1/32 Nakajima Ki-27 - 77th Sentai - Burma 1942

[Alex]

Still in the final stages of wrapping up the last project, but I can't help starting to fool around with the next one.  This will be the counterpart to my recently-finished AVG P-40B. 

 

The IJAAF 77th Hiko Sentai was created in 1938 by reorganization of the IJAAF 8th Hiko Daitai, and was initially deployed to Manchuria, and later to central China.  They were initially equipped with the preceding group's biplane fighters (Type 95), and began converting to the new monoplane Ki-27 in late 1939.  At the beginning of the Pacific War, when Japan moved to secure the "Southern Resources Area" (i.e. to conquer the Philipines, Maylaya, and the Netherlands East Indies to obtain their vital oil and rubber reserves), the 77th was redeployed first to Southeast Asia.  When it became apparent that Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand would not oppose the Japanese invasion, they moved onward to the Burma front, where British and American volunteer forces were attempting to halt the Japanese advance.  The 77th tangled with both AVG Warhawks and RAF Brewster Buffalos throughout the opening months of 1942, and while the aerial battle was by no means one-sided, with both Allied and Japanese pilots claiming multiple victories, the land war was ultimately decisively won by the IJA, forcing the AVG to retreat to bases in China, and the RAF to India.

 

This is the kit in question:

 

 

Prior to the start of the Pacific War, most IJAAF fighter aircraft were painted overall light gray.  Once the various Sentais deployed to Burma and New Guinea began to encounter significant resistance, and in particular resistance capable of mounting bombing and strafing attacks against airfields, they began applying field expedient camouflage schemes of green and brown (per box art above).  However, this change in appearance was by no means universal or immediate, and plenty of the 77th's Nates fought above Burma in their factory-spplied gray, as shown in these familiar photos of AVG pilots inspecting a downed 77th Sentai airplane:

 

 

 

 

  Because I am tired of building green and brown airplanes right now, we'll be doing this one in IJAAF gray.  Of note, the ID markings shown in the box top art are incorrect.  While the yellow horizontal bands on the vertical tail are OK (indicating 3rd Chutai), the "seagull" shapes (stylized 7's for the 77th) should always be blue.  There are again familiar photos on the internet that show this pretty well:

 

 

Of note, the painting in Thorpe's IJAAF Camouflage and Markings book shows the "seagull 7's" being red.  I'm going with the photo and making them blue.  Looking at the B&W photos of the wrecks above, it also looks very much like the rear fuselage stripes (indicated the number of the individual plane within the Chutai) were white, not yellow, so the Special Hobby box art (and decal sheet) are wrong on that front too.  This does not matter to me as I'm going to mask and paint all of the identifying marks on the plane.

[D.B. Andrus]

[dennismcc]

I've got fond memories of building this kit, if I remember correctly though the sliding part of the canopy cannot be posed open.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Alex]

4 hours ago, dennismcc said:

I've got fond memories of building this kit, if I remember correctly though the sliding part of the canopy cannot be posed open.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

That's what I read on a build thread on Britmodeler, and just confirmed while cleaning up the clear parts before Furure-ing them.  I'll just leave the sliding portion of the canopy loose so that it can be removed to look more closely at the cockpit.  Someday maybe I'll learn the art of vacuforming and be able to make my own thinner replacement parts.

 

Did you have any wing-to-fuselage fit issues?  The thread I mentioned above reported this as well.

 

Alex

[Alex]

The kit includes some resin parts for the cockpit, oil coolers, and exhausts, as well as a small photoetch sprue.  I have an Eduard photoetch set for the kit that is somewhat redundant, but that's probably OK (two chances to not screw up the seatbelts).  I also got Montex canopy masks.

 

[Alex]

Stuff I've read that's relevant to this build (and CBI theater in general).  All interesting history and the last three very useful model building references.

 

 

 

 

 

[Hartmann52]

4 hours ago, D.B. Andrus said:

+1

[dennismcc]

12 hours ago, Alex said:

That's what I read on a build thread on Britmodeler, and just confirmed while cleaning up the clear parts before Furure-ing them.  I'll just leave the sliding portion of the canopy loose so that it can be removed to look more closely at the cockpit.  Someday maybe I'll learn the art of vacuforming and be able to make my own thinner replacement parts.

 

Did you have any wing-to-fuselage fit issues?  The thread I mentioned above reported this as well.

 

Alex

Hi Alex, the thread over on Britmodeller may be mine, https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234908718-special-hobby-nakajima-ki-27-nate/

If not yes the wing to fuselage  joints were a bit dire, but that is modelling.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Alex]

59 minutes ago, dennismcc said:

Hi Alex, the thread over on Britmodeller may be mine, https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234908718-special-hobby-nakajima-ki-27-nate/

If not yes the wing to fuselage  joints were a bit dire, but that is modelling.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

Thanks!  Forewarned is forearmed.  I'm going to re-read your thread and the review on Modeling Madness https://www.modelingmadness.com/review/axis/j/jaaf/kop27.htm again carefully before starting.

Edited May 10, 2020 by Alex
addition

[Dutch Man]

Living in Thailand got me a differents focus on Air Battles. Joined a group build on Aero Scale for the CIB. First time I build a Japanese Aircraft.

good memories. Also with the same research on wings, color and those special markings that drove the western guys mad...

My build of a late war Frank.

 

All of a sudden you realize it was all very close to where you live. Visits to the landmarks however are rather disappointing in Thailand. They hardly recognize history, sad but true.

It's a period and specific war scene. Like with The Netherlands East Indies, very interesting material.

 

Following with interest.

 

Robert Jan

 

 

Edited May 10, 2020 by Dutch Man

[Alex]

That's a great looking Ki-84!  I am definitely planning on doing something like that soon - really like the eroded green paint effect.

[Alain Gadbois]

Interesting project and great research too! Looking forward to the next updates.

 

Alain

 

[Alex]

So instead of the usual "start by painting and detailing the cockpit" routine, I decided to take advantage of the build info that Dennis and others have already posted on this kit and tackle the documented engineering issues first.  I hope to get all of those sorted out or at least planned for before I begin assembling anything fancy or detailed that might then have to be altered post-hoc.  I started with the wing-to-fuselage fit issue by cleaning up and taping together the fuselage halves and the three pieces that make up the wing assembly:

 

 

Separately, both sub-assemblies fit reasonably well.  However,

 

 

And more significantly:

 

 

This is just as Dennis observed on his kit (link to Britmodeler a couple of posts back).  It actually isn't quite as bad as it looks because this was taken before I trimmed some interface edges that were causing the wings to actually sit above the wing roots on the other side.  Nevertheless, the leading part of the wing needs to be significantly deeper in section to align with the wing root as molded into the fuselage.  I'm going to completely ignore the possibility that the wing as molded is the "correct" thickness and the wing root is too tall, as I have no access to dimensional data to assess that and even if I did that would be a much harder problem to solve ;-).  So, just as Dennis showed in his build, I'm going to insert a little wedge to spread the halves of the wing apart a bit.  A quick trial suggested that just one, towards the front, may be enough to get the shape I need:

 

 

I'm going to thoroughly glue up the wings and let them dry for a day at least before trying to fine tune and glue in these posts.  Next up is the fit of the cockpit floor and rear bulkhead and the proper location of the machine guns to allow the fuselage to close easily.

[Alain Gadbois]

Great work on the fit issue. That should save you a lot of problems later on!

 

Alain

[Alex]

34 minutes ago, Alain Gadbois said:

Great work on the fit issue. That should save you a lot of problems later on!

 

Alain

Here's hoping...

 

And I should reinforce that the fix was Dennis' idea originally - I'm just copying what worked!

Edited May 10, 2020 by Alex