Wartime Japanese color images are quite hard to find, and when you do come across some they’re usually from a poorly printed source with bad color reproduction. This image is no exception…
I tried to make some simple corrections on this one but couldn’t do much without bringing out some pretty ugly texture of the original scan source. And that would have made things twenty times more ugly… so this will have to do.
'Tis still a cool shot. Note the pair of 20mm cannon installed in a similar manner to the ‘Schräge Musik’ seen on German night fighters.
Image source/credit: Japanese Model Planes site (MSN Groups)
Original scan source: Koku Fan Vol.21 No.7 1972
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Steve,
Is that a picture of the Nakajima Gekko? Thanks for the picture.
Kurt
Awesome. Don’t see many pics like this, especially of lesser known types. Even harder to get them in color. Thanks again Steve.
BTW, 3 days to BuffCon!
D’oH!!! I forgot to tell ya’ll what this is… 'Tis a Ki-45 Toryu (Dragon Killer), Allied codename ‘Nick’.
I can hardly wait… [;)]
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Nice pic & like you say, fairly rare to see a color shot of any IJAC. But where is all of the extreme paint chipping were so used to seeing on our models ? [:D]. Wish Hasegawa or Tamiya would do a 1/48 Nick. Only one I can think of is the elderly Nichimo kit.
Regards, Rick
You tell em Wolf, I too look for good pics from the arcives. nice ill look for more from you.
salute…der Wolfen
Cool pic Steve… those 20mm are wild… how effective were they?
Y’know, I really couldn’t tell you. I dunno as much as I’d like to know about Japanese stuff.
However, I do know that the German Schräge Musik was quite effective. The upward firing guns usually had no tracer rounds loaded and most bombers had no belly turrets. There were many reports of British bombers going down or taking damage due to ‘unseen fire’ and some historians and enthusiasts, including myself, think that these upward firing guns were responsible for the reports of supposed ‘Scarecrow’ shells being used by the Germans.
These Scarecrows were said to have been special shells that the Germans developed which, upon detonation, would simulate the sudden demise of a bomber, aimed at affecting the morale of the men of Bomber Command.
I believe that Schräge Musik was one thing that the RAF was never able to fully counter. It was certainly responsible for a good number of kills and was most likely the truth behind the story of the Scarecrows. I also believe that it may have been these reports of ‘unseen fire’ that resulted in many belly turrets to be installed into those 6 Group (RCAF) Halifaxes which did not have them.
I’d say that Schräge Musik was highly effective…
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