Kotobuki Air Squadron, take off! I played with "EF Toys 1/100 Kotobuki Air Squadron in the Wilderness - Mini Action Hayabusa Type 1"! ICHIOSHISHISHISHA, the first installment of the "Shokugan Road" series! Shokugan Road Vol.2

Hello everyone! This is Kariyasu☆, a hobby writer. In this corner, I will be reviewing, modifying, and playing around with Shokugan kits that interest me, under the theme of "Shokugan for adults. In this second installment, we will be looking at the "1/100 Kotobuki Flying Squadron in the Wilderness Mini Action Hayabusa Type 1" from EFTIDS. Now, it's time to put your own stamp on the model!

Kotobuki Flying Squadron in the Wilderness" (Kotobuki) is a TV animation series that aired from January to March of this year, in which beautiful girls (and a little bit of old men) fight fierce battles in the wilderness world of "Ijitsu" flying fighter and bomber planes of the former Japanese army. Currently, its extra episode, "Harukaze Flying Squadron in the Great Sky," is being shown on YouTube, and the smartphone game "Kotobuki Flying Squadron in the Wilderness: Takeoff Girls in the Great Sky! has become a hot topic. It will be interesting to see the media mix and product development of "Kotobuki" in the future!

Kotobuki Flying Squadron, all aircraft assembled! Aircraft of Zara, Kate, and Chika from the upper left, and Leona, Emma, and Kirie from the lower left. They are unmodified, just assembled straight and decals applied.

The contents are random, and the kit is pre-painted, including camouflage parts. Assembly is not difficult, but the allied identification belt and personal markings need to be reproduced by applying decals yourself, so be careful if this is your first time building a Shokugan or if you are not familiar with military models. The key points are to "apply the decals while carefully following the illustrations in the instruction manual" and to "use a mark setter or mark softener to adhere the decals firmly. Unlike stickers, decals are difficult to handle, but once you get used to them, they are a lot of fun to apply!

Although this kit is only 1/100 scale, the beautiful style of the Hayabusa has been well reproduced, and the engine section has also been realistically reproduced. The main landing gear, canopy and propeller are movable, allowing for a wide range of display options. A display stand is also included, allowing you to recreate the flying state.

De-beginner! Let's try smudging and mirroring to make it look cool!

Now, let's try some modifications. First of all, let's add some smudging. The camouflage on the top of the fuselage makes it hard to see, so let's take a look at the back side of the fuselage. The left half of the photo is as it is, and the right half shows the smudged surface, the tank (drop tank) painted in yellow, and the main landing gear compartment painted in blue bamboo color (metallic blue). As I thought, just smudging the paint will improve the atmosphere of the model. The tanks were painted yellow because they looked almost cream-colored, and the main landing gear compartment was painted aoitake (blue bamboo) in the movie.

The technique is to dilute enamel paints with a special solvent and pour it into the concave parts of the model to darken them and give them a three-dimensional effect. Once you experience the sensation of the paint flowing smoothly through the capillary action, it is inevitable that you will become addicted to it!

I used a combination of a 100-yen cube case and a mirror base sold at a home improvement center for about 300 yen to display the model, and it gave it a high-class feel! When displaying airplane models by themselves, it is much cooler if the back side of the model is clearly visible.

For advanced users! Make it more realistic with small modifications and a mini diorama!

I modified the kit and made two types of dioramas. First, the fuselage,

I cut a transparent plastic plate with a circle cutter to reproduce the propeller in a rotating state. The afterimage of the propeller was drawn in with a brush.

Reproduced the aerial lines using metal rigging (metal wire) from Modelkasten.

The camouflage was lightly rubbed off with a sponge file to express the faded color.

Reproduced the soot from the exhaust pipe by airbrush.

I made the following modifications. The first diorama was made by applying Tamiya's texture paint (soil) to the above 100-yen base, painting with sand color using an airbrush, then dusting with AK Interactive's pigment, and scraping the whole surface with a sponge file to create a wilderness-like base. Then I placed the modified Emma plane on it. ...... Oh, it looks like that! It looks as if it is about to go into battle at any moment. I also recommend putting a blue sky sheet in the background to give it more of a diorama feel!

The second diorama is in flight. The base is made by airbrushing a mountain range made of clay to give it a three-dimensional appearance, and the diorama is completed by flying the Emma plane with its main legs retracted upwards to bring the perspective to life! By the way, how do you make the aircraft float? ......

As you can see, brass wire is painted in earth color and used as a prop. The support is not glued to the fuselage, just inserted into a hole drilled in the fuselage, so the angle can be changed and the support can be removed freely. In the photo above, the prop is hidden by the wing.

After all, airplanes are best when they are in flight! If you think so, please try your hand at dioramas. With some ingenuity, you can make a diorama that is as powerful as a large kit, even with a toy. See you next month!

Product Information
1/100 Kotobuki Air Squadron in the Wilderness - Mini Action - Hayabusa Type 1
Now on sale
Price: 800 yen (tax not included)
Type: 6 types in total
Please purchase at electronics retailers (toy section), hobby stores, model stores, specialty stores, etc. Size: Average approx. 5 cm

Contents: 1 set of aircraft + 1 instruction manual + 1 mint gum

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Kariyasu

Modeler and freelance writer born in Hiroshima Prefecture in 1990. His specialty is WWII military, and he writes irregularly for "Monthly Hobby Japan" and other magazines as a writer of model examples. In addition to hobbies, he also explores various genres such as anime, voice actors, and history. As a member of Kotobuki, he is a fan of Chika.

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