This latest release from Lifelike Decals features four different Nakajima Ki-44's.  This is Part 1 of  a series dealing with the Nakajima Ki-44 from the summer of 1943 to the spring of 1945. 

The 4 aircraft include 3 in bare metal and one in a thin black/grey colour.

• Nakajima Ki-44 Shoki Type II Hei, flown by 1st Lt. Hideaki Inayama of the 87th Sentai 2nd Chutai, Palembang/Sumatra in January of 1945.  This is a black/grey aircraft that has paint that is applied very thin and you can almost see the aluminum underneath the paint.

• Nakajima Ki-44 Shoki Type II Kou, flown by Lt. Col. Yukiyoshi Wakamatsu of the 85th Sentai 2nd Chutai leader, Kwangtung AB/China in summer of 1943.

• Nakajima Ki-44 Shoki Type II Hei, flown by the 246th Sentai 3rd Chutai, Taisho AB/Osaka in 1944.

• Nakajima Ki-44 Shoki Type II Hei, flown by the 246th Sentai 2nd Chutai, Taisho AB/Osaka in the spring of 1945.

Click on images below to see larger images

The decals are contained one  one decal sheet and are of an excellent quality.  The decals themselves are clearly printed and in perfect register and are printed by Cartograf.  Some decals come in 2 layers to ensure perfect registration and also to give proper colours for the national insignia on the side of the black fuselage.  

Of particular interest to me was the colourful landing gear doors.  Plus the history of these aircraft and pilots is quite interesting.  One of the planes was flown by an Ace with 18 kills and another plane was with a group that was transferred to the Philippines in Nov 1944 and lost most of it's planes and pilots after only one month of operations.

This decal sheet captures some very interesting markings worn by the Nakajima Ki-44 including the rare black/grey aircraft and would be an excellent choice if you plan to build a Nakajima Ki-44.

You can purchase these decals either directly from Lifelike Decals at fax number is +81-3-5680-6733, and e-mail is lifelike@eos.ocn.ne.jp. or from HobbyLink Japan.    

Other shops that stock Life like Decals are *Hannants/UK, *Mister Kit/Italy, *Revi (publisher)/Czech Republic, *SkyGrid/Canada, *Roll Models/USA, *Great Models Webstore/USA, *FlightDecs/Canada, *Victory Models/USA
*M & Models/USA, *Zed Hobbies/Australia, *AB &S Enterprise/Australia, *Desert Miniature/USA