Too Little, Too Late

Armoured warfare wasn’t a staple of the Japanese army’s doctrine in WWII, at least not the way it was for the European combattants. As a result, most Japanese tanks were smaller and lighter, counting as medium tanks. Mounting smaller guns and less armour than Shermans and other US vehicles, the Japanese tanks weren’t going to be able to stop an armoured invasion of mainland Japan.

To help with this, the Japanese developed several tank destroyers, the most numerous being based on the Type 97 (Chi-Ha) chassis, mounting much larger guns than the tanks they were based on. The first of this family was the Ho-Ni Type 1, which was deployed in small numbers late in the war, although most were held back pending the Allied invasion. A fairly early kit of this esoteric vehicle is the Fujimi 1/76 Ho-Ni Type 1, and you can check it out on the Out of Box page.

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Tags: 1/76, 1/76 Armour, 1/76 Fujimi, Fujimi, Ho-Ni, Ho-Ni Type 1, small-scale armour, tank destroyer