Ohka MXY7-K1 Trainer

Brengun, 1/72 scale

Reviewed by David Couche

Eduard's 1/72 Avia B.534 IV serie Weekend Edition is available online from Squadron.com

The Yokosuka MXY-7 Ohka (Oka, "cherry blossom"; in modern orthography) was a purpose-built, rocket-powered human-guided kamikaze attack aircraft employed by Japan against Allied ships towards the end of World War II.

The MXY-7 Navy Suicide Attacker Ohka was a manned flying bomb that was usually carried underneath a Mitsubishi G4M2e Model 24J "Betty" bomber to within range of its target. On release, the pilot would first glide towards the target and when close enough he would fire the Ohka's three solid-fuel rockets, one at a time or in unison, and fly the missile towards the ship that he intended to destroy.

The design was conceived by Ensign Mitsuo Ohta of the 405th Kokutai, aided by students of the Aeronautical Research Institute at the University of Tokyo. Ohta submitted his plans to the Yokosuka research facility.

The Imperial Japanese Navy decided the idea had merit and Yokosuka engineers of the Yokosuka Naval Air Technical Arsenal created formal blueprints for what was to be the MXY7. The only variant which saw service was the Model 11, and it was powered by three Type 4 Mark 1 Model 20 rockets. 155 Ohka Model 11s were built at Yokosuka, and another 600 were built at the Kasumigaura Naval Air Arsenal.

The Ohka K-1 was an unpowered trainer version with water ballast instead of warhead and engines and was used to provide pilots with handling experience. Unlike the combat aircraft, it was also fitted with flaps and a landing skid. The water ballast was dumped before landing but it remained a challenging aircraft to fly, with a landing speed of 130 mph (210 km/h). Forty-five were built by Dai-Ichi Kaigun Koku Gijitsusho.

Brengun have given us another interesting subject, especially for those modelling Japanese WWII aircraft. Very few of these kits have graced the shelves of model shops over the years, mainly available as expensive resin kits. Brengun have released a neat injected moulded version for the “Gentleman Scale”.

The kit has one grey sprue only with 21 parts. The parts have quite reasonable detail but, as is often found with limited run kits, has some small flash to clean up before construction. I believe, whilst simple in parts count, some careful fitting will be required in its construction. 

It also supples a small photoetch fret with 11 parts on it but only 4 are used for this version.

The clear canopy is supplied in one piece, so you'll need to conduct some surgery if you want to display the cockpit.

I found some confusion with the decal sheet. It provides a comprehensive set of decals, which appear to be in good register and not too thick….all good…but…..according to the instructions only 5 of this large selection are used. What are the other 30 or so decals meant for? No-one minds having a few left over decals to add to the spares drawer, but to supply 40 decals and only used those 5, it seems a waste and are we paying for this extra printing?

The instructions are clear and leave no doubts to the placement of all parts. There are colour call outs for interior details etc, but the list is just a list of colours, not linked to any paint manufacturer at all. I think it’s pick the nearest paint colour of your favourite brand and go from there.

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Thumbnail panels:

The schemes provided on the back of the box are;

• MXY7-K1, Yokosuka Naval Air Arsenal, September 1945 – orange-yellow/grey

• MXY7-K1, Yokosuka Naval Air Arsenal, September 1945 with tail section from another airframe – IJN Green/grey

I think Brengun have hit the mark for an interesting and not often released Japanese aircraft, if we can call and engineless version an aircraft. This little kit is just crying out for a weekend build and is easily possible if using acrylic paints to speed up the process.

I personally, with my interesting in Japanese subjects will be doing exactly that in the near future.

I would recommend this to the Japanese air modeller and to anyone wanting a quick, fairly simple build kit.

Thanks to Brengun for the review sample.

Review Text Copyright © 2018 by David Couche
Page Created 24 July, 2018
Last updated 24 July, 2018

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