Finally, last night I started on the factory markings. When building Japanese army planes that were camouflaged in the field, one should paint it as it left the factory and then paint the camouflage. This gives a more realistic look as the field camo would never be under factory markings, (something I often see on model builds).
Using my Came cutter, and my masks that I created on my last Ki-43 build, I cut a new set of masks. Hasegawa instructions show smaller wing Hinomaru for the the type I, with the discs being placed outboard more. I looked at photos of Ki-43 I in New guinea and they all appeared to have larger wing discs that partially covered the aileron and aileron hinge (same as the type II). So this is what I replicated. Additionally, the fuselage hinomaru had a white ring applied to it, most likely by hand as they did not leave the factory that way. I adjusted the thickness of the white ring from the standard 75mm to 50mm.
Once the hinomaru were painted I noticed that i painted the fuselage hinomaru too far aft...so I guess i will be sanding, priming, painting again tonight. The antiglare was painted as a mix of C125 cowling colour, with some Nato black, rubber black, and flat black to make it look bleached and weathered. On Ki-43 that left the factory in bare metal, the anti glare extends behind the canopy, with the same footprint as when the canopy is fully opened. I knew that the field camo covered the rear anti glare, but kept the forward portion, but I still painted the rear antiglare. I did this because I am thinking of not fully painting over the rear antiglare, or have portions of the topcoat flaking off to expose the black.
3 attached images. Click to enlarge.
