Mania Mitsubishi Ki-15 J-BAAI and/or J-BAAL

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Following now with yet more Mitsubishi Ki-15 (this time the I variant,  externally differentiated by its Townend ring instead of the full cowl of the II).

Still to be determined is if I will go for the mostly seen variant of J-BAAI, or the twin J-BAAL. Or may be both?

In any case, in the previous post I used for the II variant the LS/ARII kit. Now I will be using the Mania release later on re-issued by Hasegawa.

There is one difference between the Mania and Hasegawa kits. in the Mania sprues the fuselage side windows are flashed over, whilst in the Hasegawa release three windows are opened and the fourth is flashed over. The instructions and decal sets are different too. Both instruction sheets are much better than many contemporary examples.

Comparing this kit with the ARII one:

I like very much both kits, and again, they are both much better than a bunch of currently released kits. The panel lines are gorgeous, neither trenches nor faint suggestions.

The detail on the interior of the Mania/Hasegawa kit is quite better, but alas, the wheel is one piece with the pant, which I find childish and more difficult to paint, whilst on the ARII kit the wheels are separated from the pant. The recent reissue of ARII has two canopies, which is good, since the masking is laborious and can lead to mistakes.

And while we are on the subject, I find strange that no aftermarket vendor has come up with masks for these two kits. which are good, have a fair price and are easily obtainable. Mysteries of the kit industry.

Somewhat vintage Mania kit:

Decals and instructions:

Nice canopy:

A nice interior:

Good surface detail:

Fused wheel/pant, a bit of a let down:

Again nice surface detail:

A prop that will have its spinner:

A somewhat credible engine with its exhaust plumbing:

The fuselage inside:

Bulkhead detail:

The more modern Hasegawa issue of the same molds:

Same mold, windows flashed over (Mania) and not (Hasegawa):

Very nice Yahu Models aftermarket inst. panel:

Parts separation a breeze, thanks to sprue gates that don't have the size of a finger:

Fine locating pins and holes, a delicate touch:

Started interior assembly:

Decisions, decisions...to separate those elevators? to get rid of those childish pants-cum-wheel parts?

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Doubt stroke me, so I went to rummage through the boxes in the dungeons, driving away Igor with the pitchfork, and sure enough, I had bought the ARII kit with the J-BAAI registration.

So I have three Ki-15 Is.

This boxing even includes both regs: J-BAAI and BAAL.

So I don't have to worry about the decals.

Neat!

 

 

[Rob G]

J-BAAL - is that the prototype of the Model 666? A somewhat unfortunate registration code, at least to Western eyes.

 

Nice looking aircraft, and it's very good to see civillian Japanese birds being built, in contrast to the legions of Zeros.

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

;-)

Thanks, Rob.

Wing parts glued. I decided to excise the wheels from the pants and carve a slot for new ones.

The Townend ring halves are glued too.

 

Stab/elevators separated. Windows opened (just the aft pair):

 

Ready now to paint the interior:

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Base coat on:

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Interior almost finished, and almost ready to close that fuselage:

 

Ready to install. This Mania / Hasegawa interior is better than the LS / ARII one, and better by the way than many kits that have succeeded this release by many years:

 

Fuselage closed:

 

Wing added:

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Stabs are added:

 

And the big holes -where some equipment is supposed to go- are filled, since photos of the actual civil machines show none of them as far as I can see, more likely they were part of the shared molds with the military version:

The stubs once the glue has set will be cut flush.

Edited February 9, 2018 by Moa
to correct typo

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

And now for the primer...

 

The canopy on this Mania/Hasegawa kit is not as good as the one on the LS/ARII kit.

The side windows look wrong, too narrow, leaving a very thick edge underneath.

So the sides were lightly sanded and then polished. The masks will delineated the new windows.

I tried the ARII canopy on this kit, and it could fit with some slight adjustment to the turtleback (One  of my ARII kits came with two canopies), but I opted to modify the kit's one:

[clive_t]

Nice work on a not often seen subject. I am a big fan of unusual Japanese aircraft. Following this with interest 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Thanks, Clive

Priming now:

 

And if you like Japanese, soon there will be another one that I just purchased...

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Again masking the canopy the old way, since no vendor is willing to produce a masks set for these wonderful kits. Sigh...

 

The exhausts have locating holes in the cylinders, a courtesy many current manufacturers obviate. And to think this wonder kit is 44 years old...

I carved a bit the exhaust ends, before painting them:

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

After priming, a little of putty and sanding, and some clean-up, the gloss black base for the Alclad is applied (this is done together with other projects):

 

Metal color is airbrushed on all parts. Masking will ensue for the blue tone:

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The blue color is applied after masking:

 

Masks are removed. Thanks to the sharp increase in my dexterity due to age, I managed to drop the model on the floor, breaking in the process of trying to catch it the antenna and Pitot.

Now I am removing traces of lint and fibers. The fun never ceases for a modeller!

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The carved pants receive now their half-wheels:

 

As I wrote before, I am taking advantage of the decal sheet that comes with the ARII kit.

Please notice that the thin red outline on wing tip motif and flag fuselage motif are absolutely bogus, a fact the decal designer could have easily seen in any of the very many photos that exist on the Net.

As it is, you will have to trim it carefully away in order not to render an inaccurate model by default:

[clive_t]

Looking good, I like the paint scheme. 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

7 hours ago, clive_t said:

Looking good, I like the paint scheme. 

Thanks Clive. The same plane with the same registration had a simpler color application at one time, limited to part of the nose only (no pants, no canopy involved).

J-BAAI, the sister plane, had a similar full scheme, but photos can be found where there is no blue color involved, just the plain base color (for lazy modelers ;-)

Edited February 22, 2018 by Moa
correction

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Starting decaling:

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

I put the broken antenna mast where nothing could happen to it. Even that I could happen to find it.

So I had to make a brass one, which is good, since they tend to be knocked off and brake, and sometimes the plastic buckles under the antenna wire tension.

As you can see, this is the lesser-seen J-BAAL -a reg. dreaded by some distinguished members of this hospitable site- instead of the more commonly represented J-BAAI:

 

Edited February 23, 2018 by Moa
correction

[Dazey]

Only just seeing this now that the RFI is posted. Lovely work, and I hope to do the same scheme/registration with my Hasegawa kit. Unfortunately, I don't have a spare kit with the appropriate decals, and will have to try custom-made ones for the first time!

Regards,

David

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

6 minutes ago, Dazey said:

Only just seeing this now that the RFI is posted. Lovely work, and I hope to do the same scheme/registration with my Hasegawa kit. Unfortunately, I don't have a spare kit with the appropriate decals, and will have to try custom-made ones for the first time!

Regards,

David

Hi David

You may get the ARII release with those decals, as I did. You will need to paint or make the white/red small bands for the prop tips, which were included in the civil Hasegawa release (not easy to get now) but not in ARII's.

As pointed out above somewhere, the ARII fuselage and wing banners need the red outline trimmed off. Other than that, the decals were superb.

Regards

 

For those interested in the completed model here at Britmodeller, here is the link to that post: