Questions - Manchukuoan Air Force pt.2

Let's continue with more MAF aircraft.
Kawasaki Ki-32 "Mary". AModel has released two kits in 1/72 and there is a small number of older kits by Merlin, AV USK, FERESIN, Wings and others; none with MAF markings. AFAIK only TriAngle has ever released a kit in 1/48, again no MAF markings. A great pity for such a beautiful and so horribly overlooked aircraft type.

Kora has released a set in 1/72. The markings are correct but the "KA" Ki-32 should not have its rudder in yellow.

Nakajima Ki-27 "Nate". Here we have a good number of kits in various scales. In 1/72 there are kits by Mania, Hasegawa and ICM but only RS has released a kit exclusively for MAF.

Unfortunately, the tail marking is incorrect. There should be a "1" inside the circle on the tail. It is a common mistake everybody did until our book was released when we showed exactly what the tail marking of the 1st Hikotai of the MAF looked like. Until then, the main source was this poor-quality photo where few details were visible.

Note of course the 104 Sentai Nakajima Ki-84 "Hayate" (Frank) in the background and the Tachikawa Ki-9 "Spruce" next to the gokoku MAF "Nate".

The most accurate decals are from Rising, but, apart from the bad tail marking, the Axis decal set is also useful, see previous post.

Lifelike has included one gokoku MAF "Nate" in its 72-034 set.

Correct but I find the blue of the roundel too dark for my taste.   

There is also the fairly new Print Scale set, also with one gokoku "Nate".

But what possessed them to depict the blue of the roundel as purple is beyond me.  

Kora has released two sets of decals in 1/72, accurate, but the blue of the roundel is too dark and the yellow too lemony. A matter of taste I guess.

In 1/48 Hasegawa has released two MAF kits with the old and marvellous Mania kit inside.

The first kit, #09433, has accurate decals. 

The second kit, 09512, has inaccurate tail markings for the 1st Hikotai but the second decal option is accurate and recommended.

Note that Hasegawa uses "Manchoukuo" instead of "Manchukuo". The name of the "country" had always appeared in many different versions, the funkiest been "Manchutikuo".

Aeromaster has included decals in its set.

Unfortunately, again, the 1st Hikotai tail marking is inaccurate and, to make matters worse, the gokoku inscription is unintelligible: these are not accurate kanji characters, just shapes of whatever the artist could see in the above-mentioned photo.

Finally, I discovered yesterday this decal set; here

The tail marking is a nice April Fool's joke!, but I like a lot the colors of the roundels.

Kora has released 2-3 decal sets in 1/48, all accurate.

In 1/32 there is the Special Hobby kit, without MAF decal options but there is a Kora set in that big scale.

Moving on to Nakajima Ki-43"Hayabusa" (Oscar). 

In 1/72 there is the new Special Hobby kit with the terrible MAF roundels. NOT RECOMMENDED!

Print Scale has included a MAF "Hayabusa" in one of its sets.

Note again the purple in the roundel. It's not that their printer had issues with the blue color. The French roundels and markings have a fairly good blue color. I think they chose to make the roundel line purple. Why? Just a look at the Wiki page would clearly show them what the roundel looked like. Meeehhh...

Fine Molds has released TWO kits. An older, FA12, and a newer one, FB-9. 

There are differences in the decal sets. (Sorry for the missing piece. I'm building one.)

Be careful! Some Fine Molds instruction sheets depict the roundels placed incorrectly.

As with the "Nate", the roundel lines should be perpendicular to the aircraft's centre line, not follow the panel lines. 

In 1/32, Hasegawa has released a kit, 08150, but as with Fine Molds, the instructions place the roundels incorrectly. 

Aeromaster has released two decal sets with MAF markings, in 1/72 (72-018) and 1/48 (48-011). In this case, they are very accurate and highly recommended. In my eyes, Aeromaster has the best colors for the MAF roundels.

Kora has released decal sets for the MAF "Oscars" in various scales.

There is one MAF "Hayabusa" photo, from the Kikuchi Collection, that has been puzzling everybody since it first appeared in print in 1972. No other photos of this particular aircraft have ever surfaced.

The "lines" on the tail have been depicted as blue or red, but if that was the case, the tail would either look like a Nationalist China aircraft

or a US aircraft.

Both are big no-nos as markings for Japanese aircraft. The most plausible explanation is that the rudder skeleton is showing through. We clearly explained that in our book, but of course this hasn't prevented Kora and other decal companies from releasing sets with red or blue stripes to be placed on the tails. 

Moving on to the Kawasaki Ki-45 "Toryu" flown by the MAF. Hasegawa has released a kit, 00851, in 1/72 and that's all.

Kora has released accurate decal sets in 1/72 and 1/48.

If you want to be super accurate with your MAF "Toryu", though, especially in larger scales, you should include a removed fuselage hinomaru, showing through the camouflage. 

Kora has also released decals for MAF Ki-44 "Shoki" but no photos have ever surfaced, so we don't know what they looked like.

Another Kora decal set is for MAF Manshu Ki-98s!!! Completely what-if and utterly BS! As if the Japanese would give to the MAF examples of their latest, most advanced fighter. Yeah, right. Let's slap MAF roundels to all Japanese X-planes and call them what-ifs. How about a MAF "Fugaku" Kora? Why not?

Anyway, to wrap this up, I think there are plenty of kits and decal sets for MAF aircraft, some more difficult to find, some less so. 

Arawasi does not recommend any of the decal sets released by Kora but it's really up to you if you want to support them. 

Always spend a moment or two to confirm the decal sets depict the colours of the roundels correctly, red, blue, white, black and yellow, and be careful how you place them on your models.