**** DONE: GB-36 1/48 Ki-61-Id Hien - Axis Manufactured Aircraft of WWII

[JKim]

Username: JKim
First name: John
Category: Advanced
Scale: 1/48
Manufacturer: Tamiya
Model Type: Kawasaki Ki-61-Id
Addons: Lifelike Decals, Quickboost Gun Barrels, Quickboost Exhausts

I'm not sure if I should start on this one or not! There are some bigger projects on the near horizon including a 1/32 Tamiya Corsair and a 1/32 Me 262 but the G-10 Erla is ahead of schedule and I have some time to start on a new project. Whether or not I finish this by the GB deadline will be the big question. I thought this would be a good subject since we have the other Daimler-Benz powered aircraft represented including the Folgore, Veltro and of course the Bf 109.

 

[JKim]

This is one of Tamiya's latest offerings so the expectations are very high. Hopefully, the quality of the kit will reduce the construction time. Fingers crossed! Let's take a closer look at what's inside the box.

Tamiya includes a full 1/48 scale painting guide for both offered schemes. This can be very helpful, especially for those that want to faithfully recreate the complex mottling scheme.

Besides the instructions and the painting guide, Tamiya also includes some historical and technical information about the Ki-61.

The decals are split into two sheets. I can't vouch for the quality of these decals but from my limited experience, Tamiya decals can be a bit thick and non-responsive to the normal Microset/Microsol treatment. Tamiya also includes a set of masks for the clear parts, which is nice EXCEPT that you have to cut them out yourself.

The scheme that I am considering is based on a striking profile by aviation artist, Ronnie Olsthoorn. He prepared this artwork for Osprey's Aircraft of the Aces #114. Although the mottle patterns are interesting (and still an outside possibility for me to try), I've always thought a standard two-color scheme best highlights the Hien's graceful lines.

To that end, I've picked up a set of Lifelike Decals so I can depict #5262.

Another interesting inclusion in this kit is a clear version of the port fuselage. Not my thing but it could make for some interesting builds.

The clear parts include two versions of the canopy (open and closed), a wing light cover and the gun sight.

The Ha-40 engine, based on the Daimler-Benz DB601 powerplant, is provided although it looks a bit bare to me.

There are two major sprues, the first of which holds the two fuselage halves. This Tamiya kit encompasses a respectable 109 parts. Comparatively speaking, that is much less than the 186 parts for the recent Eduard retool of the 1/48 Bf109G-6 but that may speak more to the variations of the G-6 rather than the complexity of the kits themselves.

Molding looks precise and clean. Maybe falling a hair short of the detail that you would see on an Eduard kit.

The ends of the exhausts are not hollow. Furthermore, the exhausts are molded integral with the surrounding fuselage shrouds, which makes it extremely difficult to hollow out the exhausts manually. I am going to replace these with some Quickboost resin exhausts.

Same deal with the gun barrels. Since the Hien's cowl guns are staggered and reveal more of the barrel of one of the guns, I've opted to replace these with a pair of Quickboost resin barrels that have the cooling jacket holes.

The instrument panel features plain bezels with no raised instrument details. A decal representing the dial details are provided. I'm leery of this approach given my past difficulties with Tamiya decals but we'll have to see.

The other major sprue holds the wing parts.

Very fine and very detailed but no rivets. Hmmmm.... should I?

I think I will!

 

[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

Should be pretty shake and bake OOB.

 

[Airframes]

Nice one, and looks like a nice kit too.

 

[fubar57]

Nice choice John. PM sent

 

[JKim]

Thanks guys! I got the photos Geo... very helpful and interesting too!

Should be pretty shake and bake OOB.

I'm trying but I don't think shake and bake is quite my style! I'm going to rivet the aircraft just because I don't think anyone else would bother to do that to a state of the art Tamiya kit!

Some prelim work on the Hien has begun. The cockpit has a surprising amount of parts!

The first order of business was to see if I could get the dial decals to work with the instrument panel. If not, I could pull the trigger on an Eduard replacement. Instead of Microsol, I tried some Solvaset and it really did the job on the decals. I lost one of the dials when it developed a wrinkle and I tried to flatten it out. Solvaset almost liquifies the decal so much care is needed when using this stuff with these Tamiya decals.

Not perfect as it is almost impossible to perfectly align the decals to the dials as they are "floating" until the Solvaset is applied. But I think it looks alright.

I've done some dry-fitting of the cockpit components and have decided not to add anything due to the amount of detail provided by the kit parts. However, the back of the instrument panel is molded with the instrument housings so I couldn't resist adding some wiring here. I'm not sure how much of it will be visible.

The gun sight is presented in the common way, as a clear piece. I wish manufacturers would consider offering the gun sights as solid plastic pieces molded without the reflector glass. The molded representation of the reflector glass is way too thick and often has a mold line running through it. I've cut the glass off the gun sight, painted it and then added reflector glass using pieces of clear acetate. The edges of the glass was carefully painted black.

Prior to riveting, I spent some time looking at some line drawings of the Ki-61. I found a circular port that appears to be missing so I decided to scribe it.

Cockpit painting and riveting are up next.

 

[fubar57]

With regards to the photo I sent, I wonder if the prop spinner is not green but red brown. The lower prop blade seems to be close to the color of the spinner or it may just be a play of the lighting

 

[Wurger]

 

[JKim]

With regards to the photo I sent, I wonder if the prop spinner is not green but red brown. The lower prop blade seems to be close to the color of the spinner or it may just be a play of the lighting

Yeah, it's hard to decipher from black and white photos. I think I am going to go with the recommendations on the Olsthoorn profile... green spinner and the blue stripe too.

 

[Airframes]

Good stuff - glad the decals worked.

 

[Crimea_River]

Nice to see Tamiya have included masks. Cutting them yourself seems to be no biggy, as long as the outlines are accurate. Now if they'd only get rid of those awful seatbelt decals....

 

[parsifal]

nice choice and exceptional work so far John

 

[JKim]

Thanks guys!

Nice to see Tamiya have included masks. Cutting them yourself seems to be no biggy, as long as the outlines are accurate. Now if they'd only get rid of those awful seatbelt decals....

I'm using them as a guide to fashion some PE belts from spares.

 

[JKim]

I've started the painting of the cockpit. First step is lay down a base coat of black on all of the parts.

While the paint dries, I jump over and start the riveting process. I use a soft-leaded pencil and a flexible plastic ruler to lay out the rivet patterns on the wings. After the lines are drawn, I trace over them with the RB Rivet-R tool. I don't use a guide when running the Rivet-R as it does a pretty good job of tracking straight but it's best to take this step nice and slow and be deliberate with each line that you lay down, especially when running on curved surfaces.

The pencil marks are removed using iso alcohol. At this point, the riveting process has left tiny mounds of plastic around each rivet hole. This is an interesting effect in and of itself but for most of my builds, I want the holes only for a more subtle effect.

So all of the riveted surfaces are given a light sanding to remove the bumps around each rivet. Afterwards, I run the scriber lightly along the panel lines again since the riveting process may have pushed some plastic into the panel lines if the rivet hole was very close. The scriber also removes the sanding residue.

In a similar fashion, the horizontal stabilizers have been riveted.

I will continue the painting and riveting process, jumping back and forth between the two tasks.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Gnomey]

Good work so far John!

 

[parsifal]

no mucking around I see

 

[Crimea_River]

Nope, none.

 

[JKim]

The past few days were spent painting the cockpit. Lots of little pieces. There are different ways of doing this but I elected to keep the parts separate during painting and them cobble the parts together afterwards.

Here are the parts after they have been sprayed a tan brown color. Details have been picked out by brush.

After the detail painting, all of the parts, while still separate, were given a gloss coat, then a dark wash and then a flat coat. After the flat coat, I started putting the pieces together.

A closer look at the two sidewalls. The colors were based on the call-outs on the Tamiya instructions, which were quite detailed.

Tamiya provides a decal for the lap belts, which I used as a guide to pluck likely looking PE belts from my spares stash.

Those big square tanks will be hidden by the instrument panel and gun deck.

Some control consoles that have not yet been attached. Again, the color was per the callouts in the kit instructions. Looks kinda cartoony.

Here is cockpit with all of the pieces put together.

The cockpit can be placed into the fuselage from the bottom. Just dry-fitting at this point just to see what can be seen from the outside. The cockpit out of the box is impressively detailed for a 1/48 kit. I'll probably do some minor weathering... some chipping and maybe some dry pigments but in essence, this stage is complete.