High Flying Hickory

Harvey Low builds a 1/72 trainer kit with attitude.

- Harvey Low

Tachikawa Ki-54 Hei/‘Hickory’

Kit No: SH72270

Scale: 1/72

Type: Injection Moulded Plastic

Manufacturer: Special Hobby www.specialhobby.eu

Japanese World War II aficionados, or anyone interested in obscure aircraft, will love this new release of the Tachikawa Ki-54 in 1/72 scale. Code-named ‘Hickory’ by the Allies, the Ki54 was an army training and liaison aircraft that entered service in 1941 as the Army Type 1 Advanced Trainer. Similar in size to a Lockheed 10 Electra or Avro Anson, it was powered by two nine-cylinder Hitachi Ha-13 engines (which also powered the Ki-9 Spruce and Ki-79 Manshu). It was considered the most advanced trainer in the Army Airforce and is, in my opinion, a very attractive bird. Although it saw much use during the war, little is known about this aircraft even though there are three surviving examples; the most recent one being one recovered from a freshwater lake in Japan in 2012.

There were four main variants: the Ki-54a koh – an unarmed trainer for pilots, navigators and bombardiers; the Ki-54b otsu – an armed trainer with two dome turrets for 7.7mm guns and, on some aircraft, a long canopy for the instructor to move between the domes; the Ki-54c hei – the unarmed eight-passenger transport/communications version (which this kit portrays); and the Ki-54d tei – a maritime reconnaissance version with anti-submarine weapons and depth charges, for which no references or photos exist that I know of.