Hasegawa Ki-61 I Hein (Tony), 1/72
Our club contest theme for 2020 is "Made In Japan," and this is the first of 3 or 4 planned theme builds. Pretty much OOB, except I added some fins to the air intake on the fuselage side. I didn't intend to leave it a predominant NMF scheme - I had purchase a set of mottling decals from Tamiya, but when I tried to lay down the first one, it was a catastrophe, and plan B was to find another scheme and some more decals. I also tried a little "chipping" on the glare panel, but the paint was coming off in too large of sections, so I stopped where I was and used paint to finish. The chipping there is a little garish, but I decided to live with it.
Once the decals were down (only had to paint in a little of the blue stripe around the air intake), I flat-coated and then started weathering. The model has nice recessed lines, so prior to the flat coat I had used a grey panel wash to highlight those just barely. Then used pastel chalks for post-shading of the lines, and for some general disruption of the NMF finish. Tamiya weathering sets for the exhaust and gun smoke stain. I used some oils to add most of the scuffing on the upper wings around the cockpit. One mistake I made was to try to save a step and put the oil work on first, then use pastels, without coating in between. This made the pastels go down less smooth than I liked, and I'll go back to my normal process: pastels / another dull coat / then oils.
The decals laid down ok, but didn't really conform well to panel lines. I used MicroSol, and then Solvaset. The Solvaset made the Hinomarus bubble. I tried flattening with a makeup sponge after an additional application, and finally resorted to sanding them down! I had actually intended to attempt sanding off some of them to get a more weathered look, but that didn't work overly well. I also sliced through the panel lines with a knife and used more decal set to help them conform. In the end, the result was ok. You have to look real close to see the remnants of the bubbling.
The red wing walkways were not included in the box or on the AFM decals, so I went to the spares box and found some striping used on S. American Kfirs left over from my Ecuadorian Kfir build. These decals I cut apart to make each individual line segment. They gave the upper surface much more visual interest.
I'm overall pleased. I don't have a lot of NMF in my display cases (I'm kinda NMF-phobic), so this adds some nice contrast to all the usual camo schemes!
Nicely done, Greg. Beautiful weathering...especially for 1/72 scale.
A fine build, Greg.Looks great on your signature stand.
Well done Greg, I don't see any issues with your NMF paint job, looks good to me.
I agree with all of the above... 🙂
Some strong work Greg. I thought it was the Tamiya kit ...but, what you've done with that Hasegawa kit is just as good with the finish. Everything is smart and tight and is easy on the eyes.
Great looking Tony Greg. Looks elegant in flight.
That a very nice Tony! I like the in flight pose and the weathering. Keep them coming Greg
What a fine looking Tony, Greg. It was the sleekest looking Japanese plane I know of from WW2.
Well done, Sir!
An beautifully built and finished miniature, Greg. For my money, that natural metal finish is lovely and stands with anything I’ve seen.
You are one of around five modelers here that I’d say I knew their work as soon as I see it. And that is a compliment, Greg. Well done, the club will be delighted with this.
‘Liked’
Nice one Greg, up to your usual high standard!
thanks all!
Nice work, Greg. What silver did you use for the NMF? Your weathering simulates oxidized aluminum really well.
@j-healy rattle-can Testors metallizer (buffing alum), sealed with Testor gloss coat prior to decals, and dull coat pre- and post-weathering.
Great looking kit. I personally think that natural metal is evil and tend to avoid NMF at all costs, but you have pulled it off nicely. I'm glad to see someone else use rattle-can metals. I also use rattle-can metals but didn't want to admit it. Well done!
Looks good to me Greg, well done.
Looks great Greg. Your paint job is first class as is the weathering.
Another fantastic build Greg, Love it.
Nice metalwork and weathering. Decals turned out great!
Great work Greg! Love the metal finish and the chipping looks fine to me too.
Looks really nice. I have two of these to build.
Hi Greg: this Tamiya Tony is my next project. I was enthused about the prospect of using the after-market Tamiya camo decal, but see you had trouble with it. Would you please share what went wrong...what the difficulty might have been?