Mitsubishi Ki46-II, Dokuritsu 18 Hiko Chutai, 1/72
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A different Flying Tiger over China…
The Imperial Japanese Army's Dokuritsu 18 Hiko Chutai was an Independent Reconnaissance unit stationed in China to provide tactical and strategic intelligence support to the ongoing Japanese occupation and campaign of expansion. All of the unit's Mitsubishi Ki-46 aircraft were emblazoned with a tiger on the tail, each individually hand painted.
The Ki-46, known to the allies as the "Dinah", came of a prewar design competition to create a reconnaissance aircraft faster than any fighter then flying. A small highly streamlined airframe and two large radial engines were used to achieve that goal. The Ki-46-II, as modeled here, used two of the same engines from a Zero, but fitted with superchargers. Even late in the war it was a very hard target for the best allied interceptors.
My model is Hasegawa's 1/72 scale Ki-46 which can be built as a -II or -III variant. It was built out of the box with the addition of Eduard Seatbelts. I disagreed a bit with the instructions for the paint job, opting for the three-color camouflage pattern that was unique to Japanese Army units in China. The scant, and admittedly low quality, surviving photos of these aircraft in this theatre leave room for interpretation in any case.
