My S&P Repaints

[Don Boose]

Garry and everyone – I’ve been tied up recently and haven’t been able to look into your other Ki-27s, but this set of three from the 10th Independent Flying Company (Dokuritsu Hikō Chutai – abbreviated as “Dohi 10 Chutai”) provided me with some welcome Japanese language practice today deciphering the relevant captions in Famous Airplanes of the World, No. 20, Army Type 97 Fighter.

Subject to correction by those who really read Japanese, I make the captions to read as follows:

Image 1. The caption above the side view of Tail Number 55 reads, “Ki-27a 10th Independent Flying Company, Pilot: Captain Kimura Kiyoshi, Late 1938 (Showa 13 nenmatsu). Chinese Mainland, Shanxi, Taiyuan Air Base.” The text to the left reads, “10th Independent Flying Company [abbreviated as Dohi 10 Chutai]. The aircraft’s nose is red, the tail is black (with a white border), and the aircraft number and fuselage band are both white.” The caption over the numbers reads, “The tail numbers are in a special typeface.”

Image 2 is of Aircraft Number 58. The caption reads, “Ki-27a of the 10th Independent Flying Company Aircraft Number 58. The characteristics of the aircraft of this unit were the removal of the antenna support post and the painting of the propeller blade in brown.”

Image 3 is another view of No. 58

Image 4: The caption reads, “Ki-27a Aircraft Number 76 of the 10th Independent Flying Company with main landing gear leg spats removed.” I have now learned how you say “spats” in Japanese: “supattsu.”

Don

[Rata]

Don, Don, Don. You've done it again. Your post is an absolute wealth of helpful info. The 'special typeface' tail numbers were one major obstacle. The fonts I used I had to modify yet still weren't totally happy with. Now I can proceed with the repaint proper and do everything much closer to scale.

[Rata]

Another issue I had a problem with was the fuselage band. The profile I have of '76' shows it to be wider than the bands on the other two aircraft. Do you Don think this should be the case or could it just be an erroneous artist's interpretation?

[Don Boose]

Garry -

We have the photographs of the actual aircraft and, to my eye, the white Senchi Hyōshiki (combat stripe) on 76 looks the same width as those on the other aircraft. I see that in the paintings, it is a tad larger. I don't really know what the truth is, but I think that if you make the band microscopically (at 1/100) wider on 76, no one will second guess you.

Meanwhile, another correction. I think the abbreviation for Dokuritsu Hikō Chutai is Doku Hi (not Dohi) Chutai. I can't correct my earlier post, but won't make that mistake . I can't correct my earlier post, but won't make that mistake in the future.

There were a lot of such abbreviations in military/naval/air Japanese from the wartime era. For example, "aircraft carrier-based fighter plane" (Kōkū-bokan jo Sentōki) was shortened to Kansen. And similar contractions were used for carrier dive bombers (Kanbaku), torpedo bombers [attack aircraft] (Kankō), and so on.

Lots to learn.

Don

Don

[Rata]

Indeed, lots to learn.
The profile I have also shows a black cowl front yet the photo has it clearly without. Any thoughts on that? The supattsu could have been removed at any time, but perhaps when the photo was taken the pilot had yet to be promoted and not earned his black cowl stripe!

[Rata]

I've updated the profiles. The black cowl stripe on '76' is still provisional but if not resolved the builder can choose between the black one or use the nose off '58'.

[Don Boose]

Well, so far, we have only one photographic image of 76, and it has no spats and does not appear to have a dark-colored nose.

Most of the photographs of Ki-27s in China show aircraft with spats, so you can certainly build the model with or without spats.

It is possible that the pilot of 76 was, as you say, promoted to Shotaichō (Flight Commander) and had the nose painted black (I suppose you have seen the Wings Palette illustration of 76 with a black nose and red stripe abaft the black nose) .

I'd love to know what evidence the artists used for their paintings.

It may well be that there is a photograph of 76 with spats and a black nose, or an eye-witness description.

Until or unless such evidence comes to light, I think would not criticize you (or any other modeler) who built the model with a black nose or without a black nose with or without spats.

Meanwhile, how about this photo of Tail Number 56 with a striped rain cover over the nose - no idea what color the stripes were, and the caption doesn't say. It does mention that 10 Chutai was the only unit among 97 air units in China that had all black tails with white numerals and that these markings were applied during the tenure of Captain Kimura Kiyoshi (Aircraft No 55 - red nose), who was the commander from July 1938 to May 1940. All the images I have posted come from Famous Airplanes No. 29.

Over to you, Blue Leader!

[Rata]

Copy Flight.

[Butelczynski]

What I find interesting is presence of belly gas tank.From what I gather those were not meant to be drop tanks (there was other design used for that) but details on one on Don Bose picture are very rare.Cool photo.

[Rata]

This one will be the last Ki-27 recolour. Did eight because I like the little Nate.