PAVLA 1:72 MITSUBISHI KI-30 "ANN"

Reviewer: Myself  (braithy@bigpond.com)

The Mitsubishi Ki-30 prototype, powered by 824hp Mitsubishi Ha-6 radial engine, was first flown in February 1937. It had been designed and built to meet an Imperial Japanese Army requirement for a light bomber.  The second prototype flown shortly after was powered by a better Nakajima Ha-5 KAI engine and improved performance to an extent that satisfied the army's specification and they immediately ordered 16 trials aircraft.  In March 1938 the Ki-30 was ordered into production as the Army Type 97 Light Bomber.  When used in China in 1938 and at the beginning of the Pacific war, they proved very effective when escorted by fighter aircraft.  But when they could no longer be escorted, Allied fighters began to take a heavy toll and the aircraft was relegated to second-line use.  At this point the Allies gave the aircraft the codename of "Ann".  When production ended 704 Ki-30's had been built and many ended their days in the kamikaze role in the closing stages of the Pacific War.

I know very little about this aircraft other than the above paragraph and other few words from a couple of reference sources, so I bought the kit based on the superb and colourful box-art (see image above)!  The kit comes in a medium-large blue box with the centrepiece being the attractive box art.  I must say from the outset that I have very little reference material covering the Ki-30 Ann so have had to construct the kit according to the material I do have - which was suffice.  I have often been warned away from Pavla models, whose reputation of flash encrusted sprues, challenging to fit parts and inaccurate reproductions infamously precedes them. However, in spite of all this I have decided to have a bash at the kit.  As far as I am aware of, six companies have created kits for this aircraft.  In 1/72 scale they are Pavla, Czechmasters, WK Models, Wings and Aviation Usk, while Sanger has the only kit in 1/48 scale.

As you will see from the following review, the kit builds up into a reasonable representation of the Ki-30 providing you put in a bit of work.  You will be disappointed if you are looking for a really accurate model or one which relates to the seduction of the box art  :)  !!  However, it will provide you with a big challenge and add a rare piece to your Japanese WW2 model aircraft collection.

Pavla Models are a Czech Republic company and given the reputation spiel above, you will be pleasantly surprised when you open up the box and scrutinise the parts.   The kit contains only 1 sprue of 30 unnumbered parts (see instructions below) in a heavy thick light grey injection moulded plastic.  In spite of the thickness it actually feels and handles quite nicely and there is no flash encumbering the sprues whatsoever, which is a big improvement on previous Pavla offerings.  Parts are very finely engraved with only basic detail, which is disappointing, and I would suggest you keep this mind when painting as it is easy to conceal them.  Decals are provided from Extratech, and also enclosed are photo etched and brass sets from the same company.   Finally a one-piece vacuform canopy is supplied.

The instruction sheet comes in the form of two A4 sized sheets, folded in half to make an 8-page (including covers) A5 sized booklet.  There are about half a dozen straightforward steps to complete the model with extra diagram references to assist in aligning cockpit seats, propellers, etc which is very good.  The front cover-page contains a column devoted to the history of the aircraft (a little more than what I have written above which is taken from a separate reference source) and inside the cover on page 2 are diagrams of the sprue and other parts in the kit.  This is where the parts are allocated a number for cross-referencing when making the model, and is easily followed.  Colour references are provided for Humbrol and Agama paints with approximate names given. For the exterior of the aircraft the same references are provided in addition to FS numbers.

There are a couple of prominent mistakes in the instruction booklet that need pointing out.  The keys to a couple of directions (like open hole, optional, do not cement and so forth) are obviously the wrong way around. The key says that a question mark in a box refers to "colour" whereas a letter in a pointed circle means "optional".  Given that the colour references are provided separately in pointed circles, it's quite clear that these two should be the other way around - and this is further confirmed when using common sense on reading the instructions.

Now, it's imperative that you read through all of the instructions before you commence assembly on your model purely to decide which depiction you are going to complete.  The reason for this is that an early step you simply follow may later turn out to contain an optional component.  For example, the first step instructs you to have two seats facing forward in the cockpit/rear cockpit compartment, but when you get to step 4 you will find that the rear seat can be facing fore or aft, depending on which representation (rear gun exposed or closed canopy) you wish to build, and this trap nearly got me. You will also find that the parts are easily detached from the sprue, a little too easy, and care is recommended to avoid any stubbles.  It's also suggested you use end-nippers to ensure a cleaner cut as otherwise the parts detach a little crudely.

Assembly starts with the cockpit which provides only a very basic reproduction of same.  However, one pleasing aspect is that the whole instrument panel is constructed from the brass etched set, with a photo etched console to affix behind the panel that sits nicely to show dials etc.  This gives an extra realistic dimension to an otherwise sparse interior.  Needless to say, especially for those who are inexperienced with using brass etched parts, be sure you are very careful in removing them from the film, because bending the minute brass parts is extremely easy and in no time they can be either broken or bent out of shape as to render them useless to your kit.   You will also need super-glue to attach these parts to the model.  For those who are not fans of brass etched parts, you might as well stay clear from this kit, as many construction components are only available by the brass set with no alternative plastic part, including the control panel - unless of course you have a reasonable supply of spares like myself. 

As far as the cockpit is concerned you are provided with two seats (no figures), joystick, interior wall and the control panel/console.  The seats sit far too low in the cockpit and seem out of proportion compared to the instrument panel and joystick.  As already pointed out the instructions say to face the seats forward, but this is optional depending on whether you have a closed canopy or one opened to expose the rear gun so it's up to you how this area should be constructed. 

Next you move onto affixing the cockpit interior to the inside of the fuselage, and attaching the fuselage halves, which are split vertically.  This is where your first taste of extra work is required because there are no side windows in the fuselage provided, correctly pointed out by the instruction sheet. The sheet tells you to make your own windows and gives you the dimensions on what sizes are required, it's hard to tell what unit of measurement they are using but it's not needed because outlines of the window dimensions are scribed into the fuselage sides to make it a little easier for you.  Obviously there are two ways to go about this, you can either make your own side windows by cutting out the panels and putting in your own clear plastic or paint in makeshift windows yourself.  I opted for the former as I had some spare clear parts and cut these down to size. I then inserted them into side windows I cut out with careful use of a Stanley knife and Steel Cutters adapted for modelling use, following up with a bit of filler to nullify any gaps. 

The other concern this brings is that the instructions say to put two windows on the starboard side and one on the port side, but according to the references I have (including Pavla's own box art!) the two windows belong on the port side with one on the starboard.  A further third port window, but only about half the other windows size is also required just in front of the tailplane.  You also need to make your own little aerial to sit just in front of the cockpit window as this is not supplied in the kit, and it's not the last requirement to making your own parts for the model! Thankfully, for the main aerial which sits on top of the cockpit (as commonly found with most Japanese aircraft) you are given both a brass and plastic part to affix.  For the small aerial in front of the cockpit I cut the brass part down to size and it sufficed quite nicely.

The engines are the subject of the third instruction step and further extra work is required here.  No exhaust nozzles are supplied so these need to be made yourself, and I put some stretched sprue to work here.  The propeller blades need to be attached separately onto the mini-shaft and are a source for frustration because it is not clear exactly which way the blades are required to face.  You will need to perform this task carefully and I used some fast setting super glue to make this step much easier to complete.  In fact I would suggest using this method to ensure a better result as the blades are fiddly to affix. The nose cone attaches itself to the completed propeller set and then onto the engine itself which is further affixed to the inside of the engine cowling halves. There are no slits inside the engine cowling to allow the propellor shaft to sit without being glued, so needless to say the propeller is non-movable on the finished product.  Some trimming will also be needed on the propeller shaft before affixing to the engine. Furthermore, drilling to widen the small hole in the back of the nose cone is recommended for a better fit, otherwise which requires a lot of care to put on correctly.  If you simply attach the cone and propellors to the engine without the extra work you will find that the end result extends out too much.

You then move onto attaching all the major parts to the fuselage including the engine, wings, tail fin, rear stabilisers and canopy.  All these areas require a bit of attention as they are all challenging to fit correctly in place.  The wings are two-piece mouldings and will need some clamps to fix together tightly - some wooden pegs did the trick.  When attaching these wings to the fuselage you will find a little bit of putty and sanding will be handy to get the wings positioned correctly.   Unfortunately the wings are inaccurately moulded anyway so will need to completely reinvent these if are a stickler for same. They should have a more pronounced dip with the tips extending further upward as to align roughly halfway between cockpit and wing root looking directly side-on.  If you allow a pronounced dip on the model then the wingtips do not extend in the upward fashion they are meant to, and if you extend the tips upward then there is no dip in the wing.

A small cannon is also apparent on at least the port wing in Ki-30 drawings, and while the instructions point this out (and only on the port wing), you will need to make your own cannon to attach to the wing (I used the left over brass aerial that was used in front of the cockpit and reshaped it to serve as a gun).  The tail-fin also needs work when applied to the model, while it appears to be shaped correctly it is best to have putty placed underneath so it sits in the correct position on the rear of the fuselage and runs right down to the rear point.

To have a better represenation of the engine you will need to cut the collar so it spreads itself outward and over the front of the aircraft (see box art above) before affixing to the nose of the aircraft, which is too long anyhow.  Without cutting the collar you will have a slender and long protruding nose that is terribly disproportioned.  According to the views I have been able to find of the aircraft, the nose also rounds itself downward before reaching the engine cowling, the model kit however, has the nose sloping straightly downward. Brass parts are used for antennae on the model.

At this point you also need to decide whether you will have the back of the canopy open to expose the rear gun.  If you choose to do so (which I did) you will need to cut the end frame from the vacuform canopy then glue as if it has been raised inward so the gun can extract out, there is an extra diagram showing how this should look as well as the box-cover art work.  You also need to paint the area in between pilot and rear gunner before putting the canopy on. The gun and frame are both obtained from the brass etched set, but I chose a replica plastic japanese machine-gun from my spare parts box which did the trick (and looked more accurate).  The vacuform canopy is not completely accurate either, there is only a reinforced area (where the canopy would open in real life) for the pilot, no such reinforced area for the rear gunner is provided. However, the vacuform is quite clear but needs to be cut precisely to have it sit properly and cover the cockpit area.  I had a bit of trouble here because the fuselage is not shaped correctly to accept the way the canopy is moulded, and this needed quite a bit of patience and filler to get a decent looking frame.

The final construction stage requires the affixing of the undercarriage.   After glueing the halves to each other you will find that the area between wheel and the rest of the bay is ungamely large.  To give it some solace I used some aluminium paint to make it look more realistic, having decided to go with the space, after all this is on the inside of the undercarriage struts and no reference material shows exactly how the undercarriage looks from this angle.  The struts attach to the undersides of the wing relatively easily if you sand back sprue detachment leftover, but there is no small bulging shoulder area (as seen in reference material) where strut and wing meet.  

With the assembly completed it's time to paint the camouflage scheme.   I would suggest using primer first then mixing the paints with thinner to give light coats as the very fine engraved panel lines will soon disappear under even a reasonably light coat.  The kit instructions provides colour scheme and decals for three different aircraft, one being the subject depicted on the box cover.  One thing that needs to be noted for the aircraft based at Nomonchan 1939 (box art), is the incorrect colour reference for two of the shaded areas.  It says that the lightest shaded area is FS34092 green and the darkest shaded area being FS36492 grey, in simple translation being Dark Green and Light Grey.  Other than the anomoly in the selection of shading allocation (light shade for a dark colour and vice versa - which is irrelevant anyhow), by applying their instructions you would have a brown, light green and light grey upper camouflage with dark green undersides!! Clearly by virtue of the box art (and other references) it should be the other way around; ie: brown, light green and dark green camouflage with undersides being light grey. Painted up this displays a rather attractive aircraft and is the one I chose to conclude my project.

The other two aircraft are identical save for the selection of tailfin decals to determine which regiment it belongs to.  Again there is an obvious flaw in the directed colour code in the instruction sheet.  Using the exact same shading properties as the obviously wrong "Green" in the above paragraph, this time the kit correctly refers to Grey with the light shade but still states the FS34092 colour code which of course is dark green!  Since it also refers to the same Hu196 grey code for the above box-art aircraft, it apparently should actually read FS36492.   The aircraft is light grey overall and a matching photograph from one of my reference sources (albeit being black and white) seems to concur with the instructed scheme. 

All three aircraft's decals, produced by extratech, include a white band over the rear fuselage and unit markings on the tail fin with roundels only appearing on upper and lower sides of the wings.  Giving the model a gloss cote then using Humbrol decalfix on the model in the right place, I found no problems affixing the decals as they were of high quality and with right preparatin the silvering and decal edges are almost non-existant.  There are six roundels in the kit and since they only appear on the wings in all the examples you will have two leftover.  The fuselage band was the most difficult part because it is supplied in two bits to wrap around, and clearly does not match up at either end exactly.  I moved the decals back toward the tailfin so that one overlapped the other and disappears on the finished product.  It still doesn't have a completely round wrap-over but was the best you would achieve with the supplied decals.

Overall, if you are prepared to put in some extra work and are happy to submit yourself to a challenge then you can get a reasonable representation of the Ki-30 sitting on your model shelf. However, it is not a completely accurate reproduction so if you are a stickler for this then give Pavla's offering a miss. I would only recommend the kit for experienced modellers given that you need to scratch build parts yourself and cut out other areas as highlighted in the above review. The completed model is also quite heavy in feel but at least the parts are free of flash and attach reasonably well. This kit won't put me off Pavla per se, but I would be looking elsewhere to purchase an alternative representation if I knew what I know now beforehand.

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Kit Review Index:    1/72      1/48

One of completed replications the kit makes up this example based at Nomonchan, 1939, as can be
clearly seen, this is darker in overall colour scheme than that on the boxart.  No serial numbers provided

Note also the rear cockpit with thickened frames (can just make out in this picture), the side windows,
The engine exhaust nozzle just above the intake underneath the cowling, the slanted nose, the rear wheel,
the fairings under the aircraft belly and the rear wheel profile.  None of these are included (or in case
of rear wheel: accurately portrayed) in the Pavla Kit.