Military Model Scene

Title:  TopDrawings, Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate

Author: Maciej Noszczak

Publisher:  Kagero

ISBN:  978-83-65437-74-7

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Number 52 in the TopDrawings series of books from Kagero, for the Japanese Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate.  A late war design, it first flew in 1943 and went into production in April 1944.  By the end of the war in 1945, over 3000 had been built.  It was a heavily armed fighter with 2x 12.7mm machine guns mounted in the fuselage and 2x 20mm cannon in the wings.  Later variants included a 4x 20mm cannon armament and another with one mounted at a 45degree angle behind the advert, pointing upwards.

This follows the usual pattern of Topdrawings books, with background notes in Polish and English, and then pages of 1/48 scale drawings, with some in 1/72 in the final pages, along with profiles indicating the differences in the airframes between the different versions.  On the back cover and the centre pages are colour profiles of 10 individual aircraft which will offer options that modellers will especially appreciate.  Tucked into the stapled pages are two large, fold out sheets with more scale plans, this time in both 1/32 (sheet A) and 1/48 (sheet B).  Also tucked within the pages is a set of masks for the cockpit canopy glazing for Hasegawa models in 1/72, 1/48 and 1/32 scales.

Another fine addition to the Topdrawings series from Kagero.

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Distributed by Casemate Books, who kindly provided my review copy.

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Robin