Tamiya 1:48(50) Nakajima Ki.84 Hayate(Gale)
The latest off the bench, Tamiya's ancient(1973) Ki.84, Allied code name "Frank". The aircraft served with the 58th Shimbu-Tai, Kyushu, Japan, May 1945. A great kit that went together fast. It has a combination of raised and engraved panel lines. Interior was done in silver paint with red oxide coloured seat as per one of the Japanese aircraft sites I use for reference. I only used a bit of filler but had to add some strip around the right wing root to close the gap. For the leading edge I.D. colour I pre-coated with white and then sprayed Tamiya X-8 Lemon Yellow because for some reason I have four bottles of it. I added some Tamiya XF-7 Flat Red to the yellow using an old detail brush that I use for stirring, amount unknown. Masked off I then sprayed XF-14, J.A. Grey and then top colour, XF-51, Khaki Drab which is close to the chip on one of the Japanese sites. Glossed coated with Future, I added the good old bullet proof Tamiya decals which resisted every decal solution I had. In order to get the decal to lay flat over two actuators on the wings, I took a very hot face-cloth and gently pressed the decals into the wings. This worked great as usual but required two small paint touch-ups as the tenting was just too big. This was a very quick build, five weeks total, but I probably could have done it in three. Highly recommended
Excellent result, George @blackadder57
The decals did indeed came on very nice, never heard about this hot cloth trick but it seems to give great results. Will definitely give it a try.
Thank you John
Hi George,
Great job all around. I really like the clean look. It looks like it could be a demo model for the box art. If you get an opportunity, pick up some Mr Mark Softer and Mr Mark Setter by Gunze. It works great on Tamiya decals, so much so that if I like the scheme included in the box I no longer worry with aftermarket decals. I recently used ten year old Tamiya decals on a NMF Mustang and they look almost painted on using the Gunze method.
Thank you Scott. I used, in order of use with many applications of each, Microscale, Mr. Mark, and finally my almost exhausted supply of Polly scale, which I feel is the strongest of the three. I didn't use Solvaset as I don't have back-up Hinomarus...yet.. I just noticed "Ultimate" make a decal set which I might look at
Looks fantastic, George!
You took the most out of this very old mold.
Loved the "hot cloth" trick, as well!
Beautiful Hayate George !
Very nice! Well done.
Loved it George.
Well done, George (@blackadder57). I have been tempted by this old kit several times from vendors at shows, but I was thrown off by the 1/50 (rather than 1/48) scale. I suspect that I wouldn't have been able to tell the minor differences between the two scales. Nice work getting the decals down. Both Tamiya and Hasegawa decals from this era were very thick. I just read an article where the builder used a hair dryer to soften the decal to make it more pliable, but I would think you would really need to be careful not to melt your model.
Nice and clean looking George. I like it.
Clean and nice work George. That’s not easy to do. Cool plane and unusual to see a skull and Cross bones on Japanese planes. There must be a story behind it somewhere.
Nice shade of khaki, I have to try it.
Excellent work George. Thanks for sharing!
Nice work, George.
What they said, looks great, George!
‘Frankly’ speaking, this build looks awesome! Very nice build.
I think the Ki.84 was the best looking Army plane but the N1K2-J is the best looking Navy plane.