Arii 1/72 K5Y1 Willow

The K5Y1 Type 93 was the main intermediate flight trainer of the Imperial Japanese Navy during 1934 – 45. Usually painted in the Japanese trainer bright orange, it was nicknamed aka-tombo, after a red dragonfly that is common throughout Japan, though the Allies (who used tree names for all Japanese Trainers) called it a WILLOW. It was the IJN’s equivalent of the RAF’s Tiger Moth and the IJA’s Tachikawa Ki-17/CEDAR. During its career, the Willow was received only one engine upgrade. The Y2 and Y3 were floatplane versions. Towards the end of WWII, they were pressed into service with the Kamikaze Corps, with one sinking the destroyer USS Callaghan, the last ship destroyed by a suicide attack in WWII. (Side note – under the threat of a German cross-channel invasion, the British experimented with arming De Havilland Tiger Moths and Miles Magisters, with bombs, under Operation BANQUET). After the war, two were salvaged and put into service with the fledgling Indonesian Air Force, which still has one of them on display in a museum.

Scalemates says that this kit was released by LS in 1973, and was still being released by Arii in 2018. The kit comes in a standard lid-and-tray box that holds a single plastic bag containing everything bar the instructions. The instructions are on a single long sheet that shows the usual paint call-outs, parts lay-out, 4 assembly steps and the two painting-and-decaling diagrams. But there is no wiring diagram. In my example, everything is in Japanese(?), though there IS another paints grid with sub-titles in English. The 36 parts are contained on two large and two small sprues of bright orange plastic, plus the two small windshields. One part isn’t used – probably a left-over from a floatplane model. Mould-slip is evident everywhere, though the trailing edges are thin and translucent in some areas. Theoretically, the plastic is moulded in the colour of the model.

Detail is mostly raised with the fabric covering being quite subtle. Cockpit detail is limited to only two wide seats and figures. The engine cylinders are well detailed, but limited to the cooling fins and push rods. The front plate is moulded on the cylinders, though I would have liked it as a separate piece, and with the cooling apertures moulded deeper (to ease painting).

The decals provide 6 hinomarus for use on any version, and black numbers. There are also some white elements that are in an ivory shade. I don’t know how they will go over the orange plastic.

We modellers are well-served when it comes to models of the WILLOW. They are (or were) available in all of the popular scales. Colour-matching of the plastic might be a problem, but it will be necessary because (no doubt) filler will be needed somewhere – unless, of course, you palm this off to a (less-discerning) junior modeller (by saying “It won’t need (much) painting”).

The instructions and internet research.

George Oh

February 2026

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