Hasegawa 1/48 Ki-43 II Hayabusa (Oscar)

[Potato Pete]

I've been hankering after a Ki-43 or -84 and saw this one the other day and just couldn't resist

 

 

The kit looks nice in the box and the Ki-43 has had an extensive review here

 

The main problem with this kit seems to be that Hasegawa has given it a swollen "fish belly" (dad bod?) under the wings, rather than the neater flatter belly of the real thing. Not being a Ki-43 aficionado I wouldn't have known, but if you're passionate about them it would probably drive you crazy. Either way, it's beyond my ability to fix, and I'm building OOB with just some Eduard IJA seatbelts added.

 

Progress so far......

 

The cockpit is more than adequately detailed - the seat pan perhaps a bit heavy 

 

 

 

 

I used Humbrol 226 Interior Green as the base colour. I suspect it's a bit too olive and not yellow enough, especially after a couple of washes. The instrument panel was just dry brushed - the raised detail on it is beautiful. Dials got a dab of gloss varnish but it doesn't really show.

 

The only thing I added beyond the seat belts is the emergency hydraulic pump lever on the right hand side of the seat.

 

So far I'm happy - more to come

 

Pete 

[dov]

Hallo

The aircraft is nice! The real one. The best feature of this a/c are the flaps. You can fly this a/c in reality really good. You may find in our forum photos I posted from Japan, from the Peace Museum at Sheran in Kyusho. I can mail it next week to you, if you loke. Maybe you find some detail you like. I built 3 versions.

Happy modelling 

[Potato Pete]

And a bit more progress

 

The cockpit side panels painted and glued in place

 

 

 

The finish isn't quite as gloopy as it looks in the photos - really it's not!. 

 

Now to put it all together...

 

Dov - if you have photos of the flaps or undercarriage bays they'd be most welcome

 

Pete

[Troy Smith]

5 hours ago, Potato Pete said:

The cockpit side panels painted and glued in place

Pete, the top panel looks wonky,  rear being the correct height, and the lower panel look to be too low. 

this image of a real cockpit

 

shows all the formers at the top without a gap 

from https://erenow.net/ww/flying-warbirds-an-illustrated-profile/6.php

 

which is an interesting story I'd not  seen before, I'd never though about what Ki-43's might survive. 

 

 

ps if you can see it, this also worth a look

https://www.facebook.com/Cockpit360/photos/1157938354341027

HTH

[Potato Pete]

31 minutes ago, Troy Smith said:

Pete, the top panel looks wonky,  rear being the correct height, and the lower panel look to be too low. 

this image of a real cockpit

 

D'oh! How did I miss that? The panels have locating pins too so there's no excuse. Sadly too late to fix now as have things progressed rapidly and I've buttoned her up now. 😪.  Primed in Halfords finest Grey Primer. 

 

 

 

 

Other than my hamfistedness with the cockpit panels, it's all gone together very smoothly, just a tiny bit of seam filling on the fuselage.  The upside is that the cockpit opening is really quite small so you can't really tell the panel is misaligned. The downside is that the cockpit opening is really quite small and you can't see much of the detailing anyway. I wouldn't have wanted to have to get out of one of these in a hurry.....

 

The wings have separate wing tips so I glued the upper wings to the upper tips first to ensure good alignment, then fitted them to the main lower section, before finally adding the lower wing tips. It all went together nicely but I can see the wingtip join in the lower photo so will fill that. However, the wing tips cut through the ailerons so there was a bit of filler needed there, and there was also a bit of a gap at the back of the wing fuselage join but nothing major. 

 

This is the first 1/48 Hasegawa kit I've built and I'm very impressed with the fit. Just one observation - as the photos show, the panel lines are very fine and even under one coat of primer they may need some gentle re-engraving if I have the courage.

 

So despite the cockpit error, I'm actually quite pleased

 

Pete

[Troy Smith]

6 minutes ago, Potato Pete said:

Other than my hamfistedness with the cockpit panels, it's all gone together very smoothly

Interesting, I was thinking it would cause fit issues later,  seems not, and it's pretty small cockpit so it won't really matter  

 

7 minutes ago, Potato Pete said:

as the photos show, the panel lines are very fine and even under one coat of primer

Looking good.  you may find they will be OK, most model panel lines, even the fine ones, are really over done.   You could give them a dark wash now, as this may thought the upper coats subtly?

 

cheers

T