From time to time things show up at the 'bargain bin' (which is tiny) at the local hobby shop. From the depths of the decal stash came this Lifelike sheet. I've not heard of this company before, though it uses/used Propagteam to do its markings so you know the quality is there.

This 2002 sheet has markings for eight aircraft of the famed 244th Sentai and I grabbed it as it had a Ki-100 in among its options. The aircraft are either in Kawasaki dark green over unpainted metal or overall unpainted metal, some with green blotching. Most have the white defense bands on the wings and fuselage, though the modeler will need to paint those on. You'll also need to paint the wing leading edge ID markings and the red tails on those that have them.  The sheet has insignia for one plane, but you can use kit markings for others if you so wish.

The sheets provide the subtype of Ki-61 (long or short nose) along with the pilot. A rather well done instruction sheet provides more aircraft information as well as where the primary reference for the scheme came from. In those cases where the information is unknown, options are provided for the modeler to make their choice.

The aircraft are listed vertically from the left and so here are the pilots:

Aircraft 1,2,5 are Kobayashi

Aircraft 3 is Itakura

Aircraft 4 is pilot unknown Shinbu-tai

Aircraft 6 and 7 are Shono

Aircraft 8 is pilot unknown Soyokaze-tai

As Kobayashi's standard plane falls into the 'done to death' category, it is nice to have options. This 1/48 sheet recommends the Otaki or Hasegawa kits, and most will choose the Hasegawa for the Otaki versions are both a bit off.

December 2008

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