One model per (non-working) day

[scissorsandplanes]

Now, that is a strange post

[scissorsandplanes]

Not sure if this will work. it took me ages to get it designed purely by lack of inspiration.
Now I have at least to test build it before I can even release it. And I'm talking about the big one.

[Gerry1966]

It looks absolutly amazing!!!!!!

[Falco]

Big Fat Rounded Fuselage should make for a quick and easy build. +1 for my S&P Collection.

[Don Boose]

BruNo 3137: Ki-43-II Otsu 33rd Flying Regiment, 1st Chutai, Wewak, New Guinea, or Gelungang, Sumatra, mid 1944.

BruNo 3138: G4M2 Model 24 762 Naval Air Group, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, 1944.

[Rata]

Ah! So you got a shot of inspiration for "One-shot Lighter''! Good on you Bruno. And spotty Oscar looks good too mate!

[akula06]

I need to get n board the Betty bus!

[Don Boose]

The story of G4M2 62-22 turns out to be more complex than my facile identification indicated.

I have not been able to find a photograph of 62-22 in my library or online. I based my identification on a painting by an unknown artist at the Wings Palette site that identified the unit as 762 Kaigun Kōkūtai (Naval Air Group) based at Kōnoike Air Base, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, in 1994.

However, two other Wings Palette profiles identify 62-22 as assigned to 708 Hikōtai, 762 Kōkūtai and one of them, drawn by Alexander Bulakh from his “War in the Air” series, identifies 62-22 as assigned to the “708th hikotai, 762nd kokutai, Mariana Islands, Winter 1943-44.” All the Wings Palette drawings of 62-22 are athttp://wp.scn.ru/en/ww2/b/1034/65/3

A drawing by Vincent Bourguignon, also identifies 62-22 as “708th hikotai, 762nd kokutai - Mariana Islands, Winter 1943-1944.” (http://www.wardrawings.be/WW2/Files/2-Airplanes/Axis/3-Japan/04-Bombers/G4M-Betty/G4M-2(22)-Betty.htm)

All these identifications could be correct. The 762 Ku was established on 15 February 1944 at Kanoya Air Base in Japan and used the Japanese character Kagayaki (Shine), or the numbers “62” or “762” as the tail number prefix. I can’t find any documentation on its being based in the Marianas or the Philippines, but aircraft of the unit might well have been flown out to those islands to buttress the defenses in the lead up to the U.S. invasion of the Marianas, Operation A-GO, and the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944 or in the subsequent defense of the Philippines in October 1944.

A Hikōtai was the flying echelon of a Naval Air Group. On 4 March 1944, the IJN began to split off and combine the flying echelons of naval air groups to form independent “special establishment” (Tokusetsu Hikōtai). On 10 July 1944, after the disastrous losses of the Battle of the Philippine Sea, the IJN again reorganized its air forces. In that reorganization, the 708th Hikōtai (K708) was formed from the Hikōtai of 762 Ku. I do not find any documentation on K708 existing prior to that time, but in the autumn of 1944, K708 and K703 (assigned to 752 Ku) were placed under the operational control of 762 Ku in Japan to form a tactical unit called the “T-Butai” or “T-Force” with the mission of attacking U.S. carrier forces operating against the home islands. The T-Force was expended in a series of night attacks off Taiwan between 12 and 14 October 1944. K708 then conducted a number of missions against U.S. forces in the Marianas and participated in the defense of the Philippines. I do not know if it is likely that during all this shuffling of forces and long-range operations 62-22 retained its tail codes, but it is possible. If so, it could have been in the Marianas in early 1944 (while 762 Kōkūtai headquarters remained in Japan), assigned to K708 of 762 Ku in Japan and conducting missions in the Philippines between July and October 1944, and in Japan later in the year.

On 20 December 1944, K708 was transferred from 762 Ku to the newly established 721 Ku to conduct Jinrai (Divine Thunder) attacks with their G4M2Es carrying Ohka rocket-powered suicide glide bombs. To complicate matters, 721 Ku was based at Kōnoike Air Base, Ibaraki Prefecture, the same place 62-22 of 762 Ku was based, according to my original source.

I have found no information on 762 Ku operations after that time, but the unit was based in Japan and not deactivated until the end of the war.

All this is based on the late Osamu Tagaya, Mitsubishi Type 1 Rikko ‘Betty’ Units of World War 2, Oxford UK: Osprey Publishing, 2001, pages 84 and 90-94 and the Wikipedia list of IJN naval air groups available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_air_groups_of_the_Imperial_Japanese_Navy.

Don

[Rata]

Don, with the incredible (and unsustainable) losses suffered and constant re-organization by both the IJN and IJAAF towards the end of the war it's amazing you can find anything out about that period!

[scissorsandplanes]

Not sure if this can be seen as a valid reference?
Here it is shown with a grey belly. while on SAS46 it has not