When aviation enthusiasts get together and start to talk about the Pacific war, one aircraft type that is almost never discussed is the Ki-30. This Mitsubishi light bomber was used mostly in China and against almost no opposition. Never mind that it was the JAAF's first aircraft with a twin row radial, variable-pitched prop, internal bomb bay and split flaps. It just wasn't involved in any real action. The aircraft was quite easy to fly so was much liked by those who flew it. It was equally easy to maintain, so the ground crews liked it as well. 

The Ki-30 was introduced as a replacement to the Ki-2 and Ki-3 during the mid/late 1930s. It came into service around the same time as the Ki-27 fighter, Ki-21 heavy bomber and the Ki-15 reconnaissance aircraft. In addition to being a light bomber, it was also expected to be able to perform the dive bombing function, though not with as steep a dive angle as the Ju-87 Stuka, SBD or the IJN's D3A 'Val'. 

The aircraft eventually served with six bomber Sentais and two Chutais. Over 700 of this little known aircraft were finally produced when production stopped in mid-1940. At the start of the Pacific war, there were still Ki-30s in use, some being sent to the Philippines once all air opposition had ceased. They were also used against French forces in Indochina in early 1941. By the end of 1942, all were withdrawn from combat units and used as hacks or training aircraft. There were enough still around to be used in suicide operations at war's end.

It was a Pavla kit that caused a friend to seriously consider giving up modeling. Not really a rousing endorsement, but an idea of how much of a challenge a seemingly innocuous short run kit can be. Pavla's Ki-30 is one of the newer releases and appears to be a simple enough model to build. 

All the plastic parts are on one tree and consists of nearly everything except the canopy, (which is vacuformed) and some interior bits that are on the etched brass fret. The detailing consists of very nice engraved panel lines. It is quite likely that many of them will disappear under sanding and filling as they are a bit shallow. The kit has the typical mold release pin marks in the large parts and is surprisingly free of flash and obvious sink marks. Like most short run kits, there are no alignment pins and major assemblies are butt joined. Some of the smaller parts like engine exhaust have to be made by the modeler. 

A couple of things that I'm not particularly fond of. First of all, the rear machine gun is made of three pieces of etched brass. I'd think that having it done in plastic would be more realistic. Secondly, the prop. It is made of separate blades with a separate hub. The spinner is not one that encloses the hub so you have to glue these blades to this little lump of plastic that is the hub. Not exactly something that most of us relish. I'll be looking to see if Aeroclub has something in their catalog that will work!

The instructions are quite adequate to the task, giving a five step construction sequence that is logical and easy to comprehend. All the necessary color callouts are given during construction. The colors are referenced to Humbrol and Agama colors with no FS numbers given until you get to the overall painting diagram. There are markings for three aircraft provided. One is in a very colorful scheme as is depicted on the box art. This aircraft is from the Nomohan in 1939. However, the colors of two greens and a red brown over grey are not in agreement with those given in Model Art #533 on IJAAF bombers. This publication shows the colors as being red brown, dark green and ochre over grey. My initial tendency is to believe the Model Art, but builder's choice on this. The other two schemes are in overall grey which is listed as FS 34092. Now this FS number is actually a dark green as was used for an overall color by USMC helicopters and OV-10s, so I think that is in error and it should be more likely FS 36405, which is a greenish grey. The decals are printed by Extratech, someone I have not heard of before.

Overall, it looks simple but is probably going to be a bit of a challenge to build. 

Model Art #533, Camouflage and Markings of the IJA Bombers. Except for the title, the book is entirely in Japanese.

Review kit courtesy of me and my wallet!

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