Three Nicks and a tanker

Started by Michael Turner · 15 · 2 weeks ago
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    Michael Turner said 1 month, 1 week ago:

    I’m thinking of building these three Ki-45 kits, one of which comes with a refueling truck.

    3 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Michael Turner said 1 month, 1 week ago:

    Two will be out of the box while the third will be slightly modified.

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    George R Blair Jr said 1 month, 1 week ago:

    Looking forward to your multi-plane build, Michael (@michaelt). The Ki-45 is a cool plane. Have you got your shelf space figured out for these three?

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    John vd Biggelaar said 1 month, 1 week ago:

    This will be a wonderful thread, Michael @michaelt
    Will you paint them as shown on the boxart?

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 month, 1 week ago:

    What an awesome multi entry, my friend @michaelt! Looking forward to them!

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    Michael Turner said 1 month ago:

    We had a club build weekend and I made a start on the kits.

    I mase a rookie mistake right at the start when I cut the fuselage pieces from the sprue. I cut the first ones off and then realised I'd cut the internal frames off the central fuselage. I got the next two right and I will match one of these up with the botched halves so I can glue the frames back in place.

    The three builds will be:

    • Ki-45 Kai Koh (Ki-45IIa)

    • Ki-45 Kai Otsu (Ki-45IIb)

    • Ki-45 Kai Hei (Ki-45IIc)

    The first two cockpits are in the early #3 Hairanshoku (Ash Indigo) and the third is the later #29 Ki Midori Iro (Yellow Green) used from mid-1943.

    Both the Koh and Hei were armed with the 20mm canon in the lower fuselage while the Otsu was armed with a 37mm, manually loaded, tank canon. only 20 or sow of these were built before being supplanted by the Hei, with an automatic 37mm canon in the nose and the 20mm canon restored. This Hei will be the early short noosed version, the ultimate Hei having a longer, pointed nose that fully enclosed the canon.

    So, I deleted the 20mm canon breech in the Otsu cockpit and will look through the spares bin for a suitable, larger replacement. This one will require mods to the lower fuselage to cover the larger breech - for which I have found a photo reference.

    I still need to add dial decals, seatbelts and weather the cockpits.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 1 month ago:

    Besides the little misstep, we're human so that can happen, a great start on all three of them, Michael @michaelt

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 month ago:

    Excellent progress and an easy fix, my friend @michaelt!

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    Michael Turner said 1 month ago:

    Painted ans weathered the cockpits and applied decals.

    The decals are the usual thich Hasegawa fare with the oldest set having the ivory white. The kit comes with the instrument panel as both white and colour on black and the same without the black background.

    I used the set wothout the black background on two of the kits.

    The older set shattered when I applied them so I used one of the newer black-backgrounded decals.

    I cut out individual sets of dials for the side console and radio but again, the older set tore as I cut them out and so were unusable for the radio.

    I used Eduard coloured aftermarket belts for front and rear.

    The Koh cockpit.

    The Otsu cockpit. I replaces the lower 20mm gun with a cut-down MG108 to represent the breech of a 37mm tank gun.

    The Hei cockpit.

    The radios get added once the fuselage is closed up. I will add a rack for the 37mm ammo of my own design because I haven’t any reference pictures for that.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 month ago:

    Excellent progress so far, my friend @michaelt!

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    John vd Biggelaar said 1 month ago:

    Really nice work on those interiors, Michael @michaelt

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    capt. R said 3 weeks, 6 days ago:

    Fantastic interior!

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    Michael Turner said 2 weeks, 2 days ago:

    Three aircraft require three sets of everything.


    Two more wings and the final fusealge to assemble.
    Nearly ready for more paint.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 2 weeks, 2 days ago:

    Everything looks excellent, my friend @michaelt!

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    John vd Biggelaar said 2 weeks ago:

    Great preparation, Michael @michaelt