Introduction

The following introduction is as supplied by ICM:

The aviation of Imperial Japan during World War II was organizationally part of the ground forces and navy. In 1940, the army’s aviation units numbered 36 fighter, 50 bomber, and 29 reconnaissance squadrons, and their personnel numbered 33,000 officers and lower ranks. The function of army aviation included providing support for ground units and combating enemy aircraft. Structurally, it consisted of five air armies, each with a specific combat area. For better coordination between the Army and Air Force, at each of the theatres of operations, the air units were subordinated to the respective ground command. The uniform of Japanese Air Force personnel mirrored that of the army, with certain elements of clothing in blue. The special flight uniforms for Japanese pilots were divided into summer and winter attire, with military rank insignias worn on the sleeves or chest.

Review

This offering from ICM arrives in a cardboard tray with flip top lid and additional card lift provides the artwork for the release. I wish all companies would supply their products in this manner as it greatly reduces the risk of damage and make them easy to stack in the stash. A single sprue is packed inside a plastic bag and the instructions are on a single folded sheet. An examination of the mouldings does not reveal any issues related to moulding. I do feel the gates between the sprue and parts are a little larger than I would have liked to see but they are not excessively large.

This offering from ICM provides three aircrew and two ground crewman. 1/48th scale figures is an area of the hobby where ICM excel as regards detail for injection moulded figures and this offering is as good as any. The aircrew are wearing cotton heated flying outfit as used in winter flying. The details of this outfit looks pretty spot on to me. The four point harness detail also gets a thumbs up both in how it looks and its position on the figures. Head, hand and footwear also look accurate for a winter uniform set up. Two of the aircrew have swords with them that I believe was restricted to officers and a parachute is provided/ but the centre cover seems to be out of shape according to my reference, but this may depend on when during the war as the patterns do seem to change. The result of this is that I cannot critique them in any way.

The ground crew in this offering also look good in most respects. The uniform is army issue green and consists of a one piece coverall worn with a belt. Head wear is army uniform of the period and is correct. The only part I question is the boots they are wearing as shoes and puttees seems to be the order of the day. So other than my questioning of the boots everything looks accurate from my limited knowledge. 

Conclusion

This offering from ICM looks to be an especially accurate offering with me only questioning ground crew wearing boots. Moulded detail is very nice for this scale as even the faces are well detailed. I would like to see ICM include decals for their figure releases but that is a wish rather than a fault. I feel aircraft modellers will be very happy to man their 1/48th scale models with these figures.