WOW476 Nakajima Ki.27 Nate #1

Description

The Japanese Army’s first generation of monoplane fighter was Nakajima’s Ki-27.  This type entered service in 1937, saw extensive service in China and continued into World War II.

The Nate possessed the extreme sort of maneuverability that would be typical even of more modern Japanese designs.  With very light wing loading the type was nearly as maneuverable as the bi-plane it replaced (Ki-10) and almost as fast as those “more modern” foreign types.  It achieved aerial superiority over China while facing mainly older western aircraft and a few newer Polikarpov I-16s. When all out war erupted between Japan and the Soviet Union in Nomonhan Mongolia during the summer of 1939, the Japanese Army again won air superiority.  Even if this war went poorly for the Japanese on the ground they dominated the air until the last few weeks when the Soviets introduced some later model I-16s with pilot armor and self sealing fuel tanks.

Most of the West drew some poor conclusions from fighting in China. The Ki-27 was generally dismissed for its obsolescence by analysts who failed to consider what the next generation of Japanese designs might bring.  When World War II did break out, the Ki-27 did indeed prove to be out of date; it generally performed poorly against Buffaloes in Singapore and Malaysia and P-40s over China and the Philippines.  But its replacement was at hand and Nakajima’s much more capable Ki-43 Oscar (along with the Japanese Navy’s A6M Zero) shredded Allied air defenses.

Our 1/30 scale model was one flown by Warrant Officer H. Shinohara, it is shown here with ten kill marks, although WO Shinohara would amass 58 kills before his death.  He had 11 kills in one day, a record not surpassed by any Japanese pilot ever before or since.