Some background:
In order to ensure that the Royal Romanian Air Force (ARR) could continue to be supplied with aircraft in time of war, the government subsidized the creation of three major aircraft manufacturers in the 1920s and 1930s. The first was Societatea Pentru Exploatări Tehnice (SET) which was formed in Bucharest in 1923. Next came Industria Aeronautică Română (IAR) which set up shop in Brașov in 1925. Finally there was Întreprinderea de Construcții Aeronautice Românești (ICAR), which was founded in Bucharest in 1932.


1:72 Industria Aeronautică Română (IAR) 90; '120/<' of Aeronautica Regală Română (ARR, Romanian Royal Aeronautics), Grupul 6 Vânătoare; Aerodrom Tecuci (Galați County, Romania), early 1944 (What-if/modified Hasegawa kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Industria Aeronautică Română (IAR) 90; '120/<' of Aeronautica Regală Română (ARR, Romanian Royal Aeronautics), Grupul 6 Vânătoare; Aerodrom Tecuci (Galați County, Romania), early 1944 (What-if/modified Hasegawa kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Industria Aeronautică Română (IAR) 90; '120/<' of Aeronautica Regală Română (ARR, Romanian Royal Aeronautics), Grupul 6 Vânătoare; Aerodrom Tecuci (Galați County, Romania), early 1944 (What-if/modified Hasegawa kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


In 1930 the Romanian government issued specifications for a new fighter. Although the government was not anticipating bids from its own aircraft industry, IAR produced several prototypes in response to the tender. One of the designs that eventually made it into production was the IAR 80, a low-wing monoplane fighter with conventional control surface layout. Its rear fuselage layout, and the engine cowling were based on the Polish PZL P.24. A bubble canopy was fitted, sliding to the rear to open, providing excellent visibility except over the nose due to its rearward position. A conventional tailwheel landing gear was used, with the main gear wide-set and retracting inward, with a non-retractable tail skid. Power came from an IAR K14 radial engine with an output of 1.000 hp. The initial batch of fighters was well received by the Romanian pilots in 1941, but they found the aircraft underpowered and lacking firepower.

Therefore, a new fighter design was requested, which became the IAR 90. This was an independent development, and its design differed greatly from that of former Romanian fighters of the time, incorporating speed and rate-of-climb in preference to maneuverability. This was a result of a need for a heavy fighter aircraft that followed a more offensive doctrine, and the IAR 90 is therefore often classified as an Air Defense Fighter.
The IAR 90's development ran almost in parallel to its predecessor and the aircraft was originally designed around the German BMW 801 engine. This powerplant was bigger than the K14 engine and promised a power output of 1.600 hp, but Romania was neither able to acquire a license contract to build that engine on home soil nor procure engines directly from Germany. Therefore, the IAR 90 retained a relatively large bulkhead in front of the cockpit and a spacious cowling, but had to be produced with the smaller K14, too, even though with an uprated variant. However, the IAR K14 IVc32 1200A1 engine with 1,200 hp was far from what the designers had hoped for.


1:72 Industria Aeronautică Română (IAR) 90; '120/<' of Aeronautica Regală Română (ARR, Romanian Royal Aeronautics), Grupul 6 Vânătoare; Aerodrom Tecuci (Galați County, Romania), early 1944 (What-if/modified Hasegawa kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Industria Aeronautică Română (IAR) 90; '120/<' of Aeronautica Regală Română (ARR, Romanian Royal Aeronautics), Grupul 6 Vânătoare; Aerodrom Tecuci (Galați County, Romania), early 1944 (What-if/modified Hasegawa kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Industria Aeronautică Română (IAR) 90; '120/<' of Aeronautica Regală Română (ARR, Romanian Royal Aeronautics), Grupul 6 Vânătoare; Aerodrom Tecuci (Galați County, Romania), early 1944 (What-if/modified Hasegawa kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


Compared with the lighter and nimbler IAR 80, the IAR 90 had a higher landing speed and was less maneuverable. These were concerns for pilots who would compare it to the IAR 80 which were far more agile and responsive. As a result, the IAR 90 was first restricted to pilots with at least 1000 hours of flying time due to its tricky handling characteristics. However, it was later found that younger pilots who had not been instilled with the extensive aerobatic training of earlier cadres could manage the aircraft perfectly well, so the restriction was removed.

The IAR 90 was the fastest climbing Romanian fighter at the time and primarily deployed against USAAF daytime raids with B-24 and B17 bombers. While there were performance restrictions at high altitude, it was superior to the IAR 80 in that it was capable of matching Allied aircraft in climbs and dives, giving pilots more flexibility in combat and greater pilot confidence. The basic armament of initially four 13.2mm FN machine guns or two 13.2mm guns and two German 20 mm MG 151/20 cannons in the wings was quite effective, esp. in comparison with older types like the Polish PZL.7.

First deployment of the IAR 90 was in 1942. On 12 and 13 December, Grupul 6 used the type to escort its IAR 81 dive bombers to support the German counterattack by the Panzergruppe Hoth of the Heeresgruppe Don, from Kotelnikovo towards Stalingrad.


1:72 Industria Aeronautică Română (IAR) 90; '120/<' of Aeronautica Regală Română (ARR, Romanian Royal Aeronautics), Grupul 6 Vânătoare; Aerodrom Tecuci (Galați County, Romania), early 1944 (What-if/modified Hasegawa kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Industria Aeronautică Română (IAR) 90; '120/<' of Aeronautica Regală Română (ARR, Romanian Royal Aeronautics), Grupul 6 Vânătoare; Aerodrom Tecuci (Galați County, Romania), early 1944 (What-if/modified Hasegawa kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Industria Aeronautică Română (IAR) 90; '120/<' of Aeronautica Regală Română (ARR, Romanian Royal Aeronautics), Grupul 6 Vânătoare; Aerodrom Tecuci (Galați County, Romania), early 1944 (What-if/modified Hasegawa kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


In the summer of 1943, the ARR's IAR 90s were transferred to Romania for air defense duties, where they were used in combat against the United States Air Force. USAAF attacks were directed at the oil refineries installation around Ploiești, in particular. On 1 August 1943 the IAR 90 faced the Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber for the first time. There were 178 B-24s from 9th USAAF, part of Operation Tidal Wave. The IAR 90s of Escadrila 61 and 62 of Grupul 6 Vânătoare, as well as aircraft from the newly formed Escadrila 45 of Grupul 4 Vânătoare, together with the IAR 80s and Bf 109Gs from Esc. 53 and Bf 110s from the Romanian night fighter squadron, dived on the low-flying, four-engined bombers, belonging to five USAAF bomber groups (the 44th, 93rd, 98th, 376th and 389th). The Americans lost – in combat or on the way back – 51 bombers. Only 89 reached their bases, of which only 31 were serviceable for a mission the next day. The Romanian pilots claimed 25 certain and probable victories for just two losses, one IAR 80B and one Bf 110C. According to Romanian statistics, IARs and Messerschmitts were confirmed as having shot down ten B-24s, with two probables.


1:72 Industria Aeronautică Română (IAR) 90; '120/<' of Aeronautica Regală Română (ARR, Romanian Royal Aeronautics), Grupul 6 Vânătoare; Aerodrom Tecuci (Galați County, Romania), early 1944 (What-if/modified Hasegawa kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Industria Aeronautică Română (IAR) 90; '120/<' of Aeronautica Regală Română (ARR, Romanian Royal Aeronautics), Grupul 6 Vânătoare; Aerodrom Tecuci (Galați County, Romania), early 1944 (What-if/modified Hasegawa kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


On 21 April 1944, IAR 90s of the 1st, 2nd, and 6th Fighter Groups took off to intercept B-17 and B-24 bombers which were targeting the Bucharest marshalling yard. While attacking the bombers, the Romanian fighters were engaged at high altitude by the escorting P-51 Mustangs of the 31st Fighter Group. In the aftermath of the air battle, the ARR lost 14 IAR 80s and 11 pilots were killed, while the Americans reported 10 aircraft lost.

However, during 1944 USAAF aircraft appeared over Romania in more significant numbers. Many air combats occurred and by the time of their last encounter with the USAAF on 3 July 1944, pilots of Grupul 6 vânătoare had submitted 87 confirmed and ten unconfirmed claims. Casualties among the Romanian fighter pilots quickly mounted too. The three IAR 90 groups (the 1st, 2nd and 6th) in a period of less than four months – known as the "American Campaign" – had at least 32 IAR pilots killed in action, including 11 aces. These losses exceeded the number of casualties suffered in the previous two and a half years of fighting against the Soviets.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAR_80 Because of heavy losses, all IAR 90 units were withdrawn from combat against Americans in July 1944 and IAR pilots started to convert to the more modern Bf 109G-6s. In the wake of these events, production of the IAR 90 was terminated in late 1944, after 541 aircraft had been built.


1:72 Industria Aeronautică Română (IAR) 90; '120/<' of Aeronautica Regală Română (ARR, Romanian Royal Aeronautics), Grupul 6 Vânătoare; Aerodrom Tecuci (Galați County, Romania), early 1944 (What-if/modified Hasegawa kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Industria Aeronautică Română (IAR) 90; '120/<' of Aeronautica Regală Română (ARR, Romanian Royal Aeronautics), Grupul 6 Vânătoare; Aerodrom Tecuci (Galați County, Romania), early 1944 (What-if/modified Hasegawa kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Industria Aeronautică Română (IAR) 90; '120/<' of Aeronautica Regală Română (ARR, Romanian Royal Aeronautics), Grupul 6 Vânătoare; Aerodrom Tecuci (Galați County, Romania), early 1944 (What-if/modified Hasegawa kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Industria Aeronautică Română (IAR) 90; '120/<' of Aeronautica Regală Română (ARR, Romanian Royal Aeronautics), Grupul 6 Vânătoare; Aerodrom Tecuci (Galați County, Romania), early 1944 (What-if/modified Hasegawa kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Industria Aeronautică Română (IAR) 90; '120/<' of Aeronautica Regală Română (ARR, Romanian Royal Aeronautics), Grupul 6 Vânătoare; Aerodrom Tecuci (Galați County, Romania), early 1944 (What-if/modified Hasegawa kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


General characteristics:
    Crew: One
    Length: 8.84 m (29 ft 0 in)
    Wingspan: 9.45 m (31 ft 0 in)
    Height: 3.25 m (10 ft 8 in)
    Wing area: 15 m² (160 sq ft)
    Airfoil: root: NN-2 mod. (14.8%); tip: NN-2 mod. (9%)
    Empty weight: 2,106 kg (4,643 lb)
    Gross weight: 2,764 kg (6,094 lb)
    Max takeoff weight: 2,993 kg (6,598 lb)

Powerplant:
    1 × IAR K14 IVc32 1200A1 14-cylinder two-row air-cooled radial piston engine,
        882 kW (1,200 hp) constant output and
        1,070 kW (1,440 hp) emergency power at 2,150 m (7,050 ft),
        driving a 3-bladed constant-speed metal propeller

Performance:
    Maximum speed: 605 km/h (376 mph, 327 kn) at 5,200 m (17,100 ft)
    Cruise speed: 400 km/h (250 mph, 220 kn) at 4,000 m (13,000 ft)
    Stall speed: 150 km/h (93 mph, 81 kn)
    Range: 1,200 km (750 mi, 650 nmi)
    Ferry range: 1,600 km (990 mi, 860 nmi)
    Service ceiling: 11,200 m (36,700 ft)
    Time to altitude: 5,000 m (16,000 ft) in 4 minutes 17 seconds
    Wing loading: 184 kg/m² (38 lb/sq ft)
    Power/mass: 0.38 kW/kg (0.23 hp/lb)

Armament:
    2x forward-firing, synchronized 13.2 mm (0.52") FN machine guns in the cowling,
    2x MG 151/20 20 mm (0.707") machine cannon in the wings
    1x ventral hardpoint for a 250 kg (550 lb) bomb or a 300 l drop tank


The kit and its assembly:
A simple what-if project, and mostly just kit travesty: the fictional Romanian IAR 90 fighter is a Hasegawa Nakajima Ki-44 'Shoki' fighter in disguise. I had the kit stashed away for a while, with only vague conversion plans, which included a Finnish or an Italian WWII fighter. Since I had a lot of markings/decals at hand, it eventually became a Romanian aircraft, and from a design and timeframe point of view it would have been a plausible interceptor development in parallel to the indigenous IAR 80/81 fighter.


1:72 Industria Aeronautică Română (IAR) 90; '120/<' of Aeronautica Regală Română (ARR, Romanian Royal Aeronautics), Grupul 6 Vânătoare; Aerodrom Tecuci (Galați County, Romania), early 1944 (What-if/modified Hasegawa kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Industria Aeronautică Română (IAR) 90; '120/<' of Aeronautica Regală Română (ARR, Romanian Royal Aeronautics), Grupul 6 Vânătoare; Aerodrom Tecuci (Galați County, Romania), early 1944 (What-if/modified Hasegawa kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


The model was basically built OOB, including the pilot in the very tight cockpit tub. The only changes I made is a central ventral hardpoint with a German-looking 300 l drop tank instead of the original pair of drop tanks (in a rather odd position behind the landing gear wells!), and to give the front end a different look that reminds more of the IAR K14 engine (a license-built French Gnôme-Rhône radial) I transplanted the cowling ring from a Matchbox Brewster Buffalo and sculpted fairings/ducts for oil cooler and carburetor with putty. Because the front looks even more stubby now, I also replaced the OOB propeller with a slightly bigger one from the scrap box, even though I retained the Ki-44 spinner.


Painting and markings:
As usual, I rather stick to conservative liveries for my whif builds, and for the IAR 90 I took inspiration from Romanian IAR 80 fighters, which carried green/brown/light blue camouflage with bright yellow quick ID markings, following German Eastern front standards.
The pattern was adopted from a real IAR 80, and for the colors I used Revell 42 (RAL 6014, Gelboliv) and Modelmaster 2124 (Russian Earth Brown)., while the undersides became RLM 65 (Revell 55). The cowling was painted with Revell 310 (Lufthansa Yellow), which came close to the decals' tone. The interior surfaces were painted medium grey. After basic painting the model received a light black ink washing and panel-shading with slightly brighter/paler paints.


1:72 Industria Aeronautică Română (IAR) 90; '120/<' of Aeronautica Regală Română (ARR, Romanian Royal Aeronautics), Grupul 6 Vânătoare; Aerodrom Tecuci (Galați County, Romania), early 1944 (What-if/modified Hasegawa kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Industria Aeronautică Română (IAR) 90; '120/<' of Aeronautica Regală Română (ARR, Romanian Royal Aeronautics), Grupul 6 Vânătoare; Aerodrom Tecuci (Galați County, Romania), early 1944 (What-if/modified Hasegawa kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Industria Aeronautică Română (IAR) 90; '120/<' of Aeronautica Regală Română (ARR, Romanian Royal Aeronautics), Grupul 6 Vânătoare; Aerodrom Tecuci (Galați County, Romania), early 1944 (What-if/modified Hasegawa kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Industria Aeronautică Română (IAR) 90; '120/<' of Aeronautica Regală Română (ARR, Romanian Royal Aeronautics), Grupul 6 Vânătoare; Aerodrom Tecuci (Galați County, Romania), early 1944 (What-if/modified Hasegawa kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


The decals are a mix of Romanian markings from a Bristol Blenheim (Xtradecal) and a Bf 109 G-6 (Printscale), while the fuselage band came from a Revell (Matchbox) He 70. Stencils were mostly taken from an Academy Fw 190 D-9 sheet. Unfortunately, the decal setting solution damaged the overwing crosses – I tried to hide that flaw under dry-brushing, though, before the model was sealed with matt acrylic varnish.


1:72 Industria Aeronautică Română (IAR) 90; '120/<' of Aeronautica Regală Română (ARR, Romanian Royal Aeronautics), Grupul 6 Vânătoare; Aerodrom Tecuci (Galați County, Romania), early 1944 (What-if/modified Hasegawa kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Industria Aeronautică Română (IAR) 90; '120/<' of Aeronautica Regală Română (ARR, Romanian Royal Aeronautics), Grupul 6 Vânătoare; Aerodrom Tecuci (Galați County, Romania), early 1944 (What-if/modified Hasegawa kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Industria Aeronautică Română (IAR) 90; '120/<' of Aeronautica Regală Română (ARR, Romanian Royal Aeronautics), Grupul 6 Vânătoare; Aerodrom Tecuci (Galați County, Romania), early 1944 (What-if/modified Hasegawa kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Industria Aeronautică Română (IAR) 90; '120/<' of Aeronautica Regală Română (ARR, Romanian Royal Aeronautics), Grupul 6 Vânătoare; Aerodrom Tecuci (Galați County, Romania), early 1944 (What-if/modified Hasegawa kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


A simple and quick project – and quite effective. Only few hardware changes were made, and the rather obscure Ki-44 looks convincing with the new markings.

Very good, Dizzy! I like the back story, too!   

Another great build from the Dizzy Studio of fine art     

I do like that. I could see the "Shoki" in it's parentage, but it's also got something of a "squashed" P-47 about it.

Great backstory as well 

Thanks you. Yes, a very simple (yet effective!) model travesty - the Buffalo cowling changes the look and the aircraft's perception a lot.

Absolut Top - great idea   

I'll try that in 1/48 

Hotte

 

Quote from: NARSES2 on September 06, 2025, 12:27:42 AMI do like that. I could see the "Shoki" in it's parentage, but it's also got something of a "squashed" P-47 about it.

EXACTLY what I thought when I first saw it Chris! I was wondering how Thomas had sawn up a P-47 and matched all the bits back together, but shorter! 

I saw the wings and thought WWII soviet fighter, but that was as far as I got.

Good one! Veery plausible model & backstory,

Quote from: PR19_Kit on September 06, 2025, 07:15:22 AMEXACTLY what I thought when I first saw it Chris! I was wondering how Thomas had sawn up a P-47 and matched all the bits back together, but shorter! 

I simply did not! 

Quote from: Gondor on September 06, 2025, 08:54:41 AMI saw the wings and thought WWII soviet fighter, but that was as far as I got.

Yes, there is a Lavochkin La-5/-7 vibe, esp. in a profile view.