Hi Louis @lgardner. Your engine' s perfect. Looking sharper than ZZ Top's Sharp Dressed Man! Cannot wait to see your build coming together.
All the best!

Hello Pedro, @holzhamer

Thanks for the compliments on the engine. I am very pleased with how it looks. It's a little kit of it's own, and looks even better with the plug wires added in my opinion. As far as which version ? I'm still not 100 % sure. I was thinking about doing an all metal finish, then going from there. But part of me wants to add some green camouflage sprayed on randomly like I did with the recent Tamiya Ki-61 Tony. Then I found these two illustrations from Nick MIllman's book. I have the decals in the kit that will allow me to build it as one of these two shown on the top, should I decide to. The very top one is very enticing with both green and brown colors on top, and a bare metal underside is possible with this one... so that's a plus.

Then there's this one on the back cover... It's tempting too. I can ask you for some airbrushing lessons if I decide to build this one... See the little squiggly lines ?

But I'm not entirely sure as of now. Thanks for stopping by !

Paul, @yellow10
Thank you very much for stopping by, and for making the compliments on the engine work. I am very excited to see how this kit will turn out. So far, so good... and I have been working on detailing the cockpit today...

As far as the overall participation we have received so far in the group, you are absolutely correct. I couldn't be more pleased. It has already exceeded my wildest expectations. It has been very well received, and most of the choices so far are not subjects that you would normally see built. Indeed we do have a wide variety of models. If things go as planned, I have a few more that I have been wanting to finish. I have the two Tamiya G4M "Betty's" along with the 5 A6M-3 Zero kits that need to get done...all are part of the 1/48 scale Yamamoto / Operation Vengeance build. They might just end up over here too, and possibly a few more lesser known subjects if time is willing. You just never know, we might have to extend the group a little longer if needed... : )

I am looking forward to seeing more of your work showing up here too. Thanks for joining in on the "Madness".

May you and your family stay safe. Please let them know that Sandy and I said hello.

I decided that I would drill out the holes in the wing for the combat "Butterfly" flaps. I wanted to build mine with them "Open" even though I have yet to find a picture of them this way when parked on the ground... The details provided in the kit look too nice to cover up. So I started drilling... While I was at it, I drilled a few holes in the landing gear well too.

It's getting late so I'll call it a night.

Be safe and stay home !

As always, comments are encouraged.

Incredible amount of detail that becomes available by upgrading to 1/32. Stunning!

That engine looks great and the good thing you still get a good view of it when tucked into the cowling. In this scale usually need to enhance the engine a bit. Very nice. The cockpit is coming along as well, though the blue honestly is quite unusual and a rare interior scheme that is not often seen. Then again there are not that many Ki-44's built. Looking forward to the next step.

Looks really nice Louis especially the engine. I you using the kit decals, Hasegawa made the same mistake as with my 1:48 version; the under wing hinomarus are too small, they should sit on part of the ailerons as well. The cover of your book and pics on Pg 18, 47 and the profiles agree with this as do your profiles posted above. I can't find any instructions for for the 1:32 version but when you join the wing parts together there may be a step showing at the trailing edge. Others complained about this and filled it in. I almost fell in with them until I went digging and found out that it is there to represent the "fighting flaps".

2 attached images. Click to enlarge.