Tamiya 89775 Japanese Army Type 1 - Self-Propelled Gun and Crew Set

The Type 1 Ho-Ni was a Japanese self-propelled gun from the Second World War. The first prototypes were built in the early 1940s, and serial production continued in 1942-1945. In total, about 150-200 copies of this vehicle of all versions were built. The Type 1 Ho-Ni was powered by a motor Mitsubishi with 170 HP. The armament of the vehicle - in its basic version - was a single 75 mm Type 90 field gun in the turret.

Work on the development of the first self-propelled gun in the history of Japan began in the late 1930s, but only gained momentum in 1940 - perhaps due to the considerable successes achieved by the German StuG III during the campaign in France that year. When creating their own self-propelled gun, Japanese designers decided to rely on the proven design of the tank The Type 97 Chi-Ha and the already used Type 90 field gun. The armor was also relatively thick, reaching 51 mm at the front of the hull. During series production, three development versions of the Type 1 Ho-Ni vehicle were created. The first was the version designated as Type 1 Ho-Ni. Later, the Type 1 Ho-Ni II version was developed, armed with a 105mm howitzer. The third and final development version was the Type 1 Ho-Ni III, armed with a 75mm anti-tank gun and actually a tank destroyer. The Type 1 Ho-Ni vehicles of various versions were used in combat mainly in the period 1944-1945, especially during the fighting in the Philippines and Burma.