Hi guys,
Here's a bit from a project that kept me well busy in the spring: Osprey Publications 100th Aces issue about the Nakajima Ki-44 Shoki "Tojo". For this title I did all the artwork, meaning the cover art, two pages of line drawings, 32 side view profiles and two plan view profiles. As you can imagine it was a fair bit of work, during which time I saw little of my family and my pillow...!
Let me start by showing some samples from the profile work, I hope you like them:
Firstly two Ki-44-I samples. The first is the 5th prototype as flown in combat over SE Asia 70 years ago by the 47th Independent Fighter Chutai, while the second is a movie star (
not a captured aircraft) flown by the Akeno Army Flying School.
Then two Ki-44-II Ko samples. The first a well-known machine flown by ace Wakamatsu of the 85th Sentai and the second is an extremely rare 64th Sentai machine (this unit operating Ki-43 Hayabusas almost exclusively). A photo of this interesting machine appears in the book!
Two Ki-44-II Otsu samples. These are some of my favourites: firstly a broom(!)-painted 87th Sentai machine as seen in a propaganda film, during the unit's brief and disastrous detachment to Burma. Note the 40mm cannon fairings, even though the cannon themselves have been removed. The second is a very clean and shiny 70th Sentai machine as operated during a sudden deployment to Anshan, Manchuria (from Japan) to battle B-29s. The machine is still carrying its home defence markings. Although many Otsu's are often described as having their "wing armament removed", this is actually a bug-standard II Otsu model (c/n 1420). The II Otsu was delivered without wing armament by default. The 40mm cannon was an optional installation.
Two Ki-44-II Hei samples. Two more rarities: firstly a 50th Sentai example, based on the only known photo of such a machine; a crashed example captured in Burma. The second shows a 29th Sentai aircraft which is rare for displaying the swoosh-arrow symbol of this unit, normally seen on Ki-84 Hayates. Again only one photo confirms its existence. Both these photos can be found in the Osprey book.
Here's a simple composition of side, top and bottom views of a II Hei of the 47th Sentai (this unit being derived from the 47th IFC as mentioned with the first profile), plus a snippet of the line drawings I made:
Lastly a number of close-ups at full resolution:
The profiles are what I call 2.5D. Basically I rendered out metal and grey sideviews of the 3D model I constructed, then applied all colours and markings in Photoshop. The planviews are practically 3D-rendered though.
Credits for the research and colours should go to Nick Millman, author of this title. Nick has been researching Japanese aircraft for over four decades, but this Osprey title was his first book. Basically I fancied doing a Ki-44, tried to land an illustration job with Osprey and figured it was about time Nick wrote a book. So I hooked things up and the result can be found on places like
Amazon!
Of course I am biased, but I reckon Nick did an awesome job on this book and I highly recommend it if you have the slightest interest in Japanese aircraft or the Pacific theatre air war.
O last but not least, the cover image of the book is available on my web store. I also intend to make the profiles available as such, but I first have to make one of them funky presentations are you guys are good at. A sideview on a white sheet being a bit bland perhaps.
If you got this far reading it all, I hope it was of interest!
Linear Mode
