Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate ex Turning Japanese (I didn't think so.....)

[2996 Victor]

Hi all,

 

quite late to be joining this year's KUTA, but while delving for other things I found my languishing Ki-84 that I'd started in the Turning Japanese Group Build. I'm not sure why I didn't finish it: its a super kit and OOB should have been a breeze. Anyway, here we are - the original thread is here for anyone who might be interested - there are a few photos but nothing profound as I really didn't get far. So over the last few days I've finished the cockpit details and assembled the fuselage and wings.

 

Pics.

Fuselage halves with added quadrants etc

 

Cockpit tub with IP decals and PE lap belts

 

Assembled fuse halves with tub added - the tub can be added after the fuselage halves are joined by inserting from underneath, which ensures everything is nicely level

 

Wings panels joined

I opted for underside colour for the wheel wells to save masking later

 

Thanks for looking in, hopefully more soon!

 

Cheers,

Mark

[Roberto]

I'm following, this one is going to look good!

[2996 Victor]

10 minutes ago, Roberto said:

I'm following, this one is going to look good!

Thanks, Roberto, that's very kind of you! It's a typical Arma kit - excellent!

 

All the best,

Mark

[opus999]

This kit is light years ahead of the Hasagawas I built!  But since I've done two of those in the last couple of years, It's hard to justify getting one of these. 

 

It really looks good so far... it will be fun to see it come together!

[2996 Victor]

10 hours ago, opus999 said:

This kit is light years ahead of the Hasagawas I built!  But since I've done two of those in the last couple of years, It's hard to justify getting one of these. 

 

It really looks good so far... it will be fun to see it come together!

If I can make this one look half as good as your Hasegawa builds, I'll be a very happy bunny indeed! It's another great kit from Arma, and if you're feeling in the mood for another Frank, I'd highly recommend it.

 

All the best,

Mark

[2996 Victor]

Over the last couple of weeks I've spent a little while working on the fuselage and wing seams on my various builds.

 

So I treated the seams with Mr Surfacer, and following some careful sanding and then polishing with Micromesh, the Hayate's seams are looking alright to my eyes. Some primer will tell tales, I'm sure, but I may as well add the wing assembly and tailplanes first and see if those seams need anything doing to them.

 

Cheers,

Mark

[2996 Victor]

On Sunday, I got the wings and tailplanes on. Its looking like an aeroplane!!!

 

After giving the cockpit "floor" area a brush coat of interior green, I used CA to attach the wing panels. The tailplanes sat quite securely in position by themselves, so were glued with small quantities of MEK. The port side tailplane needed a bit of support while the joint hardened, but the flying surfaces seem nice and true to my aging eyes:

 

The upper wing-to-fuselage joints are pretty much the best I've ever achieved, so I'm quite chuffed! As mentioned above, small quantities of Mr Surfacer have been used on the fuselage seams, and a little more is needed here and there. Depending on the seam and the adjacent surface detail, I'll either clean and polish with MicroMesh or use a cotton bud dampened with Mr Thinner to wipe away the excess, and then polish with fine MicroMesh. The seams on this kit are minimal and any issues are of my own making!

You can see that the engine slides in which is very useful for detailing it and painting the airframe as a whole.

 

The cockpit upper coaming is a separate piece, which also has decals representing controls to go on it - I haven't painted it yet so that's on the "to-do" list. And another thing I forgot was to add the tail-wheel into the lower rear fuselage before I closed it up. Hopefully, a bit of wiggling should get it into place.

 

I'm enjoying this kit so much that I'm planning to get the Special Attack boxing as well as, it has some interesting schemes.

 

More soon with a bit of luck!

 

Cheers,

Mark

[opus999]

That's a beaut Mark!  Nice job on the wing roots too.

 

After living with the Hasegawa mold for so long, it is really amazing to see such a high quality, nicely detailed kit of what was one of Japan's finest WWII fighters.  You've done a great job with it so far too.  I'm really looking forward to more.

[2996 Victor]

46 minutes ago, opus999 said:

That's a beaut Mark!  Nice job on the wing roots too.

 

After living with the Hasegawa mold for so long, it is really amazing to see such a high quality, nicely detailed kit of what was one of Japan's finest WWII fighters.  You've done a great job with it so far too.  I'm really looking forward to more.

Thanks so much for your kind words - high praise indeed! I like to think I'm making a reasonable job of it. The kit is stunning, there's no denying it, and I really do recommend it.

 

I've kind of hit a log jam, trying to do too many builds at once, some of which are taking up a lot of bench time with fettling. The Frank and the Wildcat haven't had a look-in lately, although I have been looking at Shimbu-Tai schemes for a second Frank.

 

Hope to have some more done here soon!

 

Cheers,

Mark 

[2996 Victor]

I've been having a major re-think about my modelling, and the upshot is that I've decided to pack in 1/72 and henceforth model in 1/48.

 

I've already off-loaded my stash of unbuilt kits, but I have this and a number of other part-built models that I don't want to complete. As such, I've opened a thread in the Free to a Good Home forum, which is here, where they are all listed. I'm asking for postage costs only.

 

Please feel free to PM me if you'd like to take this (or any of the others!) through to completion.

 

Cheers,

Mark