1/32 Hasegawa Ki-44 Shoki ”Tojo”

Started by Louis Gardner · 159 · 3 years ago
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    Spiros Pendedekas said 4 years, 4 months ago:

    This looks great Louis @lgardner!

    I use liquified styrene too as a filler more and more and it turns out fine, maybe with some microfilling afterwards with normal filler.

    Liquified styrene can also double as a bonding material, so I find ti very useful for filling gaps where structural integrity of the mating parts is a requirement too.

    As for the Ki-45 Kai mini group, I have already enrolled!

    It will be great to see many jobs in one topic, I can imagine it will be nice for a potential builder to have many threads within a main thread.

    Your Toyo looks fantastic and getting better all the time!

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    Erik Gjørup said 4 years, 4 months ago:

    Louis (@lgardner) my friend - regarding icecreamsticks, I have to outsource that one. I should loose weight, and had to let she-that-must-be-obeyed take care of producing icescreamfree sticks.

    Now, the goo filler is a nice trick, and one that I have been thinking of as well. One thing you may want though is to use maskingtape just when you add the filler, and pull it off immediately. I do not know if it will work, but I will give it a try at a later date. Thank you for sharing it all!

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    Jeremy Millan said 4 years, 4 months ago:

    @lgardner Good looking build so far Louis! I’m liking that shinny cowling. Looks great.

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    Louis Gardner said 4 years, 4 months ago:

    George, @gblair
    I have been watching your Ki-44 build as it progressed, and it is what has inspired me to get busy with finishing this one up. Thank you !

    I also think the plane looks better with the side entry panels opened up. However I am not sure how often this feature was actually used... like you I have yet to find any photos showing these doors opened up. The same thing is true for the flaps, as every photo of the Ki-44 I have seen so far, the flaps are raised, which I believe is a common practice for many planes.

    The aftermarket resin cockpit set you used for your build looked fantastic ! Thanks for the compliments.

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    Louis Gardner said 4 years, 4 months ago:

    Spiros, @fiveten
    This is now the second time I have used the liquefied styrene as a filler. I made sure to let it set up for several days so it would be completely dried before I attempted any sanding on it. I am VERY happy with how this stuff works. Thank you for the tip on how to make it, for I see this being used on my work bench more frequently ! I will also keep it in mind that it can be used as a bonding agent... all of these little tricks of the trade are very useful. The link to the video you posted on one of your builds was perfect and it answered a lot of questions for me.

    As far as our Ki-45 mini group build, I am excited about getting started on that one too... But for now I have to finish something in order to make room for the next project... I am running out of space with all of these unfinished models lying around. I do hope that someone can use the build journal as a guide for I hope it will contain a lot of information in it. I plan on posting some color usage information on it very soon.

    Thanks again for stopping by ! Take care and stay safe.

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    Louis Gardner said 4 years, 4 months ago:

    Erik, @airbum
    Thanks for the kind words of encouragement. In our home, we mutually share the task of removing the ice cream from the wooden sticks... but most of the time I end up doing more work than the misses does when it comes to this particular task. These wooden sticks do indeed come in very handy for use as a holding fixture for various things like painting small parts.

    I did use the masking tape trick when I placed Tamiya white putty on the model the first time around... but failed to do it the second time around... It should have been done both times. I made up for this by using the tape when it came time to sand it down. I didn't want to lose any more details than necessary due to the sanding work that was needed to smooth out the horrible mess I applied on the side of the plane, (and called it plastic filler...).

    I was a little worried that somehow the glue would creep under the tape and somehow attack the surface of the model. I didn't want to mess things up any worse than it already was. I need to try this again using a test mule subject to see if I can manage to apply the liquefied filler using the tape method.

    I did manage to make some great progress on the Ki-44 today, so please stand by and I will post a new update. Take care my friend...

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    Louis Gardner said 4 years, 4 months ago:

    Jeremy, @jmillan
    Thank you for the compliments. Today I made some very good progress, and I made sure to take a few more pictures of the cowling for you... So please stay tuned for the next update. It's happening next.

    Stay safe everyone !

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    Louis Gardner said 4 years, 4 months ago:

    I mentioned in the above posts that I made some very good progress on the big Shoki today. Please follow along, and I think you will agree.

    I started out by applying tape to the immediate area surrounding the plastic filler. I did this to help preserve the surface details of the surrounding areas.


    Then I took a small flat file and carefully began removing the highest portions of the plastic filler. You can see where the tape edges have started eroding away.

    My QC kitty decided to have a closer look to see if I missed any spots... So far so good, and I got the paw of approval to carry on.

    I replaced the tape along the vertical edges and started using 220 grit sandpaper to further smooth out the plastic filler. This was followed up with 400 grit.

    Both sides were treated in this fashion.

    The tape was then completely removed, and the surface was sanded more using 600 grit sandpaper. By now most of the sanding scratches were gone.

    But not so fast... QC kitty had to take another look.


    The other side was closely examined, and after some polishing was done to remove all of the small scratches...


    Only then did QC kitty give me a paws up to proceed. I had to make sure the plastic was smooth as possible as there will be some bare metal exposed on the final finish.

    Next up work started on the wings. I like to attach the upper sections to the fuselage if it's possible. This allows you to get to both sides of the joint, and it makes a nice tight gap free joint most of the time. I glued both upper wing halves to the fuselage. Here you can see the lower wing half is ready to be glued in place... but not so fast.

    I had to cut away the elevator from the horizontal stabilizer on the other side. Once I finished this task, I glued the stabilizers in place. The seam joint where it meets the fuselage was perfect.

    By now the upper wing joints had dried good enough to where I could glue the lower wing half in position. So I did just that...

    Here you can see where I previously drilled out the holes for the flaps to be deployed in the down position. I drilled the last two holes out crooked, so that is not going to happen now. Instead I will modify the kit parts and install the flaps in the "raised" position. This is also obviously more accurate, as I have yet to see a picture of a Ki44 sitting on the ground with the flaps down or extended. These were called "Combat Flaps" and were used to actually increase the wing area during a dogfight. This allowed the plane to make a tighter turn than usual when they were deployed. So now all of this drilling work will be hidden... and the flaps will be closed.

    Here are a few pictures showing just how nice the seams are where the wings meet the fuselage. I deviated from the kit instructions and "Did it my way"...



    There is not a gap anywhere that needs filling now... and I am very happy !
    Last but not least, I temporarily placed the cowling and engine assembly in place and snapped a few pictures to show you all how it looks now that the cowling is finished.




    There was a lot accomplished today at the Iron Werks, and I am extremely please with the end results.

    Please stay safe, and as always, Comments are encouraged.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 4 years, 4 months ago:

    What a great progress Louis @lgardner!

    I can only watch in amazement all those - small or big - tricks (masking tape to protect, upper wings joined first etc) being applied as your build is progressing, all clicking together to produce the good outcome.

    It's nice liquified styrene works for you too! Your result is excellent and you essentially have a uniform surface, regarding material as well. In some cases, for example when it is applied from the inside, I have experienced some sink mark to the outside, so I try to use the least possible amount; I do this by spot applying with a toothpick and (ok, I admit it...), feather it with my finger afterwards...

    Your Tojo looks more than great! Engine and cowling are dreamworks!

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    Erik Gjørup said 4 years, 4 months ago:

    Great result here Louis! For all intents and purposes, it seems like I may have to hire a QC inspector - they seem to add to the work all over iModeler 🙂

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 4 years, 4 months ago:

    By all means do hire QCs, my friend @airbum! Just make sure that you monitor their test flights very closely...

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    George R Blair Jr said 4 years, 4 months ago:

    Coming along nicely, Louis (@lgardner). I, too, have used dissolved sprue as a filler, but not often. It seems like it is harder to control than regular putty, and it is definitely harder to remove. Yours came out great, sometimes mine not so much. I always try to use tape when placing and removing putty, but usually only on curved surfaces. On flat surfaces you can only go so far and then you are sanding the tape. On curved surfaces you can attack the putty directly with your tool of choice. Thank goodness my QC expert usually only supervises my wife when she is quilting and leaves me alone. She (my cat, not my wife) has been known to sneak up and flop on my feet when I am doing some detail painting, which I obviously needed to do again. I have a Ki-45 in the stash, and some of Cessnas, so I am ready whichever way we go. Stay safe.

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    Louis Gardner said 4 years, 3 months ago:

    Spiros, @fiveten
    Thanks for the additional tips on how to apply the liquefied plastic putty. I will definitely keep this in mind for future use. I also used my finger to attempt smoothing it out some... and it works !

    Erik, @airbum
    You should consider getting a QC team together. With one in place you would be able to mass produce 109's "like so many hot rolls"...

    George, @gblair
    Thank you for the compliments, and additional information on how the putty works for you. I have found it to me much harder to apply when compared to regular putty. But the payoff when re-scribing lines is worth the trouble.

    As far as your Ki-45, please feel free to join us ! Now that would be very cool. I just posted another update on the journal...

    Stay safe my friends, and I have another short installment coming up next...

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    Louis Gardner said 4 years, 3 months ago:

    Today was a rain day, so I didn't get much work done out back in the shop... Instead I spent some time building and doing some research for various projects I have underway at the moment.

    I have been trying to decide what color scheme I will paint the Ki-44 as. So I opened this book up randomly...


    and the first page I saw had this on it !


    and I knew I had the choice made for me by fate. I wanted to do a little more digging, and I ran across this fantastic illustration by Ronnie Olsthoorn. I am fairly certain that he has done the magnificent illustration work for Nick Millman's "Osprey" book on the Ki-44 Aces. This is an artists interpretation, but I feel it is very accurate, and full credit for this should go to these fine gentlemen. If you have the chance to purchase this Osprey book on the Ki-44, I have heard great things about it. In fact I am going to purchase a copy myself...

    Now I know which way to go...so I can add the correct parts that will distinguish this one as an earlier version of the Ki-44. It will also work perfectly for the color choice I made for the cockpit interior. It's a big time win...on all counts.

    Having figured out the hardest part of the build, I decided to install the combat "butterfly" flaps in the raised position..

    So I cut off the mounting tabs and sanded the flap down so that it would fit properly into the recessed opening under the wing. This is how it looked at this point.


    Then it was simply a matter of gluing the flap into position. If you are using this as a build guide, please install your flaps so they will be partially visible from the top side like this. This is correct and Hasegawa got it perfect.

    This final picture shows how the flaps look when the installation was completed.

    Hopefully tomorrow I can get the leading edges of the wings painted yellow, and possibly the blue black anti glare panel painted on the fuselage too.

    Time will tell.

    As always, comments are encouraged. Stay safe everyone.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 4 years, 3 months ago:

    The scheme you chose is simply amazing, Louis @lgardner, definitely out of the ordinary. If I may say, It will take some effort to reproduce this gorgeous looking dappled effect.
    Thanks for the combat flaps detailed info: already imprinted in my mind for my future Toyo build.
    Your Toyo is looking great; I can only imagione how gorgeous will look at the above scheme!