Great choice Pedro (@holzhamer). I will be strapped in to follow this build.

Pedro, @holzhamer

This is a most welcome addition ! I too have a Hasegawa Ki-61 started, but mine is the larger 1/32 scale kit. In fact, I just purchased another 1/32 Hien because they go together very well and very fast. On this second kit, I want to build it up as a machine from the 68th Sentai as well. I have a Kagero book on the 68th Sentai that I purchased on EBay, thinking it would have decals in it. When it arrived, it was missing the decals... oh well. Things happen. Look in your mail box, I'll send you a PM. Thanks !

@lgardner - Louis, I’ll be checking your bigger Hien build regularly. That’s too bad about the missing decals...any chance of getting them for the publisher?

@fiveten - Thanks for encouraging words Spiros! The scheme of that machine is indeed both awesome to see and challenging to replicate. I’ll do my best but with reasonable expectations. It will be a good canvas to try my latest airbrush, which I bought early this year and still has not faced a single mottling or stripes 😉

I started making some small progress along the interiors of the “Hien”.
For a nearly 30 years old kit it’s a good one. There are one or two areas that need some reshape, like the pilots seat - it is just too thick, remindes me of a 1/48 kitchen sink- and the propeller spinner, oddly it’s larger than the backplate so It needs some sanding too. Both items are visible on this pic

The sidewalls were glued to each fuselage side and I made a mix of brown and some light wood color to get this hue, which I have no idea if it’s accurate or not, but it looks good to me

Looking forward to it! The Tony and the Jack are my two favorite Japanese fighters (recently finished a Tony). I like the scheme you selected - that should be a nice challenge, and something different.

Pedro,
Your Hasegawa Ki-61 model will be a fun build for you. I have made several of these in the past, and even though it is around 30 years old, it is still a very respectable kit. In fact, to my knowledge, Hasegawa still makes the best "short nosed" version of the Hien. The new tool 1/48 scale Tamiya Ki-61 is a "long nose" version, which entered into service later than the short nose plane did. Because of this there should be more decals available for the short nosed kit...because it saw more wide spread use. So it pays to check your references. Don't tell anyone, but I have one or two Hien's in my display case that are decaled incorrectly, with a long nose version wearing short nosed decals... Hey things happen. 🙂

As far as the cockpit color is concerned, as long as you are happy with it, that is all that matters. I think you are on the right track with what you have done.

I just picked up a new tool Tamiya 1/48 scale Hien, so look for it to show up soon. I'll build it along with the twin pair of 1/32 scale Hasegawa kits. Keep up the good work, and I like what I see here.

Did a bit of work this weekend, after 3 weeks away from this project.

It’s a small advance but crucial for the overall shape of the complete model- wings to fuselage joint.

So I did a quick dry run getting both fuselage halves together and then add the wings, found that to get a perfect joint I needed to add some support along the inside of wing, raising it a bit.

Also considerably thined the seat pan, now looking much more in scale

The drop tanks are also sanded, some plumbing will probably be needed, but that’s for later. Although Hasegawa call for yellow as their color, it seems these tanks were painted anything but yellow.

The engine air intake is a bit simplified to my taste. I’ll cut off that blank plastic and replace it for some thin plastic stripes and also will thin the inside walls to a more in scale appearance.

Here you can see how good the resin exhaust stacks match the kit part. I estimate very little work to fit them seamlessly after painting the kit.