Special Attackers

Empire City Decals, 1/72 scale

Reviewed by Rodger Kelly

HyperScale is proudly sponsored by Squadron.com

Special Attackers is the latest release from Empire City Decals the New York City, USA based company.  This new release keeps with their policy (or is that passion?) for producing decals for other than Mustangs and Messerschmitts. 

This time we are taken on a journey back to 1945 and the final bitter days of the ‘Kamikaze’ or ‘Divine Wind’ tactics of the Pacific War.  Whatever you call it, it involved the self-sacrifice of willing pilots of the Japanese military diving their bomb-laden aircraft onto decks of the ships of the U.S. and British Pacific Fleets in the desperate final defence of their home islands. 

EC7206 provides markings for four of these aircraft: 

• Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate (Frank) of the 195^th Shinbu-Tai based at Kita Ise, in the spring of 1945.  The placement guide advises that machine is finished in green upper surfaces over light grey undersides and offers FS30118 as an approximate match for the green and FS36424 as an approximate match for the light grey.  The machine wears an appropriate tail marking of the ‘Momotaro’ (Peach Boy) Japanese folk hero who saved the Japanese homeland from raiding mythological demons.

• Ki-61 Tei (Tony) of the 56th Shinbu-Tai based at Chiran Air Base in the April of 1945.  This option is in overall natural metal finish with green “palm” camouflage.  Machine was piloted by Second Lieutenant Ryoji Uehara and was on of nine aircraft that were sent to attack the U.S. fleet anchored off the island of Okinawa in April/May of 1945.  The placement guide advises FS34096 to be an approximate match for the green of the “palm” disruptive pattern camouflage.

• Tachikawa Ki-9 (Spruce) of the 21^st Hikoshidan Shireibu Hikodan at Kuamoto, Kyushu in the autumn of 1945.  The machine is dark green upper surfaces over trainer orange undersides.  The placement guide advises that dark green is approximately FS34096 and the orange to be an approximate match to FS33538.

• Ki-46-III (Dinah) of the 17th Dokurito Chutai flown by a pilot named as ‘Tsukba’ in the summer of 1945.  The aircraft is in camouflage finish of brown upper surfaces (approximately FS30140) over light grey undersides (approximately FS36424).  The placement guide advises that this aircraft was probably detached from this independent unit as a special attacker.

Apart from the individual markings, the sheet includes enough hinomaru to produce every option as well as two complete sets of numbers from 0 to 9 in the unique font seen on Japanese WWII aircraft.   The decals themselves are silk screen printed and produced by the Czech Republic based company AviPrint.  They are thin, sharp and in perfect register.  The colours on the image of the decal sheet may look a little dark, they are not.  I have deliberately darkened the image so that the white ones are visible.  A word about AviPrint decals here.  My experience with them is that they are beautiful and shrink down over surface detail without any problems at all but they are thin and easily torn if you don’t treat them with care.  Ensure you use plenty of water to float them into position and you won’t have a problem. 

The suggested kits are the Hasegawa for the Ki-84, the Fine Molds Ki-61, the Choroszy Modelbud (a resin kit) for the Ki-9 and the Hasegawa one for the Ki-46. 

Support information/placement guide is via two thin cardboard cards (great stuff as it keeps the decal sheet from bending and creasing in the post) that carry left hand side colour profiles for each option printed along with individual notes for each aircraft on one with the other carrying a list of references and suggested kits and a short discourse on the misconceptions of the camouflage colours worn by the aircraft of the Japanese air arms in WWII. 

The decal sheet, placement/information support guides come packed in a clear plastic zip-loc bag. 

This is an excellent sheet from Empire City Decals, it provides markings for four unique machines that have not been previously available in decal format before. 

The sheet is also available in 1/48 scale as ECD48-06. 

Recommended. 

Postscript 

If you are new to the world of WWII Japanese aviation and want learn what Shinbu-Tai and Hikoshidan Shireibu Hikodan mean as well as advice on the camouflage and colours worn their aircraft, take a trip to j-aircraft.com at www.j-aircraft.com

Thanks to Empire City Decals for the review samples

Empire City Decals are available online from their website

Review Copyright © 2007 by Rodger Kelly
Page Created 10 October, 2007
Last updated 24 December, 2007

Back to HyperScale Main Page

Back to Reviews Page