Ki-61-1 Hein; 1/32 Hasegawa

[georgeusa]

I am bound and determined to get through my shelf of doom kits and clear off some builds. This is the third Ready for Inspection I posted today. This is the Hasegawa 1/32 Kawasaki Ki-61-1 Otsu (Tony) Shinten Seikutai. The build thread is here http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234963835-ki-61-hien;-done/. The kit was a delight to put together. There was just enough detail to make it look good, but nothing overboard that would never be seen. The only issue I had was self-induced when somehow, I lost one of the main landing gear struts. How I did this I don’t know, but SAC metal undercarriage came to the rescue. It looks exactly the same as the kit strut and fits in exactly the same manner. I did this kit to practice/learn to airbrush. (A black and terrible art that is fighting me every step of the way. Once I take a baby step forward, and I am then thrown down to the ground and pushed back a yard by the demons that control air brushing and scoff at my learning this evil, mystical voodoo.) Although for this kit, the paint went down well, even the silver under belly. I just barely weathered this plane to give it a not factory fresh, but not that far from it. I gave it some scraps and scratches, and a coat of dirt, but not the extreme weathering seen on some Japanese planes. That I will reserve for the ZM Raiden that is still being built. Here is the finished product.

And here it is in its new resting place.

As always, all comments welcome.

[Brad]

Looks great mate.

[Abacus]

Have to love all the Hasegawa 1/32 Japanese subjects, the 1/48's as well come to think of it.

[PlaStix]

Not usually a fan of Japanese AC but your attention to detail - especially in the cockpit - is top notch! Well done.

[AdrianMF]

Looking good! You got a really nice join between the green and red round the tail and I like the light weathering approach.

Regards,

Adrian

[Nigel Heath]

I think you got the weathering spot on with this build. Excellent stuff. Now I need to find these other RFIs of which you speak.

[georgeusa]

Nigel,

The only RFI left is the odd Cam 23.

[Darby]

Only threeJapaneseplanes do it for me, the B5N2, Ki100 and the 61. Very nice cockpit and a good result with the hairy stick. Keep plugging away with the airbrush. It's just a case of practice and keeping it clean between uses/paint change.

The latter I'm shamefully neglectful of at times

[The Crusty one]

Proper job mate,nicely done!:-)

[stevej60]

Now that is nice!

[russ c]

Very nice Tony, great job