Hasegawa 1:48 Nakajima Ki-44-II Ko (Shoki – Demon)
This aircraft is from the Akeno Training Flight Division, Akeno Airfield, 1944. A very nice kit with no vices. When I started collecting info on this kit I noticed almost every build mentioned an over-lap of the of the wings near the wing root(see below). Many builders filled this in and a few let it be. I test fit mine and sure enough mine had it as well. Going through my books I found that this is correct, It represents the Fowler Flaps the aircraft used. To paint the innards I first used Model Master Acryl, some kinda dark blue, the name worn off years ago. This was lightly over-sprayed with Polly Scale Blue Grey. The aircraft moving surfaces were sprayed with Tamiya XF-14: J.A. Grey. Hasegawa provided decals for white Home Defence bands and these were a gawd awful beige. I measured the bands and then sprayed them on using Vallejo White with a few drops of Grey to tone it down. The Yellow ID bands were also sprayed on using Vallejo. I just purchased the new (to me) line of Vallejo Metallics; I used Semi-Dull Aluminum for this. The stuff sprays fantastic. For weathering I used Tamiya Panel Line Brown and around some of the panels and wing root area I used Citadel Gryphonne Sepia wash. I use Citadel washes a lot as they can be slowly built up. I used the kit decals for the fuselage Hinomarus and tail markings. Somehow I got very, very lucky with these because when I went to apply the wing walk decal it shattered. I used the wing Hinomarus from my N1K2 George kit as they were a lot bigger than the ones Hasegawa depicted. For the aerial I used Uschi van der Rosten Superfine Rigging Thread-0.01mm. This stuff sticks almost immediately to CA and has a lot of stretch to avoid sagging. If there is a small minus to this thread it is so light and fine I never know when I have in my fingertips. To glue the thread at four points took seconds, to handle it took minutes.
Another nice build, George...looks good!
Thank you Craig
Looks great, George.
Thanks Gary
Nicely done, George.
Thank you John
George, your work in this “fat guy” is fantastic. Great info about the kit and the work involved. The NMF is just like I imagine the real plane would look like. Keep them coming!
Much appreciated Pedro
gorgeous demon
Thanks Bob
Really well done George - and thanks for the call-outs on some of the paints - love the way the metal and the control surfaces differ subtly. Can I ask what you used for the spinner? It looks spot on!
Many thanks Paul. For the props/spinner I used Tamiya XF-64 Red Brown
Looking great, George. It looks like an engine with flight controls!
Outstanding!
Thanks Jeff
Nicely done, and thanks for the detailed write-up! I'll use it on my 1/72 version...
Thank you Greg
🙂 … Greetings … 🙂 :
Wooooooo ! … Nice one George, I was about to log off and this one just jumped out to me.
Very nice looking Demon, sharp and clean, nice sheen to it, long time I haven't seen one of these.
Thank you very much
nice Ki44 George. and excellent work on the metal. I love the Vallejo metallics, but don't have quite the same touch you do with them. The run of Hasegawa 1/48 Japanese a/c kits that came out around the same time as this one are just fun builds - the Ki43, Ki44, Ki84 all are very nice imo. thanks for posting!
Thanks Paul. I have the 43, with the cockpit started and opened the box on the 84