Customer Reviews

Nakajima Ki-44 Shoki in Japanese Army Air Force Service (Schiffer military/aviation history)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Up till the date I bought this book (way back in 1978) I only knew about this plane because I had built a 1:72 model of it from Tamiya, if my memory serves me right. This book provided me with some background and development history, but above all it shows what a remarkable variety of painting schemes were used by the Japanse Army Air Force in their different theatres of operation. Though the quality of the -many- photographs leaves something to be desired at times, they are the real thing, and Mr. Bueschel must have gone through many lengths in acquiring them from their Japanese sources.
The original Osprey book was published in the early 1970's and the value and demand was apparently such that Schiffer books has republised it, and they claim theirs is the revised and updated version of this book, one of the all-time Osprey classics about Japanese aviation.

Richard Bueschell wrote several books for Schiffer Publishing co on Japanese Fighters in WW2 and this is one example of them. I bought this since there is so little else out there that I am aware of anyway.

10 pages of narrative - not a lot of history there. A lot of B&W photos showing the "Tojo" (As US pilots called this plane) in different theaters, many of the photos are grainy (poor cameras). 2 pages of data. No line drawings that show different versions or development of the plane. No color plates to illustrate the various camoflague schemes used - this is very disappointing, as the Japanese used many schemes/colors that were different than Allied planes. There is a page in B&W with grayed areas to show what colors you would use if building a model, but I think in a book this price they should provide color.

All in all, it gets a nod since there is no other competition. It helps clarify some things about this Japanese Army plane. Not a lot of them were built, just under 1500 of them were built (vs 15,000 of the Mustang). Some versions were used against the B-29 bomber with limited success. If there were a "Tojo In Action" book, I would recommend that over this book.