Username: Gak
First name: Nino
Category: Beginer
Scale: 1:72
Manufacturer: Hasegawa
Model Type: Nakajima Ki-43-II Hayabusa
Aircraft Assignment: Satoru Anabuki
Accessories: None
This wasn't my original idea for this group build, but since I'm facing some significant changes in my life in the near future, I'm not certain when and if I'll be able to build models again.
I found this old Hasegawa kit in my stash and decided to build it instead. The kit is really basic and I have to finish it until next week, so it probably won't be a peek of the scale modelling, however it will enable me to participate in this GB and build one more model...
Satoru Anabuki (1921-2005, sometimes Satoshi) from wikipedia
was, depending on the source, the second or third highest flying ace of the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force in World War II, with 39 victories (51 claimed). Strangely enough there are 53 claimed victories to be found in his autobiography "Soku no Kawa", where his first triple kill (nos. 10-12) was mis-counted as just one (next kill was noted as no. 11).
Early life
Born into a farming family, he entered the Tokyo Army Aviation School in April 1938. He was assigned to the 3rd Chutai of the 50th Sentai, stationed on Formosa in 1941.
Imperial Japanese Army Air Force career
With the outbreak of the Pacific War, he fought in the conquest of the Philippines, where he claimed his first victory, a Curtiss P-40, on December 22, 1941. On February 9, 1942, he shot down two more. Soon after, his unit returned to Japan to exchange their Nakajima Ki-27 "Nates" for more advanced Ki-43 "Hayabusa" (allied code name "Oscar"). The 50th Sentai was then sent to Burma in June 1942. On 24 January 1943 he shot down his first heavily-armed B-24 bomber. He claimed to have shot down three B-24s and one P-38 fighter escort in a single engagement on 8 October 1943, but this has been disputed.
In 1944, he was reassigned back in Japan to be a flight instructor at the Akeno Army Flying School. He flew in the defense of the home islands and survived the war. When the Japan Self-Defense Forces were formed in the early 1950s, he enlisted and flew a helicopter for many years before retiring.