History

The 244^th Sentai was formed in 1942 from the 144^th Sentai with their primary mission being homeland defense. The squadron received the Ki-61 in 1943 and gained fame as an elite bomber interceptor unit. Detachments of this unit also served on Okinawa but the majority stayed in Japan for defense. A very good web site dedicated to this squadron can be found here http://www5b.biglobe.ne.jp/~s244f/ and you will need to translate it as it is in Japanese.

Lifelike decals have issued or re-issued decals for the Ki-61s of the 244^th Sentai as parts 1,2 & 3. Initially produced for the Hasegawa kit, they could also be used on the Otaki kit. Now that Tamiya has released their kit you now have one more, and a really nice one, Ki-61 kit to choose from.

Dragon has recently released five new kits, none of which have been available in plastic before, at least not in the released versions. Instead, modelers would have had to scratch build them or buy expensive resin conversion sets.

This review covers one of the kits; the 15cm s.IG.33/2 (Sf) auf Jagdpanzer 38(t) Hetzer. This Czechoslovakian 38(t)-based vehicle looks unusual, sporting the large-caliber, 150mm field howitzer used on a variety of other (mostly larger) German AFV’s. Just imagine the recoil from that gun when fired from the diminutive Hetzer!

Intended as a replacement for the Grille, only 30 were built, from December 1944. Operational history is scarce, but based on the few images available it was apparently used in combat on the Eastern front.

This is an unusual armored vehicle and promises to build into an unusual subject for German WWII armor fans.

The Aircraft

The Me-163 was the first (and only) rocket powered fighter used in combat. It was also the first aircraft to ever fly at 700 mph, in 1944. As an interceptor, the 163 was less than outstanding, with only about a dozen Allied aircraft shot down, for a loss of 9 Komets.

The rocket engine used “C-Stoff”, hydrazine hydrate and methanol and “T-Stoff”, hydrogen peroxide. These were interesting to me because they are “hypergolic”. This means that they need no ignition source. Just mix the two chemicals in the combustion chamber and they burn. This proved very interesting when there was a hard landing and fuel lines leaked. There were also incidents when a fueled Komet would blow up just sitting on the tarmac waiting for the pilot to arrive.

The Kit

This is a double kit, containing two of everything in one plastic zip lock bag. The decal sheet has enough markings for three aircraft. Only one set of instructions, but that’s enough.

The MiG-21 (NATO code name “Fishbed”) has the distinction of being the most-produced supersonic jet aircraft in history. It has served in the Air Forces of more than 60 countries around the world and continues to fly for a number of countries even today. Early versions of the MiG-21 were equipped with the SK-1 ejection seat while later versions were equipped with the KM-1 ejection seat.

One of Eduard’s newest lines of photo-etch is a series of seat belts and harnesses for a number of aircraft made out of photo-etched steel instead of brass. This set provides complete harnesses and ejection handles for two ejection seats. Based on the instructions for this set, it appears it is designed for the later KM-1 seat, so it would be appropriate for later versions of the MiG-21.

The L-29 Delfin was a jet-powered trainer airplane that was designed by the Aero Company of Czechoslovakia. An excellent kit of the Delfin has recently been released in 1/72 scale by AMK. Although this kit, in my opinion, is very good, our friends at Aires/Quickboost have found some areas where the accuracy of various parts can be improved.

This set from Quickboost provides replacement Antennas. The AMK kit provides a small “T” shaped antenna for under the left wing and a reasonable swept antenna for the top of the fuselage. The picture of my completed review model shows the kit upper fuselage antenna after painting.