Tamiya 1/72 Kawasaki Ki-61-Id Hein (Tony)

[CANicoll]

It has been a while since I've built a Tamiya kit and wow, how nice it is to put together a kit that REALLY FITS!  So many pieces just go in place and some I had to really work to get apart so I could glue them in.  Sweet!

Here is the box shot:

I've opted for the extra decals from Tamiya to do the very interesting aircraft of 2nd Lt Shunzo Takashima of the 244th Air Group.

Also some Eduard Brassin but at this point I'm not sure I'll use the wheels.  The kit wheels actually look pretty good as it.  And the Brassin exhaust is not hollow so I'll take a closer look with the kit pieces to either keep this an OOB build or go with the resin exhausts.

 

Naturally the place to start is the cockpit and even in this small scale has a lot of detail.  Sadly, there is only one option for the canopy and that is closed.  Hmmm

 

In a larger scale I would have thinned or replaced the gunsight glass but here I'm not sure how much you will actually see.  The instrument panel is a decal and the details show up MUCH better in pictures than in actual size.  But the detail is impressive!  A little bit of silver dry-brushing on the right side switch panel and the right side of the instrument panel.

 

Not a huge fan of the decal seatbelts but with the closed canopy, it was not worth going aftermarket. I'll hit them with some flat before installing in the fuselage.  Interior paints are all Vallejo with the exception of use of Tamiya Buff on the seat back.

There is some detail in the fuselage sidewalls:

 

And with the radiator housing sides in place:  The fit was perfect.

 

And getting the fuselage together:

 

Have dry fitted the cockpit which slides in from the bottom and now have the nose and spine pieces installed.  The fit is perfect.

More to come!

Thanks.

Chris

[skyhawk174]

Looks great so far. Some really fine painting work there.

 

I recently finished its big brother in 1/48th and this looks like a shrink down.The detail looks very similar. Are your fuselage pieces glued together? The reason I ask is that I see you are not using the engine, if it includes one. In the 1/48th kit the engine has the shaft for the prop. Or you can use an extra piece that Tamiya actually does not even mention so that a shaft sticks out the front for the prop. Is that an option in the 1/72nd kit?

[CANicoll]

Thank you!  In 1/72 scale there is no engine (probably thankfully!)  There is a circular piece with a poly-cap to insert the propeller and spinner into but that is it for the front part of the kit.  That is one of the things I like, actually:  these are pretty quick builds but retain a fair amount of detail, esp in the cockpit.

 

What scheme did you do your 1/48 in?

Chris

[CANicoll]

Making some progress with the Hien - the fit is amazing but you definitely have to be careful removing the remnants of the sprue attachments.  Rather than just chisel it off, I overdid a bit of the sanding on the front of the wing next to the machine gun and had to add a bit of filler.  But still amazing fit.  I attached the wing and the fit looks perfect.  Just have to love Tamiya kits.

 

Compared to the 1/32 kits (and even the larger 1/48 kits) this is not a big plane.

 

Got the nose gun panel and the spine panels on.  I'll be interested to see how it looks after a coat of gloss black primer and then the Aluminum base coat.  The canopy masks are on their way from Spruebrothers...  I have the Brassin exhausts as shown at the top of this thread, but they are actually a few mm shorter than the kit exhausts and I don't see a lot of detail difference between the two so planning on using the kit exhausts.

 

Here is the cockpit inserted into the fuselage from below.  No issues with fit.  I was not going to glue it in place but thought I better, just in case.

 

A bit of silver paint on the radiator intake and exhaust prior to painting the plane with the aluminum basecoat.   I'll leave the tail wheel off for now, but I still need to paint the wheel wells flat yellow.

 

The way the wing attaches to the fuselage I used glue on the rear fuselage seam and the front seam and not much more. The fit is nice and tight.  It looks like there is a thin line of filler but that is just the light on the plastic.

 

Next up is to attach the canopy and put down a silver coat over the canopy, then a gloss black primer coat for the silver/aluminum base coat.  The tail gets the red treatment (some fine masking has to happen there.  I'm wondering why I didn't wait to attach the elevators! DOH!).  Then a nice coat of Vallejo White Aluminum (I think) with Dark Aluminum flaps.  Then the decals...

 

Thanks for looking!
Chris

Edited September 20, 2018 by CANicoll

[CANicoll]

Making progress - getting the base coat down and next are those huge fuselage and wing-top decals.  Has anyone done those yet?

 

The masks arrived today (YAY!) so got to work straight away.  Something like 16 masks just for the canopy - they are TINY.  Got the landing gear painted (gloss black, silver bands, yellow legs by the wheels.

 

Interesting looking landing gear.

 

Attached the canopy with clear Formula 560 glue.  Let it set up for about 6 hours before painting.

 

Used the Vallejo gloss black primer as the base.  I've had problems in the past with the paint on the canopy being somewhat translucent so hoping this time it will be completely opaque.

The Vallejo Gloss Black goes on looking kind of spotty - but as it dries it smooths out nicely.  I usually start off with a dusting, the go back and apply slightly heavier coats and then finish with a wet coat.  Often it is about 4-5 coats total.

 

The tape is a handle to use during painting.  Still have to paint the wheel wells yellow.

Here are the landing gear and the exhaust (on the left) bits in the black primer:  The exhaust frame is outlined in Gloss Black anyway - so I'll brush paint the exhausts by hand. 

 

Broader view of the gloss primer coat:

 

The prop and spinner (and the backing plate not shown) got a coat of red/brown while the black dried for a few minutes:

 

Then the fuselage and landing gear cover got a few coats of Vallejo Metal Color, Aluminum.

 

Will let this dry for a few days and may do a gloss coat over it since I know the decals are HUGE (length of the wingspan and the fuselage).

Has anyone had any experience with those large camo decals?  I've had good experience with Tamiya decals in the past.

 

Thanks!
Chris

[sakai]

Prop and spin were NOT red brown but shade close to mahagony brown, there is good match in Gunze GSI line called "propeller color".

[CANicoll]

7 hours ago, sakai said:

Prop and spin were NOT red brown but shade close to mahagony brown, there is good match in Gunze GSI line called "propeller color".

 

I will take a look, thanks!  I don't have ready access to the Gunze line of paints, but will check the colors.  Cheers, Chris

[CANicoll]

Next round of paint, and repainted the spinner, prop and backing plate (thanks for the heads up sakai on the wrong color!).  Here is the paint used for today's work:

The Humbrol is for the prop and spinner.

 

Masking getting ready to paint the flaps and the wheel wells.  Having had such bad luck with overspray, really covered everything up this time!

 

And topside, showing the main tires:

 

And the aftermath:

Flaps are Flat Aluminum while the wheel wells (and the interior) are dark yellow.  Topside:

 

Here are the repainted spinner and prop.  Looked at the Tamiya directions and then sorted through various matching paints.  The Humbrol is the color that Tamiya recommends:

And the previous color, big difference!!:

 

Will probably hit those wing panels next to the fuselage with some black paint before going for all of the decaling that is called for.  This will be interesting!

 

Chris

[sakai]

Spinner and prop are much better after repaint but should be darker still, mahagony like, add some black.

Interior paint was IJAAF standard no.29 Ki-midori-iro, "yellow-green-color", your representation is too yellow.

Cheers,

Mario

[CANicoll]

Mario,

Thanks for this - I'm going to leave the yellow as it - too far long esp on the interior (which is under the canopy now).  Tamiya has the color lighter than you (recommending XF-64 Red Brow and the other vendors colors are similar) and looking at period photos the color does seem to be more brown than mahogany.

 

Chris

[sakai]

Chris,

You cannot rely on kit painting instructions when it comes to Japanese subject, NONE of the manufacturers, including Tamiya. They are either ignorant of the modern research or incorporate it EXTREMELY slowly. And the above pictures are COLORIZED b&w photographs, how can those be trusted? I look forward to see your finished kit.

Cheers,

Mario

 

[skyhawk174]

On 9/19/2018 at 4:29 PM, CANicoll said:

Thank you!  In 1/72 scale there is no engine (probably thankfully!)  There is a circular piece with a poly-cap to insert the propeller and spinner into but that is it for the front part of the kit.  That is one of the things I like, actually:  these are pretty quick builds but retain a fair amount of detail, esp in the cockpit.

 

What scheme did you do your 1/48 in?

Chris

 

Chris

 

I wanted to be different so I went with overall silver for my scheme. To be honest not a big fan of the mottle green scheme although it is very nice. I have a bunch of pictures on Hyperscale in the Plastic Pics section, which reminds me I have to update it with the finished shots.

 

Here is a link, hope it works.

 

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/hyperscale/my-tamiya-1-48th-ki-61-t494562.html

 

 

[CANicoll]

19 hours ago, skyhawk174 said:

 

Chris

 

I wanted to be different so I went with overall silver for my scheme. To be honest not a big fan of the mottle green scheme although it is very nice. I have a bunch of pictures on Hyperscale in the Plastic Pics section, which reminds me I have to update it with the finished shots.

 

Here is a link, hope it works.

 

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/hyperscale/my-tamiya-1-48th-ki-61-t494562.html

 

 

 

Thanks!  I will take a look.  Liking this kit, but wish there was an open-canopy version.  A friend of mine says he can do a vacuformed canopy...  Maybe next time!  Chris

[CANicoll]

Got the tail painted but for the life of me don't know why I didn't do this before assembly.  Still have a bit of touch up to do, but it came out ok.  Looked at five different reds and it looks like the Vallejo Ferrari Red is the closest to the decal red. Looked at Humbrol and Model Master enamels as well, but none of them seemed to match well.

Also overcoated with clear gloss to get ready for the tail decals.

 

Also the first set of decals on the wings with MicroSol under and over.

 

Now will let the tail dry for a few days and work on the fuselage and wing camo decals.  Once the fuselage stripe and the Hinomarus are applied we'll see just how close a color match it really is.

 

Chris

[CANicoll]

While waiting for the tail to dry just HAD to try those camo decals.  Put down over MicroSol and they went down amazingly easy.  Overbrushed with MicroSet and the wing decals are pretty well snugged down into panel lines.  Doesn't really look like paint just yet, but hoping an overspray of flat/matte takes care of that. 

 

 

Not sure about the red tail and the red in the stripe and the Hinomaru.  Jury still out on that but it might be a bit too bright.  In the same light, it looks pretty close as you can see from the picture above and below, the lighting is really critical to seeing the right colors.

Need to touch up the aileron hinge but that is to be expected.   Also looks like there might be a bit of a bubble there by the hinge so will take a look at that.

 

Fun build!!

Chris

[CANicoll]

Next phase of the camo decals.  The camo decals are large, compared to the size of the aircraft itself, and are very thin, but also somewhat delicate - I ripped the left size fuselage camo decal in two different places.  It also appears to be somewhat long.  

 

So for the right side I cut the decal into two pieces, separating the nose (which does seem delicate with the exhaust cut-out) from the rest:

 

 

Strongly suggest doing that on the left side of the fuselage camo decal as there are three cut outs in the nose, for the exhaust, the intake and a vent tube.  The right side went on so much easier and because of the random nature of the camo pattern was very easy to match up.  If you are doing this particular scheme, you MIGHT want to split the fuselage decal into two pieces: top and bottom.  Maybe!

 

The tail decal, white below, went on ok, but again, is about 1mm too long (at the top).  Pretty much opaque, which is nice.

 

Did the red Hinomaru's on the wing tops as well, using MicroSOL to get them into the panel lines (which are tiny).  Didn't snug down as easily or as much as I thought they would so still working on that.  The came decals went into the panel lines nicely.  But the Hinomarus are decals over decals.  Maybe another idea is to cut the wing decals at the Hinomaru areas and cut those disc out.

 

 

The overall look is pretty good.  Still need to paint the nose anti-glare panel and the yellow on the wings but I do like the overall look of the camo.  Not sure about a fully camo body and wings, and a bright red tail?  Hmmmm...

 

More to come!

Chris

[CaptainObvious]

Nice work Chris!
I have the kit in 48th and I wish they made those decals in that scale too.

-co

[CANicoll]

Thanks!  I'll look tonight to see how well the decals sat but looking at it last night, the camo decals really settle into the panel lines pretty easily.  I think the issue is when you have to apply decals over the camo decals (like the Hinomarus, or the stripe that goes along the fuselage).  We'll see tonight!

 

Chris

[CANicoll]

Making a little bit more progress - got the yellow paint onto the wings and the landing gear doors, as well as on the prop tips, and the intake screen part attached.  Pretty much finished the decaling but have not put a flat coat on yet.  Did get the anti-glare panel painted as well.

 

Landing gear is dry fitted just to keep the wings up to help the paint dry.

The blue decal over the intake on the side of the fuselage just did not want to conform to the shape of the intake.  Have tried to mix up some paint to match the color of the stripe but no luck so far. 

Tail decal is relatively opaque but the white on the red could be a bit brighter.  On the other side of the tail the decal folded back on itself but I didn't notice it until way too late to do anything about it.  Blast.

The tail might still be fixable with some white paint.  We'll see.

Nose panel painted and the nose machine guns picked out with Vallejo gunmetal:

 

Any with the prop fitted (ploy cap) and landing gear dry fitted to let the yellow panel painted on the wings to dry.  Mask is still on the wing landing light.  Antenna camo decal didn't fit right so that is hand painted.  Nasty seam on the spinner to the base, which is really not visible to the eye.  That is one of the nice things about 1/72 scale!

 

Getting closer!

 

Chris

[CANicoll]

Sorry, late posting these pics, but here you go!  No antennas yet, might add those yet and maybe some light exhaust staining and general weathering.

Had to do some touch-up painting on the canopy with a fine point brush and then painted the black anti-slip on the wings with the same fine point brush.  The yellow bands on the wings are painted, then used the red machine gun patches from the decal sheet.  The Vallejo Ferrari Red seems to match the red in the decal Hinomarus pretty well.  Ran a clear flat over everything except the red tail.

 

The camo decals went down well, but if I were to do this again I would probably cut the fuselage decal length-wise as well and cut out the space for the blue stripe.  The kit panel lines don't seem deep enough to take two layers of decals very well.  Ditto on the top wing Hinomaru's - they are down over a very large clear spot.  Probably better to cut the wing camo decals and cut out where the Hinomaru's go.

 

I do wish, if Tamiya is only going to provide a closed canopy, that they add a pilot figure.

 

 

[ArmouredSprue]

Very interesting building. I was glad to see these decals being used. It looks great BTW!

Is the yellow leading edge decal?

Cheers

[CANicoll]

10 hours ago, ArmouredSprue said:

Very interesting building. I was glad to see these decals being used. It looks great BTW!

Is the yellow leading edge decal?

Cheers

 

Hi and thanks for your comments.  The yellow on the leading edge I painted, but the red over the machine gun openings are the kit decals.  It was a fun (and quick) build with a terrific cockpit so highly recommended.  If I ever do another one I think I would paint the nose panel and the yellow as well as the wing non-slip panels before I do the decals - and cut up the decals to make them a bit easier to apply.  And find a way to open up the canopy so you can get a better view of the really nice cockpit - with better seatbelts than the kit's decals which are horrid.

 

Best regards! Chris

[ArmouredSprue]

6 hours ago, CANicoll said:

 

Hi and thanks for your comments.  The yellow on the leading edge I painted, but the red over the machine gun openings are the kit decals.  It was a fun (and quick) build with a terrific cockpit so highly recommended.  If I ever do another one I think I would paint the nose panel and the yellow as well as the wing non-slip panels before I do the decals - and cut up the decals to make them a bit easier to apply.  And find a way to open up the canopy so you can get a better view of the really nice cockpit - with better seatbelts than the kit's decals which are horrid.

 

Best regards! Chris

 

Thanks

[Rocat]

Lovely work, I like it.

[CANicoll]

8 hours ago, Rocat said:

Lovely work, I like it.

 

Thank you!

Chris