Design of the Ki-67 Hiryu "Dragon Slayer", began in late 1939 with a requirement to Mitsubishi for a fast heavy bomber. The design was approved in early 1941 and Mitsubishi was directed to start work on the prototype. This aircraft was completed in late 1942 and 17 preproduction aircraft were subsequently built. Full production bombers rolled off the assembly line in August 1944.

Due to the changed conditions of the war by that time, nearly all of them were outfitted at torpedo bombers. Unfortunately, the 'Long Lance' torpedoes were too large to fit in the bomb bay so had to be carried externally under the aircraft. Several were also upgraded with warning radars, though this did not apply to all aircraft. Other uses for the Hiryu were as mother ships for the Ohka piloted bombs.

First combat use of the aircraft was in October 1944 by the 98th Group off the coast of Taiwan. Unfortunately for the Japanese, most of their trained bomber crews has already been lost in the years before. The new, poorly trained crews that were left, were unable to effectively use this new bomber. It also didn't help that the Allies had air supremacy over the target.

Hasegawa continues its current trend in 1/72 of releasing kits of Japanese bomber aircraft. The Hiryu is the fifth of the series; the other four being the G4M2 Betty, Ki-49 Helen, G3M2 Nell, and P1Y1 Frances. It seems that they are alternating between Army and Navy bombers. With this being the case, a Ki-21 Sally shouldn't be too far behind!!

Molding is very typical of what one would expect from a new mold Hasegawa kit; it is excellent.  Also typical of Hasegawa, the six medium grey sprues are all packaged together in the same bag. The clear bits and decal sheet are in a separate bag. Rather than show you a composite of all the spures, I'm going to start putting up (where appropriate) the parts layout drawing and a representative section of the kit. As you can see, there are quite a few bits and pieces in this kit. In addition, there are those interesting little polycaps for the propeller shafts.

Just on an aside, it was Tamiya that started that trend back with their 1/48 Rex floatplane, however Hasegawa is the one that has made the most use of this feature. If you remember their Ki-84 kit, it had a ton of them!

In terms of options, there are three major ones, all confined to the bomb bay area. You can have it with doors closed. You can have it with doors open and Ta-bombs (whatever they are) installed. Or you can have it with doors off and the torpedo installed. There is also the option of having the radar antenna installed. 

Should you wish the aft fuselage guns in the extended position, you have to cut off the rear of the side clear blisters. I would think that few modelers will do that!

The cockpit section is quite detailed with full crew positions and the fuselage fuel tank. How much can be seen after construction is unknown, but that doesn't stop real modelers from detailing those areas, does it??

Decals are for three aircraft. All are painted exactly the same, with dark green over light grey. The only difference is the tail markings that are carried.

Anyway, on to the construction of the kit.

This is basically a two color paint scheme. Underside was done with Aeromaster Underside Surface Grey Green acrylic. This was sprayed on first and any masking needed was done. The upper surface is a mixture of  10% 'Propeller color' and 90% Khaki. The callouts are for Gunze paints, however, I cannot get the enamels that are called out so used Aeromaster paints. Aeromaster A/N Red Brown Primer and RLM 79 Sand Yellow Acrylics were mixed until I got a darkish brown color to match what was on the box top. It turned out to be more than 90/10, but looks good. Actually, it looks a lot like good old US Olive Drab! After the usual back and forth spraying with the required colors, the aircraft was, for all intents and purposes, painted.

Once the basic painting was done, any overspray in the bomb bay and wheelwells was touched up by brush and the landing gear was glued into place. The tailwheel support is very strong and the main gear assembly fit quite well. I was apprehensive about spreading the main gear legs apart to accept the flattened wheels, but other than a few scrapes, it wasn't a problem. The scrapes were touched up. 

Next, the engines were glued together. This is engineered quite well, with separate exhaust stacks. First the engine body had the small plastic hold down installed in the front. Then it was glued to the cowling.  The engine body has the cowl flaps in them. Next the exhaust stacks were glued to the back of this assembly, allowing the stacks to protrude from the cowl flaps. This assembly was then glued to the nacelle. A very neat procedure.

The propellers, which had already been painted, had the backing plates glued to them. Then the engine fans were glued to the backing plate. These were left until the final stage to push into place. There really is no engine detail as none can be seen due to the engine cooling fans. This arrangement is very much like that on the FW-190A series of aircraft.

The control surfaces were then highlighted with a Rapidograph pen. If you don't have one, I can highly recommend it as it is a great tool for this purpose. Next the gear doors were  glued in place and then the torpedo mounts were glued into the bomb bay. These parts fit very well and the super attachment points made it a no brainer.

When dry, the kit was sprayed with Future clear acrylic in preparation for the decals. Decals were not a real problem with this kit. The Hasegawa decals, though a bit thick, worked just fine. In most cases no setting solution was used, and on a few of them only the Microscale solvents were needed. I picked the one with the neatest looking tail markings!

Once those were dry, the kit was wiped down to get rid of decal residue, then  the main gear doors were glued in place. This left only some clear bits and a few antenna to still be attached. The kit was then oversprayed with a clear acrylic matte. Then it was on to another time-consuming project; removing the masking from the windows. It took the better part of two hours to do and some of the acrylic paint chipped during the process of removing the sticky residue left by the tape and foil. A fine brush patched those bits up with no problem.

Next the tail gun was repainted gunmetal and the upper turret pieces snapped together and snapped in place. No glue was used on any of the upper turret parts. The nose turret assembly was glued to the inside of the nose cone and that attached to the nose with non-fogging super glue. Same with the tail cone. On to the antennas. There are nine radar antennas to attach. Four on each side of the fuselage and one on the wing. Those were prepainted flat black and then installed in the holes opened for them in an earlier step. Any glitches were then touched up. 

The torpedo was glued to its harness. Then the upper navigators dome was glued in place along with the upper antenna mast. The mast was then painted to match the upper fuselage color. A pitot mast was glued to the lower nose section and painted aluminum. Finally, the wing tip lights were attached after painting the attaching areas the appropriate red or blue and the props pushed into the engines. The last painting was for the formation lights on the wings, fuselage and tail. After all that was done, pastels were used to simulate engine exhaust.

I really liked this kit. Not only because it turned out so well, but because it was well engineered. Sure, there are some problem areas to be careful of, and all that masking is quite time-consuming, but that is part of modeling. The kit looks just great when done and it is so much better than the old LS kit. Another appealing part of it is that the price is reasonable for the quality of the kit and the amount of modeling time you get for your money. While not for the tyro, I can recommend this kit to anyone who has mastered basic building skills.

Review copy courtesy of Marco Polo Importers.