This latest release from Lifelike Decals features four different Nakajima Ki-44's.  This is Part 2 of  a series dealing with the Nakajima Ki-44 from 1944 to 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 Capt. Yoshio Yoshida of the 70th Sentai 1st Chutai leader, Kashiwa AB/China in June of 1945.  This is a bare metal aircraft that has black anti-glare panels fore and aft of the cockpit and the wing leading edges are yellow with a light brownish spinner.  The is victory artwork on the side of the fuselage for 6 B-29s.

• Nakajima Ki-44 Shoki Type II Hei, flown by Warrant Officer Makoto Ogawa of 70th Sentai 1st Chutai, Kashiwa AB/China in May  - June of 1945.  This is a bare metal aircraft that has black anti-glare panels fore and aft of the cockpit and the wing leading edges are yellow with a light brownish spinner.  The is victory artwork on the side of the fuselage for 5 B-29s.  Note worthy is the fact these B-29 Victory marking decals are worn and partly peeled looking......which looks very realistic.  Warrant Officer Makoto Ogawa survived the war as an Ace.

• Nakajima Ki-44 Shoki Type II Kou, flown by Sgt. Sadao Miyazawa of 70th Sentai 3rd Chutai (?), the 246th Sentai 3rd Chutai, Kashiwa AB/China in February of 1945.  This is a bare metal aircraft that has black anti-glare panels fore and aft of the cockpit and the wing leading edges are yellow with a light brownish spinner.  The is victory artwork on the side of the fuselage for 1 F6F.  

• Nakajima Ki-44 Shoki Type II Kou?, flown by the 9th Sentai 1st Chutai, China in the 1944 - 1945.  This aircraft is overall dark green on the upper surfaces with black anti-glare panels fore and aft of the cockpit and the wing leading edges are yellow with a light brownish spinner.  The dark green paint is heavily peeled. 

Click on images below to see larger images

The decals are contained one decal sheet with 2 insert decal sheets and are of an excellent quality.  The decals themselves are clearly printed and in perfect register and are printed by Cartograf.  

Of particular interest to me were all the B-29 victory markings.  Plus the history of these aircraft and pilots is quite interesting.  One of the planes was flown by an Ace that shot down 2 B-29's with only 40 canon shells in the same mission.

This decal sheet captures some very interesting markings worn by the Nakajima Ki-44 including the dark green one with peeling paint and the white tail markings.

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