationals. The 1st and 2nd entries were all assigned to toko units and until the end of the war the 1st RenHi trained toko unit leaders as well as training themselves in suicide attacks, occasionally employing borrowed Navy vessels, getting ready for the final battle for Japan mainland.

The actual rebuttal to the Watanabe/Naito article came with the January 2001, no. 577, issue of Koku Fan magazine, in an article written again by Watanabe Yoji accompanied by a new illustration courtesy of Watanabe Rikyu.
The story goes that Watanabe Rikyu met Naito two years after the end of the war in the Tokyo company they both worked. A common question at that time was "so, what did you do during the war?" and when they both found out that they were graduates of the same Shonen Hikohei class became good friends. Naito was a particularly kind, friendly and easy-going individual and over a few drinks they shared wartime stories in the local izakaya. Many years later when Watanabe was beginning his new career as illustrator, he remembered these friendly discussions he had with Naito and decided to put together an article. He contacted Naito, got the okay and the article materialized in print. It should be noted that Watanabe was not a historian and did not confirm Naito's story.
As mentioned above when that first article came out it made waves among surviving 1 RenHi veterans who protested that the "Hayate" with the kill markings was not Naito's but definitely Kurai's. The family of the later even had a piece of the uniform sleeve with the kill markings. As a Class 15 graduate, Naito started training in the 1 RenHi from the end of December 1944, so it is unthinkable that he was able to shoot down B-29s in January or even February. One member of the 15 Class from December 10 until February 1945 had flown 34 times with a "Nate" for a total of five hours 20 minutes flight time. From January 24 he started training with twin-seat "Hayate", seven times take off and landing and from March 11 started training with a single  seat "Hayate" completing the same training as the first entry (flying 24 times for a total of about six hours). The earlier graduates of that second entry were 30 students who left the school on March 25, the last students graduating by May.
From the second entry only five remained in the school as assistant trainers. Their names: Corporals Ogawa and Fukushima from the 14th Class, Corporals Kondo and Miyagi from the 14 Otsu Class and heicho Kato from the 15th Class. These pilots did not see any combat with the 1 RenHi. As you can see Corporal Naito is not among them. The 15 Class students were indeed assigned to be trained with the instructors of the 1st Chutai led by Kurai, so until Kurai's death Naito possibly trained with him but he was merely a student, not a member of any "520 Rinji Boku Sentai". Naito graduated from the 1 RenHi some time between March and May and until that time it is absolutely impossible to have had his "own" "Hayate" with his personal marking of a "hare". Unfortunately it is not known exactly when Naito graduated and where was next assigned. 
On top of this, none of the veteran maintenance crew remember any "hare" or wheel covers in some red or other color.
Significantly, AFAIK, Naito's "hare" "Hayate" has not appeared in any other Japanese publication, except for that old Aireview article.
The Koku Fan article featured corrected artwork by Watanabe Rikyu.

All credit for the above information should go to the veterans of the 1st RenHi and to Watanabe Yoji who actually did the research; we only gathered the material and did the translations.

It is beyond bizzare that a serious company like Tamiya continues to this day to release the same old kit with the same decals and wrong instructions, here.

A few words about the hinomaru with the square white surrounds. The square surrounds were not standard and very very few Japanese aircraft had them. Up until the time when official instructions were given to camouflage some of the aircraft when they left the factories, these were usually painted in overall hairyokushoku or NMF with hinomaru without white surrounds. When these aircraft were camouflaged at the depots or at unit level, the ground crew used some kind of stencil (paper, cardboard, cloth or whatever was available) to cover and protect the hinomaru so that it didn't get dirty from the camouflage paint (keep that in mind with your "Hien"). When the official orders were given to apply camouflage to the aircraft at the factory level, they started applying white circles surrounding the hinomaru, this becoming standard. At the unit level, it was next to impossible to paint a perfect white circle around the pre-existing hinomaru and instead opted for the easier white square. This though was too conspicuous to enemy planes and was not widely adopted. It is more common to low level ground attack aircraft like "Sonia" or "Ida" where they wouldn't like their own troops to shoot them.
The two chutai of the 1st RenHi could be considered homeland defense units so it is possible that a few "Hayate" flown by the instructors had white bands, not squares, around their hinomaru but there are no photos to confirm this.

The "Hayate" of Corporal Kuroiwa with the 1 RenHi marking and the eagle carrying a bomb is also suspicious but less than the "hare". The eagle/bomb marking is associated with toko units. It is not clear who exactly and how many graduates of the 1 RenHi joined toko units. There are two conflicting but also agreeing sources.
Model Art #451 mentions that Shonen Hikohei of 14 and 15 classes from 1 RenHi were first assigned to Akeno Kyodo Hikoshidan and from there to the 57 Shimbu-tai which was equipped with "Hayate". On March 30, 1945 the shimbu-tai moved to Shimodate airfield in Ibaraki Prefecture and received their first aircraft on April 10. Training for toko missions was over on May 17 then reached Miyakonojo airfield, Miyazaki Prefecture in Kyushu, on May 24. On the next day they flew their last mission. From the 11 members of the toko unit, seven were originally Shonen Hikohei; their names are known and Corporal Kuroiwa is not among them. Corporal Yamashita's "Hayate" has an eagle with a bomb on the fuselage sides (see FAOW #19, p.79).
Two other shimbu-tai had shonen hikohei from the 14 and 15 classes, the 58 and 60 Shimbu-tai. But MA#451 does not clarify whether they originated from the 1 RenHi or other school.
In the photo caption of p. 121, MA#451 explains that shonen hikohei from the 1 RenHi joined shimbu-tai numbered from 171 to 200.
The veterans in the Aireview #549 do not mention anything about the 57, 58 and 60 Shimbu-tai but agree with the above mentioned caption, only that Shimbu-tai 175 to 178 are mentioned.
In general it seems that the second entry to the 1 RenHi stayed in Sagami, organized toko units, trained for toko attacks and waited there until the end of the war.
This information confirms Naito's account and Corporal Kuroiwa was most probably a member of these toko units but no photos have surfaced to confirm the tail marking of his aircraft as depicted in the Aireview #246 article.

Nohara Shigeru created artwork of the Kuroiwa "Hayate" repeating the Naito's information for the old FAOW #148.
 But after that publication, Kuroiwa's "Hayate" does not appear in any other Japanese publication.
Aeromaster in their 48-040C decal set, released in 1995, included Kuroiwa's plane.












So did SuperScale in their 48-526 set of the same year. 

And while these decal sets can be excused for being old, Montex released in 2016 a set of masks in 1/32 for both the Naito and Kuroiwa "Hayate" perpetuating inaccurate and suspicious markings.

     

Sunday, 15 July 2018

Mitsubishi A6M2 Tinian Kokutai by Jean Barby

Here are photos of my latest work. An A6M2 from the Tinian Kokutai based in Lae in May 42. I have been inspire by the excellent book «Eagles of the southern skies», a must read day to day account of the struggle in New-Guinea skies. The black stripe is for the 4th Chutai, and the plane has been donated to the Navy by private donators. I have done all the markings using my silhouette portrait so NO decals there. The Ameiro varnish is home made: 60% Gunze h-70 RLM02, 35% of Sail color and 5% of white. Cockpit is from SBS and the model is from Hasegawa fully riveted.
Allez les Bleus!
 
- JEAN BARBY -