Nakajima Ki-43-III Ko Hayabusa “Ultimate Oscar”

Special Hobby, 1/72 scale

Reviewed by David Couche

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The Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa ("Peregrine Falcon", "Army Type 1 Fighter) was a single-engine land-based tactical fighter used by the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force in World War II.

The Allied reporting name was "Oscar", but it was often called the "Army Zero" by American pilots because it bore a certain resemblance to the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, the Imperial Japanese Navy's counterpart to the Ki-43. Both aircraft had generally similar layout and lines, and also used essentially the same Nakajima Sakae radial engine, with similar round cowlings and bubble-type canopies (the Oscar's being distinctly smaller and having much less framing than the A6M). While relatively easy for a trained eye to tell apart with the "finer" lines of the Ki-43's fuselage — especially towards the tail — and more tapered wing planform; in the heat of battle, given the brief glimpses and distraction of combat, Allied aviators frequently made mistakes in enemy aircraft identification in the heat of a dogfight, reportedly having fought "Zeros" in areas where there were no Navy fighters.

Like the Mitsubishi-produced A6M Zero, the radial-engined Ki-43 was light and easy to fly and became legendary for its combat performance in East Asia in the early years of the war. It could outmanoeuvre any opponent, but did not have armour or self-sealing tanks, and its armament was poor until its final version, which was produced as late as 1945. Allied pilots often reported that the nimble Ki-43s were difficult targets but burned easily or broke apart with few hits. In spite of its drawbacks, the Ki-43 shot down more Allied aircraft than any other Japanese fighter and almost all the JAAF's aces achieved most of their kills in it.

Total production amounted to 5,919 aircraft. Many of these were used during the last months of the war for kamikaze missions against the American fleet.

The Special Hobby kit brings the re-issued kit from 2010.

Opening the top opening box you will find 3 grey injection moulded styrene sprues accompanied by one with clear parts. The moulding detail itself is quite crisp with recessed panel lines and raised details as required. There is some flash exhibited and will need cleaning up before continuing to build. Mould marks are not too pronounced, which for a limited run kit is quite reasonable.

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The kit doesn’t have a huge parts count and will assemble quite quickly once the cockpit are is completed. As with all limited run kits, care and patience must be used to ensure a good fit before gluing. The sprue gates are also quite restrained and should not offer too much of a clean up problem.

And now, onto a more detailed look at the sprues.

Sprue A

This sprue has the majority of the parts of the kit on it, with a count of 41 parts of which 5 are not used with this version. Here we have the wing sections, a one piece lower wing and 2 separate upper sections.

On this sprue also are the tail planes, engine, prop, cockpit sections and all of the undercarriage parts.

The panel lines are recessed with restrained depth but lovely detail.

Sprue C

With a massive part count of 2, Sprue C delivers us the 2 fuselage halves.

Detail on the parts is a mix of recessed and raised as needed.

Sprue E

This sprue has the engine cowls and front ring for the larger engine version of the III version.

Again detail is good but the parts need the flash to be cleaned up, especially around the exhaust outlets.

Sprue CP

Sprue CP is the clear parts, which is the 2 canopy parts and the wing light cover.

Parts are clear and well moulded.

Instructions & Markings

The instruction booklet is a glossy booklet of 8, just under, A4 sized pages with B&W and colour diagrams that clearly illustrate the build sequence. The A6 sized decal sheets is crisply printed by Aviprint and appears to be in good register.

Markings are provided for three airframes:

1. Nakajima Ki-43-III Ko , 64 Sentai, Burma, 1944

2. Nakajima Ki-43-III Ko, 48 Sentai, Nanking, China, August 1945

3. Nakajima Ki-43-III Ko, 65 Sentai, Metabaru AB, Kyushu, Japan, August 1945

This kit certainly looks as if it will build quickly into a neat model with a little TLC by the average modeller. A must for those interested the Japanese WWII aircraft. This kit certainly looks the quality to recommend to my fellow modellers

Thanks to Special Hobby for the review sample.

Review Text & Images Copyright © 2019 by David Couche
Page Created 23 April, 2019
Last updated 23 April, 2019

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