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| The Nakajima Ki-44 “Tojo” was first used in combat over Singapore in 1942 and saw some success as a homeland defender at the end of the war. The Hasegawa kit is accurate, well detailed and has a good fit overall. Rather than use the kit decals, Greg masked and painted the himoras, antiglare panels and call numbers. |
Japan was gearing up for war in the late 30’s, and they knew they needed better aircraft. Enough of the slow, fixed gear, single row radial engined put-puts armed with two dinky machine guns (think Ki-27), the Japanese command wanted fighter planes with some cajones. Around the same time that the famous Mitsubishi Zero was being developed, Nakajima, now known in the states as Subaru, got the orders and specs for a pair of new fighters for the army. One of them, the Ki-43 Oscar, was a quick development as it was an evolution of Nakajima’s Ki-27 Nate.
The Navy’s Zero was also quick in coming, flying by 1939, allegedly due to inspiration from Howard Hughes’ air racer.
The second Nakajima fighter from the 1938 order was the Ki-44 Shoki and took a bit longer in development. It wasn’t taken into service until 1942. Designed around the large HA-41 radial engine, then the most powerful in Japan, the Ki-44 Shoki (code name Tojo) was a compact fighter designed to be a high-speed interceptor. Though good handling wasn’t important for this role, the Shoki handled well due largely to its “combat” flaps, an innovation first used on the Ki-43 Oscar. These were fowler flaps that not only dropped downward from the wing, but also moved backwards. Modern and much more complex versions of these flaps are found on airliners today. You may have seen them when looking out the window when your flight lands.
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| In the absence of any hard evidence of what cockpit color a Ki-44 would have had, Greg painted the cockpit using a 50/50 mix Dull Cote and RAF interior Green over the black washed cockpit parts. A chipped paint effect was achieved by splattering Metalizer over the seat and floor boards. |
Due to the high loading of its short wings, however, the Shoki’s low speed stability was iffy especially when landing. This made it unpopular with pilots. Another feature of the Shoki was the placement of the horizontal stabilizers well ahead of the rudder, making for a unique overhead profile.
Equipped with two machine guns in the cowl and two wing cannons, the Shoki was adequately armed. Armor plate around the pilot offered more protection when compared to the early lightweight Zero.
The Shoki went through a few modifications, including a more powerful HA-109 engine (Ki-44-II) and differing external stores (Koh, Otsu, and Hei versions, what ever the heck those mean).
Lessons learned from the Shoki (“demon”) allowed Nakajima to go on and make one of the best piston engined fighter planes of the war, the Ki-84 Frank, whose only real fault was poor build quality. Production of the Ki-44 Tojo was in fact stopped in 1944 after 1,200 units were made to concentrate on Ki-84 production.
In combat, the Tojo was best remembered as a mainland defender late in the war intercepting B-29 bombers – the role it was designed for, sort of. The Tojo was not rated for the high altitude of the B-29s; a simple turn meant losing so much height that the bombers could simply fly away unharmed, so attacks had to be straight and level. The Tojo’s cannons had low muzzle velocity, so they were only effective for about 500 feet, while the B-29’s .50 caliber machine guns worked for more than three times that distance.
To make matters worse for the Tojo pilot, by this stage of the war the lack of supplies and trained crew meant unreliable machines – much like modern Subarus. Needless to say, it took some real guts to fly at altitude and attempt to shoot down a bomber full of angry farm boys that had better guns than you and to do so in a fighter plane that may quit operating at any time.
The model depicted here represents Capt. Yoshio Yoshida’s Ki-44-II Hei, a full on B-29 ace with six shot down. Japan still lost the war.
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| This Ki-44 was abandoned at Clark Field in the Philippines and captured by the Americans when they retook the field in February 1945. This aircraft was taken to the United States where it became a test subject. |
Interestingly, typing Yoshio Yoshida into Google results in matches for a famous Japanese baseball player and a producer of Godzilla movies. I doubt it was the same guy – no one’s that talented. Actually, I don’t even know if he survived the war. For you plane spotters out there, Yoshida flew out of Kashiwa airfield during 1945 and was in the 70th Hiko Sentai of the 3rd Chutai. His plane was number 11. Ya happy now?
Hasegawa released a series of new mold kits in 1/48 scale of Japanese WWII fighters in the mid to late 90’s, including a new Zero, Jack, Oscar, Tony, Frank, and the subject of this article, a Tojo. This newer line is generally excellent, with fine fit, good cockpit and wheel well details, and fine inscribed panel lines. The Tojo is no exception, needing little to make a decent model right out of the box. The layout of the 66 light gray parts is fairly conventional, with a one-piece lower wing and the entire fuselage in halves. Nice touches include a one-piece cowl and a two-piece canopy – much better than the other way ‘round. A large decal sheet with two versions, including Yoshida’s plane, is included in this release (kit JT36). Hasegawa has a few other boxings of this kit including camouflaged versions, but Tojo camo was usually sloppy green blotches over natural metal. If you want to build a Tojo, a bare metal finish is really the only option.
All together now – “construction starts with the cockpit.” Very good. Already we’ve run into an issue of some debate. The instructions state to paint the main parts of the cockpit in “cockpit color” (Gunze #127) – a shade of light yellow green, but is this accurate? No original Ki-44s are around, so the exact color is unknown. Some aviation buffs think Tojo cockpits would have the same blue-green lacquer coating (Aotaki) as the Oscar did, but this presents its own problems. Aotaki reportedly seemed to vary in shades from a deep blue to a near clear yellow-green and it weathered easily, changing its color. It’s even likely that cockpits were left in bare metal during late war production (i.e. Ki-84s) to save materials and labor. The lesson here is paint it in some reasonable greenish or bluish shade and you’ll be OK – no one can prove you wrong until a time machine is invented.
I used a 50/50 mix of Dull Cote and RAF interior green over the black washed cockpit parts for that cool shadow effect paint. I then splattered Metalizer over the seat and floorboards to represent chipped paint. Rather than use the kit decals for the instrument panels (there’s two of them), I painted them black and then dry brushed the dial details in aluminum. I then added a drop of clear to each dial. While not as good as a photo-etched part, the kit panels looked acceptable. I should have also got some PE seat belts for the bare kit seat, but I can add them later. I installed the cockpit after I glued the fuselage halves together; the fit of the cockpit bulkheads to the fuselage wasn’t great, but correcting that would require major surgery for minor results. Closed canopy time?
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| While the fuselage halves fit well, the upper right wing root had a gap that was filled with .010” styrene and filled with super glue. This was the only fit problem of consequence. |
Interestingly enough, the tail wheel insert can also be glued in after the fuselage halves are together – ask me how I know. Actually, the tail wheel insert also fits somewhat poorly, so having the fuselage halves together allows one to correctly align the insert. Just drop the insert into the tail and shake until the sucker shows up, and then grab the liquid cement... By the way, the fuselage fit was near perfect. I used gap filling CA glue on the halves, so no putty was needed.
The one-piece horizontal stabilizers were glued in – they were just a hair thicker than their fairings molded on the fuselage but a little block sanding took care of this. The lower wing section was then glued in with CA along with the upper wing halves. There was a fairly large un-Hasegawa – like gap at the upper right wing root, and it was filled with .010” sheet and putty. This turned out to be the only real fit problem on the kit, but it was significant as the joint line had to be rescribed. Reading reviews of this kit online, I found this seems to be a common problem, so no operator error here.
I should also mention the drop tanks in my example of the kit were short shot (incompletely molded); if I had actually wanted to put on tanks I probably would have had to scratch build the center sections. Again, very un-Hasegawa- like – I do not know if this is a common problem for this kit.
The molding seams on the cowl were cleaned up at this time and test fitted to the fuselage, but it and the engine would not be glued on until after the plane was painted. All seams were filed, block sanded, and then polished, as this model would have a bare metal finish. The gap filling CA glue used throughout construction did its job well, as no putty was needed outside of the right wing root.
The engine was assembled and airbrushed Testor’s gunmetal Metalizer, with the front crankcase part in steel. Ignition wires were added using craft wire – feel free to just route them anywhere they’ll go, that’s what the Japanese did on the real things. The engine was put aside for later installation.
With the main airframe assembled it was time for painting. The control surfaces on Tojos were finished in light gray, so I sprayed these with Tamiya IJA gray, along with all the seams in order to spot any gaps that may be left. This spray worked fine and looked good; within a few hours the control surfaces were masked and the gray over spray and seams were polished down in preparation for the bare metal finish. Here I tried Tamiya’s bare metal spray in their new aircraft color line – the results were fine, but the color was a bit too deep for natural aluminum alloy and there was a hint of transparency to the finish – it would be ideal for a silver dope finish rather than natural metal. On the plus side the paint was tough (didn’t rub off), and requires no prep coat like Alclad. I ended up spraying non-buffing Testor’s aluminum Metalizer here and there, which made for a nice variation in the “metal”. I was satisfied. Oh, I masked off the cockpit before I started doing all this.
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| Greg painted the wheel wells with the same yellow green contrivance that he used to paint the cockpit. The tires were brush painted with “tire black.” |
Hasegawa provides complete decals for both of the marking options, including the black antiglare panels and wing leading edge yellow ID stripes. Why anyone would use a glossy decal for an antiglare panel is beyond me, so I simply used the decals as a guide for masking off these areas and airbrushed them flat black with a hint of blue. While I was at it, I cut out the number 11 in the decal sheet and used it as a stencil for the black side numbers. Those looked good, so I masked off the yellow ID panels and sprayed them, well, yellow. It was better than using the 12 (!) decals provided in the kit for the ID markings. The wheel wells and inner doors were airbrushed the same mysterious yellow green as the cockpit.
Now for the national markings; bare metal Japanese planes typically had no white surround on the “meatballs,” so I thought I’d spray them like the rest of the markings. This turned out not to be such a hot idea, because instead of using actual masks, I sprayed through circles cut in acetate sheet. The result was slightly fuzzy himoras. At least they were in flat paint, so they looked realistic in the centers anyway. I ended up sanding the edges of the red with 4000 grit sand paper to get rid of most of the over spray (remember the tough Tamiya paint), which resulted in a nice weathering effect. In the future, I would still not use decals; I would simply get actual adhesive masks.
The only kit decals I ended up using were the tail fin flashes and the score markings. Ironically, the kit decals were excellent; they were thin, stuck well and responded to MicroSol just fine. D’oh!
The canopy frames were masked off and first sprayed Tamiya IJA gray to prevent transparency and then I used the bare metal spray. The canopy frame edges were engraved on the kit parts, making masking a breeze. I wish all makers would do this. I left the main canopy open for later detailing. Right. The front section had to be massaged just a little to fit snugly; ironically the single locating pin provided interfered with the fit. The kit landing gear and doors fit well with careful alignment, though the small outermost gear doors should be replaced with thinner plastic card. Another modification on the to-do list. By the way, I always use acrylic tire black to brush paint the tires, and so should you. Trust me on that.
The engine, exhaust, and cowl were now put on. The prop was assembled and airbrushed in a mix of black, rust and a touch of silver to represent the reddish dark brown primer used on the real item. The instructions list this color as “propeller color;” thanks for the information, Hasegawa.
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| Although the Ki-44-II Hei was not rated for high altitude, Capt. Yoshio Yoshida became an ace, shooting down six B-29s, while with the 70th Hiko Sentai of the 3rd Chutai. Greg’s markings represent Capt. Yoshio’s aircraft. |
An item I wish was on the decal sheet is the prop tip yellow stripes, weren’t there, so I cut a yellow ID panel decal into a thin strip and used that. Final items included the cannon barrels and pitot tube, a stretched sprue antenna and painting the navigation lights (remember – a commie RED is always on the LEFT). One part left – the landing light lens. This part didn’t fit well at all, and it looked bad. I made a lamp lens with a drop of white glue in the landing light recess and then used a piece of clear tape over the wing edge to represent the cover, trimming away the excess. This worked surprisingly well, though I just may be impressing myself. Final weathering (exhaust and cannon stains) was added using highly thinned Dull Cote with a bit of blackish gray enamel in it. With this mix, staining can be well controlled using an airbrush as each pass leaves only a little black color. Yes, I probably went too far on the exhaust stains, but it was fun.
Well, you may have noticed that there were a number of things wrong with this kit (and perhaps the builder), but don’t get the wrong impression – this kit builds into a fine model of the Tojo and is certainly the best 1/48 Shoki available. The critical parts like the fuselage halves and cowl fit very well, and the gap at the right wing root is easily taken care of with basic modeling skills. The smaller items, like the thick gear doors, short shot drop tanks, and horrible landing light cover, are bit more disturbing for a Hasegawa kit. The worst that can be said is that this kit isn’t the cream of the crop in terms of the newer Hasegawa offerings. I’m happy with the results, they’re not quite Ben Padaesque, but it’ll do. Now I’ll tackle that Ki-84 Frank kit.
Greg Plummer has been building plastic models on and off since 1973. His interests include most everything. He has been a member of SVSM since 1998.
