Darren Baker takes a look at a Kagero release covering Japanese Fighters of WW2.

Introduction

This release from Kagero is part of a new series of books called Camouflage and Decals. These books cover aircraft and armour at least, as I have seen both. This offering is number three in the series, and looks at Japanese fighters from World War II, and also offers you a decal sheet in the mix. 

Review

This release from Kagero is a typical A4 sized book, offering 40 pages of heavy stock, and good quality paper. The book begins with a small introduction, introducing the series from 2001. This particular introduction provided in both English and Polish, but it has no real relevance to the contents of the title. A nice inclusion at the bottom of the first page, is a colour palette, covering the IJAAF aircraft between 1941-45, and in addition to providing specific colour names and FS numbers, we are also offering paints by six different companies, and these are:

Humbrol,

Gunze Sangyo,

Pactra,

Testors,

Xtra Colour,

And Tamiya.

After that short written content, we are presented with a good number of artistic profiles of the IJAAF, during World War II. Most of the profiles show the aircraft from the left and right side, with a mixture of raised and lowered under carriage to give a slight variation, mixed in with this some of the aircraft also have colour profiles looking at the aircraft from above and below. Unfortunately, these profiles are not provided in any particular scale, which would have been a nice touch from Kagero. The profiles presented by the artists for Kagero, have provided a particularly pleasing attribute in the form of weathering. The aircraft covered have not been provided in pristine colouration, and instead the artist has added wear to the paint finish, plus dust and dirt. While many skilled painters of model kits will  not require this attribute, it does provide the modeller that would benefit from it, a constant visual guide to adding dirt to these types of aircraft. The artist/s have wavered between light and heavy weathering on the different examples and so enable the modeller to pick a finishing patination that they find particularly appealing to them.

The decals provided in this offering are in 1/48th and 1/72nd scale, they are all a mix of the red circles seen on Japanese aircraft, some with the white borders other without. The colour registration is of a particularly pleasing standard, and the decals are thin with the carrier film terminating almost on the very edge of the coloured portion of the decal. The previous example of this series that I looked at covered armoured vehicles, and I was very impressed with what it presented. I have to say that having looked through this one on Japanese fighters, I am equally suitably impressed with what is offered by Kagero, and any modeller who builds Japanese aircraft of this period should give serious consideration to having this book on their shelf. I feel that the title offers the modeller a good selection of finishing possibilities in relation to Japanese aircraft, and may just make decide on giving something a little bit of a difference in the style of the finish.

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