1/48 Tamiya Ki-61 Hien ”Tony” build review, kit #61115

Started by Louis Gardner · 80 ≡ · ↻ 4 years ago
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    Jim Harley said 5 years, 10 months ago:

    Great research...there aren't many of these in existence to draw from. I'm looking forward seeing your finished product. The intricate camouflage is awesome but above my pay grade 🙂 gotta practice some more. I guess a .002 needle would do the trick, and a steady hand. Great build!

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    Pedro L. Rocha said 5 years, 10 months ago:

    Louis, I bought my Hien at my LHS as a second hand, without box, kit. Much like old Frog kits, this one came in a plastic envelope with all pieces cut from the sprues but without any paint or glue. In fact the vendor told me it was from some guy who sold him, in a bundle deal, over 30 kits all unmade but with some poorly preserved boxes. Apparently this was the Hien case. It cost me 60% less than the usual “boxed” kit, so I think it was a fair deal to both.

    The Montex version I will eventually build is #1, and taking your photos as ruler this kit is the more prolific short nose model. Following your WIP with keen interest as usual 🙂

    4 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Louis Gardner said 5 years, 10 months ago:

    Hello Jim, @jimh

    Thanks for the kind words. You're correct about these planes being rare... Hopefully though we will have a fully restored example gracing the skies again soon... Can you imagine how cool it would be to see that ? Many years ago I saw the Ki-61 fuselage that Kermit Week's had on display at the Fantasy of Flight. Seeing that one and his A6M Zero "crash" display was worth the entry price at the time... you simply don't get to see that many Japanese planes. Those that were not destroyed by the Allies were smelted down after the War, as were the majority of the German and Italian planes. Sadly too many of our own planes ended up as beer cans and ladders too...

    I have seen your handiwork with model building and I will have to disagree with you. I firmly believe that painting something like this is well within your capabilities.

    As far as doing the research, it's almost just as much fun for me as the actual building part. I really like to dig into the backgrounds behind the actual planes (and pilots / units). To me it helps to bring the history out of the subject...

    I'm glad you are enjoying this build journal. 🙂

    Hello again Pedro. @holzhamer

    Thanks for sharing these pictures with us. Looks like you got a great deal on purchasing your kit.

    After looking at the pictures a little closer, I think that your model is the long nose version. The exhaust looks to be farther ahead of the wing than it is on the short nose version. But in all honesty it is hard to tell without a ruler.

    If those are the correct instructions for your kit then it is definitely a long nose variant. The kit #JT-12 is listed as the longer nosed Ki-61 in the chart I posted earlier.

    But since it was an open bag kit and didn't have decals with it, it's really hard to say exactly what version it is without measuring it.

    I have built up the exact same kit as the one shown on your instructions, and it's in the display case.


    It builds up into a great looking plane and I'm sure that you will knock it out of the park when you get to building it up. Your models always look so authentic and I'm sure that this one will not be any different from your other builds.

    I just took pictures to help you (and others) double check to see exactly what version of the Hasegawa kit you have. I took pictures of both the long and short versions with the fuselage laying on a ruler and squared up for a precise measurement.

    This next picture shows the long nose version.


    It measures in at 172 Millimeters long. This will come in at 6 3/4 inches overall length.

    This next picture shows the short nose Hien. It measures in at 168 Millimeters long.

    This will be just short of 6 5/8 inches long.

    I hope that these measurements will help you to accurately determine which kit you have. I do sincerely think that yours is the long nose Tony.

    It's a great looking plane and my favorite WW2 Japanese fighter. Please keep us posted on how it comes out.

    I really like the Montex masks and decals you have for your kit. The 68th Sentai is one of the planes I want to build.

    Who knows ? It just might happen a little sooner than I anticipated.

    Thanks again for sharing pictures of your plane with us.

    Today I didn't get anything done on the build. Instead I took the misses shopping... and we had a blast. It's been a good day. We needed this.

    As usual comments are encouraged.

    Thanks for stopping by ...

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    Pedro L. Rocha said 5 years, 10 months ago:

    Louis @lgardner , after reading above I went back to the bag and measured the fuselage. You hit the mark, this kit has the longer nose, measures those 172mm you gave and it’s #JT12 alright. So this leaves me with just 1 possible airframe, the Ki.61 - Tei, wich according to online sources used Japanese made 20 mm cannons on the wings, wich didn’t protrude outside, like the German made Mauser did, and was used on the predecessor version the - Hei.

    What a mess 🙂 Too bad Hasegawa didn’t specify the version of the K1.61 inside the box. Right now I think those masks are not suitable for this kit, but need to find references to the 2 planes contained in it. Thanks once again, and please carry on with your build

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    Louis Gardner said 5 years, 10 months ago:

    Pedro, @holzhamer

    Sorry to hear this, but I had a strong suspicion after I saw the photos that your kit was the long nose version. Here's the kit parts tree listing again. This time I cleaned the picture I took from my computer screen by cropping off the edges. It might be a little easier to read now.


    I made up a list of the 1/48 scale kits made by Hasegawa that have the shorter nose fuselage halves. These are all the same kit plastic parts, but with different decals.

    Here they are:

    09087 or JT-87 244th Sentai
    09613
    09654 244th Flight Regiment
    09670 68th Flight Regiment
    09744 244th Flight Regiment
    64718 "Shidenkai No Maki" with animated decals.

    Hope this will help you on your quest...

    Speaking of quests, I picked up a short nose Hasegawa kit tonight on an online auction site. Here's the box art for the kit.


    68th Sentai and is kit #09670

    What would really be fantastic would be for Tamiya to release a short nose version.

    I made some great progress on the Tamiya kit today. Please stay tuned for another installment.

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    Louis Gardner said 5 years, 10 months ago:

    Today was a good day.

    The misses and I went out and had a nice lunch together. When we came home, I started working on the Tamiya model. The cockpit is almost done now. It's a real jewel of a model.

    Starting out with these pictures of a plane that has been partially restored by Kawasaki Industries. I found these pictures online and zoomed in on them to show what color was used on the cockpit parts. Look at the pilots armor plate just behind the seat.


    Granted this is a repaint, but after reading what I have so far, I feel this is very close to the original color used. Here is an access panel for the side of the fuselage if I'm not mistaken.

    I zoomed in on the inside color here.

    It also seems to be very close to the color that I painted my model with.

    Close enough for me...

    I finished painting the upper cowling weapons.


    I painted the oil tank, rudder pedals and used some "Dull Aluminum" Bare Metal Foil on the ammo storage bins. I didn't add the foil to the sides since I didn't think it would be visible... more on that later.

    Next I installed the upper cowl guns. They pretty much hide the ammo storage bins completely.


    The only way you can see the bare metal foil is from behind like this.

    But if you are using the clear fuselage half that is included in the kit, it would be advisable to paint everything.
    Then I concentrated on painting the pilot's seat and other various controls.

    Here are some of the smaller controls installed on the cockpit floor. The Ki-61 had a group of various colored control levers and in this next picture you can see them added to the left rear of the floor assembly.

    At this point, I simply pressed the seat in position. I wanted to see how much was going to be visible. It's really starting to shape up now.

    The small parts were added and the little details were painted on the fuselage halves. Here is the Port side.

    and the Starboard side.

    Next I held the cockpit assembly in place to get a general feel for how this was going to look...





    I'm really liking what I see !

    Curiosity was getting the better of me, so I had to press the other half of the fuselage in place. Now it's really starting to look good !





    Please keep in mind the instrument panel and gun sight were not added yet. They still need some more detail work.

    I also wanted to show how much of the oil tank and ammo storage bins would be visible. Remember the instrument panel isn't in place just yet.

    So I took this picture here:


    I have the "plug in" turtle deck area ready to install for the rear window behind the pilot's seat. I was on a roll, so I pressed it in place too. Remember that these parts are being held in place by friction and are not yet permanently glued.


    This kit is going together like a dream so far. Baring any major accidents, the fit has been spectacular on this one.

    I'm really having fun with this build.

    Just what the doctor ordered !

    as usual,
    comments are encouraged.

    I'm going to go check out the lunar eclipse now...

    Calling it a night.

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    Louis Gardner said 5 years, 10 months ago:

    This morning I got a lot more finished on this one. It's literally flying together. 🙂

    I started out by adding the kit supplied seat harness decals. This is an area where an aftermarket seat harness might be an improvement, especially if you plan on posing the canopy open, like I am going to.


    Then I added the instrument panel decals and installed the IP and the gun sight. I used a 50 / 50 mix of solvaset and water to get the instrument decals to snuggle down into the openings. After they sat a while, I carefully took a damp Q-tip and lightly pressed them in place.

    Now the cockpit assembly is completed.


    You can barely see the bare metal foil covering the ammunition canisters. Ditto for the oil tank.

    I'm sure it would be much different if you were using the clear fuselage half. Speaking of fuselage halves, I glued them together. So far, so good... I also ended up gluing in the turtle deck behind the seat and added the cross brace above the engine.

    Then I installed the cockpit from underneath. It fits great !


    I had a very minor mishap when I was gluing the cockpit in place. Somehow liquid cement managed to seep in between the upper seam and I left a finger print in the plastic. Go figure... luckily I was able to lightly sand it out, and it was located where the upper cowling gets painted blue black (or flat black, I haven't decided just yet on the color scheme).

    Here are some close up pictures of the "office". A little paint touch up work on the structure of the turtle deck using Earth Brown, and it should be good to go.





    The next step is to build up the wings and install them. It's going to look like a Hien here real quick...

    As usual,
    Comments are encouraged.

    Thanks for looking.

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    Paul Barber said 5 years, 10 months ago:

    Louis, that cockpit! I think you have excelled even yourself - and judging by the shots of the real plane you have really nailed the colours! The IP is fantastic - I like etch but that is better - it is very detailed and the surface looks smooth, detailed and clean. Heads off to look in various boxes to judge decal quality...

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    Louis Gardner said 5 years, 10 months ago:

    Thanks Paul @yellow10

    for the compliments on the "office". I am very pleased with how it's turning out. For me, having a three dimensional IP is more realistic looking than just a flat decal. They did a fine job engineering this kit. I don't see the need for anything aftermarket for this one, unless one opted to upgrade the seat harness. It's that good and the fit is very precise.

    Yesterday I completed the wings. While I was at it, I did a little comparison between the Hasegawa kit and the new Tamiya.

    The main difference between the two is located in the wheel wells and wing tip lights. There's also a separate part on the Tamiya kit that acts as a cover for the center section of the wing. This separate part will also act as a housing for the radiator.


    The panel lines seem to be very similar. Tamiya has the holes open for the wing drop tank mounting brackets. Hasegawa has the model maker doing this step.

    The wheel wells are a little deeper and more detailed on the new Tamiya kit. The Tamiya example is in the lower portion of this next picture.

    Here the Hasegawa kit parts are in the foreground in this comparison photo. You can see just how much more depth is present on the Tamiya wheel well in the background.

    The Tamiya kit parts have some extra reinforcement spars molded into the plastic. This helps to keep things nice and straight.

    The wing tip lights are also more detailed. They are molded in a manner that places the seam line right inline with a panel line. This makes sense and no details will be lost due to cleanup sanding should this be required. The ailerons are molded in place using this technique as well.

    But the fit was perfect on my kit and the joint is literally invisible. Here's a picture of the completed wing.


    It's nice and strong, plus the fit is perfect. No gaps were present anywhere. Plus the reinforcement spars keep it nice and straight. No droopy wings here !

    I dry fit the wings in place. As expected the fit was spectacular ! No glue has been used here and the parts are held in place by friction alone.

    I plan to do some detail paint work and then I'll attach the wings permanently. Here's how the Hien looks now.

    Both kits are very good, but as expected, the Tamiya kit is far superior in my opinion.

    But then again, the Hasegawa kit is 25 years old now. Even at 25 years of age, it will still build into a great looking kit. I'm not bashing the older Hasegawa model by any means. If I was not happy with the older Hasegawa kit I wouldn't have recently purchased another short nose version.

    Now if Tamiya would only release a short nose fuselage... I would end up purchasing a few more.

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    Louis Gardner said 5 years, 10 months ago:

    Hello again everyone... Unfortunately our full scale 1 to 1 life has been keeping me rather busy with things that I would rather not have to be dealing with at the moment. I have not been able to enjoy the time at the work bench as often as I would like.

    Last night I managed to get some more done on this one.

    I started off by masking off the areas that were going to be painted with white. I also included the yellow areas, so that I could apply white as a base color. Once the masking was done I sprayed on the base color.


    Here's a close up of the fuselage "bandage".

    Followed by the wings. You will notice that I painted white as a base for the upcoming yellow that was used on the leading edge of the wing. The two wing mounted gun openings on the leading edge are simply held in place here by a friction fit. I wanted to be able to paint and install the wing guns after the yellow had been painted. I am hoping this will look better and will have less of a change for painting errors this way. Time will tell...

    I painted the inner and out landing gear doors as well. This is how I masked them off to get the color lines correct.


    While this was drying I cleaned up the tail feathers in preparation for painting too.

    By now the paint had dried and it was time to spray on the yellow. I used Model Master "Deep Yellow" enamel which was a color in the WW2 Japanese line of paint. In order to keep the yellow overspray off the white wing "bandages", I masked them off with some painters tape as seen in this next photo.

    Here's how the wing looked after several light coats of yellow were sprayed on. The white base color is a must when painting yellow, since it doesn't cover very well.


    I also sprayed the leading edges of the landing gear doors. Here in this picture shown below, you can see everything that was done so far.

    I cleaned up the air brush. This gave the paint some time to dry enough where the masking could be removed.

    I just had to dry fit the parts so that I could see how it was going to look... The wing joint appears that it will be very nice. Please remember that these larger parts are simply held in place by a friction fit so far and have not yet been permanently glued in position.

    Coming right along. Maybe later tonight I can get some more painting done on this one.

    As usual,
    comments are encouraged.

    Thanks for checking in...

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    Louis Gardner said 5 years, 10 months ago:

    Today has been chilly and we have had some rain... so it was a good day for working on the Hien.

    I started out by building the air diverter for the radiator. Once it was done I gave it a coat of WW2 German "Panzer Gray"


    The main wheels were also sprayed at this time.

    The propeller assembly was build and sprayed using Tamiya Acrylic, XF-64 "Red Brown".

    In case you're wondering how the air deflector looks in place, I simply pressed it in position here. Friction fit alone was enough to hold these parts together.



    and this is how it will fit eventually... against the bottom of the fuselage.

    I ended up re spraying the interior of the landing gear doors using the same color as the cockpit. Now they match the landing gear bays. My original intent was to paint these areas in a dull aluminum color as if they were left unpainted.

    I also managed to take care of the seam ahead of the cockpit. It was my fault this needed any filler at all. I simply didn't glue the joint and it was flexing. This caused the need for filler. I'm happy I figured this out... oops.

    Then it was time to install the wing... and it fit perfectly. No gaps anywhere, and no filler was needed.

    You will notice the Yellow leading edge wing identification, and White "Bandages" have been pre painted. I also painted the ailerons to represent a fabric covered surface.

    I did this because the plane will be covered using Bare Metal Foil. If I tried to use any sort of masking after the foil was applied, the tape would lift the foil...



    Early on I had decided to cover this model using Bare Metal Foil. I wanted to do this for a while.

    Here's how it all starts... I use Q-Tips and my fingers to get the foil to conform to odd shapes. If it doesn't fit well or if it has any wrinkles, simply lift it up and re apply it again. I use my finger nails or a wooden tooth pick to press the foil into the panel lines.


    Once burnished into the curves, it is trimmed off using a brand new razor blade. This is how it should look. This color of foil is called "Matte Aluminum".


    I use different colors on the panels. This accentuates the foil appearance. This next color is called "Ultra Bright Chrome".


    Some areas are wrapped across the top of the fuselage as needed. I follow the panel lines.

    It's actually quite simple once you practice a little...
    Here's a photo that shows all three shades of foil that I am using. The last color shown on the side of the fuselage below the stabilizer is called "Chrome".

    The rudder is simply pressed in position to take the photo.


    Hopefully this will look fairly convincing once some dark green squiggles are sprayed on top...

    As usual,
    Comments are encouraged.

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    Louis Gardner said 5 years, 9 months ago:

    It's been a while since I have been able to get back at the work bench. Today I managed to get around 15 minutes and I enjoyed every second ! I really needed this.

    Most of these areas were covered with various shades of Bare Metal Foil several weeks ago. Today I covered the remaining elevator assembly and then installed it.


    Now the "tail feathers" are done ... I painted the fabric covered control surfaces with an aluminum Dope color. They are a stark contrast with colors from the rest of the airframe.


    Now I'm going to work my way forward to the Nose section of the fuselage. Sharp eyed viewers will notice how I carried the same color of Foil ahead of the fuselage "bandage". This is the same panel that carries through under the bandage. This is how the real aircraft would have looked since it is the same piece of aluminum and would have came from the same section in the roll during the manufacturing process.

    It will almost be a shame to cover up all of this beautiful bare metal with some dark green squiggly lines for camouflage.

    I may decide to do a different overall scheme using one that is in overall bare metal (or mostly bare metal).

    I want to see how the rest of the finish turns out first.

    Time will tell ... For now I'm really liking how the different shades of Foil are looking.

    As usual comments are encouraged.

    Thanks for looking.

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    Greg Kittinger said 5 years, 9 months ago:

    Looking great! I've never used the foil, so watching with interest...

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    Pedro L. Rocha said 5 years, 9 months ago:

    Louis, now that tail is looking mighty impressive! I have never used BMF (and probably will remain as such) but you work flawlessly with that stuff! Super work my friend!

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    Darren Dickerson said 5 years, 9 months ago:

    HI Louis Looking really good, something for next time if you want try is to place the seat belt decals on Tamiya tape, cut to shape and this wll give them some substance and a wash over them will tone them down a little. I have the 1/32 Hasegawa Hien in my pile of kits and plan to build one soon, in addition to the Tamiya 1/48 kit.

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