Nakajima Ki-27 Type 97 Fighter (Nate) 64th Flight Regiment

[Mike]

Nakajima Ki-27 Type 97 Fighter (Nate) 64th Flight Regiment

1:48 Hasegawa

The Nate was a pre-WWII design, and enjoyed plenty of success against the Chinese before the outbreak of hostilities with the Western powers. It was quickly outclassed by British and American designs however, and surviving airframes were relegated to trainer duties.

The kit arrives in Hasegawa's standard box, with a formal painting of the aircraft in profile, its stern looking pilot standing hand on hip in front of it. This boxing is a limited edition with a rather nicely cast resin pilot included. Four sprues of grey styrene are also enclosed, a small clear sprue, a colorful decal sheet and of course the instruction booklet.

The original moulding was made some years back, but looking at the delicately recessed panel lines and copious rivets, you could be forgiven for thinking that it was a new tool. The odd frameless sprues are the only real clue as to its age, coupled perhaps with the comparatively low part count. That said however, it is a simple single-seater aircraft, so the part count was never going to be high.

A creditable rendition of the Ha-1 radial engine is included in the parts, although there is some mould slippage evident on part 8 especially. This part is partially hidden by the cowling and what looks like an oil cooler though, so a bit of careful cleanup should be sufficient.

The cockpit builds up on a curved section that is designed to represent the wing surface, and is riveted to match. Simple front and rear frames attach, along with a multi-part seat, control column and rudder pedals. The instrument panel consists of a simple set of raised circles, but there is no decal to provide the instrument faces. It is well hidden within the cockpit however, so some generic dial decals could suffice. There is ribbing on the inside of the fuselage halves, with gaps to accommodate the various cockpit parts, but a few prominent ejector pin marks mar the surface.

The wing underside is moulded in one piece, and the upper wing halves attach to it and the fuselage drops on top. The horizontal tails are single parts, and do not suffer from any sink marks, which is good, given the detail on both sides. The spatted and fixed landing gear fits into two teardrop shaped recesses in the wing underside, so strength should be good, and two optional additional conformal "blister" type fuel tanks mount inboard.

The clear parts have a strange hazy look to them, but should clear up under a coat of Future/Klear, and there is a choice of a fully glazed unit, or a rather more claustrophobic partially glazed cockpit, which must have restricted the pilot's rear view quite significantly. A choice of headrests is also possible, and a clumsy looking gunsight completes the cockpit.

The resin figure is of high quality, with separate arms and head. Sculpting is excellent, and cleanup of the casting blocks minimal, as it appears to have been pressure injected, so the stubs are small.

The decals are bright and have good color density, and the white edge stripes appear to be in good register. My review copy seems to suffer from some strange glossy patches however, as if it has been placed in the protective plastic bag before the carrier film was properly dry. Whether this will affect their application I'm not entirely sure, so if your set is similarly affected, I'd try one of the more generic Hinomaru Sun discs before committing to the stripes or arrows.

From the sheet you can model one of the following airframes:

• Koh 64th Regiment Commander Maj. Tateo Kato, China 1942
  
• Otsu 2nd Company 64th Flight Regiment Lt Yohei Hinoki China 1941
  
• Otsu 1st Company 64th Flight Regiment S/Sgt. Shigeru Takuwa China, 1940
  

All aircraft are overall Green with bright white, yellow and red stripes and arrows, and the third option requires the modeller to remove the sliding section of the canopy, as it was flown without this installed.

Note that the painting and decaling guide for this release is on a separate sheet, so the modeller should ignore the original guide that is printed as part of the instructions.

Conclusion

A surprisingly spritely and modern looking re-release, with minimal flash and the addition of both some colourful schemes, and a high quality resin figure. Construction should be straight forward, and with careful painting and weathering, a pleasing replica should result.

Review sample courtesy of UK distributors for