Though looking a bit out of date when the Pacific War began, the Ki-27 was the IJAAF's front line fighter and had quite a war record already behind it from conflicts in China and Manchuria.

The eleventh edition of Kagero's excellent Monograph series has chosen an aircraft that has been long awaited by this reviewer. The Ki-27, which many consider the 'brother in arms' to Mitsubishi's A5M Claude, had not been properly documented over the decades. That has now come to an end. With this book, we now have a full development and combat history of what the Allies named 'Nate'.

This is the aircraft that fought the famed Flying Tigers in China and Burma. It also bore the brunt of the combat against the British in the battles of the early war in Malaya. Anywhere that the Japanese Army was engaged in southeast Asia, you could find the Ki-27.

Developed to replace the biplane Ki-10, the Ki-27 had to have the maneuverability that was demanded by Japanese pilots. That basically meant that, like other Japanese planes of the period, it had no fuel or pilot armor protection. It was also lightly gunned with two rifle caibre machine guns. These traits were carried on to its successor, the Ki-43, much to the detriment of their pilots. Yet, in the early war, it was enough.

Once pulled from service in the combat zone, the Ki-27 soldiered on in homeland defense squadrons and in areas where there wasn't much combat, such as in Formosa or Manchuria. It was also used as an advanced fighter trainer and many completed their existence as 'special attack' aircraft in the end of the war.

The book also covers the Manshu Ki-79, an aircraft developed from the Ki-27 as a trainer. It used the base airframe of the Ki-27, but used a lower power engine and had but one gun. Built in both single and two seat versions, even the Ki-79 was called into combat in desperate situations.

As is the norm with books in this series, the Ki-27 book is dual Polish/English language and complete with excellent drawings and three views in both 1/72 and 1/48 scale. There are numerous pages of profiles that cover just about every unit with which the Ki-27 flew. Add to this the excellent Techmod decal sheet that are part of this series and you can see how valuable this book is to the modeler.

Overall, this is yet another outstanding book from the folks at Kagero and one that you really must have in your library. Most highly recommended.

You can find this book and many others at

If you would like your product reviewed fairly and quickly by a site that has nearly 300,000 visitors a month, please contact me or see other details in the Note to Contributors.