History

This book covers the air war over Germany during the last year of World War II. With the Americans and British closing in on the Third Reich from the west, and the Soviets moving in from the east, the Germans had worked themselves into an impossible situation, and it seems that many of them were as much interested in preparing as comfortable a defeat as possible by avoiding as much contact with the Russians as they could, as they were in preserving their lives and way of life as much as possible. In no way was this truer than in the air. It had to have been obvious to nearly everyone concerned that time was running out, and that even though newer, high-tech weaponry was slowly becoming available, the end was near. The ground forces were moving relentlessly towards the German capital, and although some of the most fanatical Nazis still fought on, the majority of the German military and population was probably preparing for what was to come.

The P-51 is often viewed as the most successful aircraft designed in WWII. It was originally developed in 1940 by North American Aviation for the Royal Air Force prior to being adopted by the U.S. Army Air Force. After WWII ended, all variants of the P-51 were retired except the P-51D, which was kept in service for the Air National Guard. In 1948, with the separation of the U.S. Air Force from the U.S. Army, the designation was changed from P-51 to F-51. At the outbreak of the Korean war in 1950, most of the airfields on the Korean peninsula were ill suited for jet aircraft. So the F-51D was called back into service. This new release from Tamiya captures an F-51D from the Korean War and is their newest release of their highly regarded kit, last released in 2016.

OKB Grigorov produces resin kits and accessories. The kits are 1/700 submarines and 1/72 armor. The accessories are for 1/35 and 1/72 armor. The kits aim for great detail. This is one of those kits, and it hits the mark.

The Vehicle

The Flak Panzer IV Kugelblitz (fireball) is a Panzerwaffe ’46 model. There was an idea for a Panzer IV armed with anti-aircraft weapons, something like the Wirbelwind, but with 3cm guns instead of the Wirbelwind’s 2cm guns. The concept was for an enclosed turret, providing protection lacking in the Wirbelwind, and greater stopping power from the larger caliber guns.

The Kugelblitz never made it into production or even prototype. Nevertheless, it’s an interesting vehicle based on an interesting idea.

The Aircraft

The Ki-43 has been described as the “Army Zero”. The Hayabusa and Zero were contemporaries, and the Ki-43 was quite successful in the first part of WW2. The Allies code named the aircraft “Oscar”. But like the Zero, the Oscar had some design problems, mostly the lack of self-sealing fuel tanks, armor protection, and light armament. Nevertheless, it did well against the early Allied fighters like the Buffalo, the P-36, the P-39, and Spitfire I. Almost all of the Japanese Army aces got victories in Oscars early in their careers.

The Model

This is a Platz/Bego kit. The molding is delicate and outstanding. You get 2 kits in the box, nice extra parts, and decals for 4 Ki-43-1s. There is a nice fuel tank for beneath the fuselage, and bombs with the necessary attachments.

This is the 72^nd scale build from this box. John did the 1/144^th scale one a bit earlier.

Zoukei-Maru are known for very detailed kits with interior parts in 1/32^nd and 1/48^th but this is the first time they have delved into the smaller scales, and on this 72^nd scale kit they have decided to go for the full interior structure as well.

While I haven’t seen any of their larger kits in detail, I was a bit disappointed in the molding of this kit. There are lots of molding seams and bits of flash throughout this kit. While that isn’t a real problem, as it cleans up easily, it was just something I was not expecting.