1/48 Kawasaki KI-45 Kai Tei Toryu Dragon Slayer

by Robert Lenior

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Model built by Robert Lenior - The Warbird Factory - http://warbirds.tayoko.net

As I was requested to build this kit for a review for the Dutch IPMS magazine, I built it straight out of the box. I only added some antenna wire and hydraulic lines to it on the landing gear and in the wheel bay. Weathering has been applied with umber (cockpit), oil paint (engine) and pastels (outside).

This kit has recently been issued and has an improved tooling comparing to the special edition with the Isuzu fuel truck issued earlier in 2008. This twin-engined fighter was called 'Toryu' which means 'Dragon Slayer'. The allied code name was 'Nick'. Development started in 1937 under the identification KI-38 with underpowered 820HP radial engines. These were replaced with 1000HP engines, resulting in a, for it's time, impressive fighter. It could be compared to the German BF-110 or the DH-98 Mosquito. Armed with a 37mm cannon, two oblique/upward firing 20mm cannons and often a 7.92mm gun, it was well prepared for it's task: to kill dragons. These dragons turned out to be B-29s (Superfortress) and B-24s (Liberator). The KI-45 was a night fighter without a radar as the Japanese did not succeed in mounting a working and operational radar in a Toryu (our luck). Not seldom Japanese homeland defenders even used the Toryu to ram the enemy planes, waging their own lives.

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I decided to paint my Toryu in the, with the kit furnished, paint scheme, however if you would like to build the well known smaller pattern you can use an airbrush template as I show in picure 19. I would like to thank the Hasegawa importer in The Netherlands for the model and Airbrush Services Almere for the paints and masks used on this model.

Below are some extra pics. At my web site (http://warbirds.tayoko.net) there are some more photos of this and many other models.  

Robert Lenior

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Photos and text © by Robert Lenior