Ki-27 Nate
Manufacturer: Hasegawa
Scale: 1/48
Accuracy: Looks good to me
Markings: Hard to say since my kit was an early '70s issue
Price: US$15.00
Review by: Andrew Abshier
I must confess that this is an aircraft I know little about. I do know that it served with the Imperial Japanese Army in Manchuria, and was superior to all other fighters until the Chinese started getting modern fighters in the late 1930s. The design pointed the way to the more famous Ki-43 Oscar, which was to become a mainstay of the IJA forces throughout World War II. Indeed, I can see hints of the Oscar in this airplane when I study it closely.
This kit was first introduced in 1972 under the Mania label. Mania was sort of the Accurate Miniatures of its day, in that they were well known for producing high-quality kits of Japanese aircraft that either had not been kitted before or had not been done well. Unfortunately, Mania was also famous for its "going out of business every other month" pattern, which most of us at the time thought was an insidious rumor until Mania actually did go out of business! Fortunately, Hasegawa bought the molds, so Mania's work is still generally available under the Hasegawa brand name.
So enough history already! How is the kit? There are just 44 parts in this model, but all but two of them are good ones. Surface detail is mostly engraved panel lines and rivets with a few raised rivets where appropriate. Fabric detail is very convincing. There was little flash in my kit, but there were a few cases of slight mold mismatching, which were easily correctable.
The single-row engine is excellent. Ignition harness, pushrods/crankcase, and the oil cooler are all seperate parts. Judicious drybrushing and washing is all that is needed to make a knockout engine! One anomaly is that no firewall is provided, so you can (theoretically) see into the cockpit from the engine area. In practice that's impossible to do unless you use a penlight and look for it!
Cockpit is good. The instrument panel had only raised bezels molded, which cried out for Reheat instruments. After all the work though, I discovered that most of the instruments were very hard to see once the panel was installed! Sidewall details are in sharp relief, and look great when painted. The seat is a bit basic but True Details seat belts put that right. Now here's the bugaboo about the cockpit, and this is where the two bad parts come up. One of Mania's anomalies was that they would provide excellent cockpit detail, then have the modeler cover it all up with a thick, one-piece canopy! The old Mania canopy moldings are still in the Hasegawa version. The fact that both early and late style canopies are provided helps a little.
Two choices are available for dealing with the canopies. The route I took was to cut the sliding section away from the canopy I planned to use, sand the edges smooth, then use the sliding section from the other canopy so that the canopy could be displayed open. Unfortunately the canopy is way too thick to "stack" it onto the rear section. If I had to do it again, I would make the other choice, which is to vacuform a new canopy. I simply left the sliding section off my model, as shown on the box art.
Assembly was pretty straightforward other than that. Parts fit is good, not great, but no putty was needed on my model. I mainly found it to be a relaxing build, which was just what I needed after taking the veterinary board exams!
I haven't gotten around to painting it yet as I write this, but I am planning to do an example from the 1938 war in Manchuria with the Soviet Union. My kit was bought secondhand, and was a mid-1970s issue, so I won't comment on the decals since I'm sure both markings choices and decal quality have changed since the '70s.
Overall this is a very fine model. Give it a new canopy and you will have a gem!