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

Started by Louis Gardner · 80 ≡ · ↻ 4 years ago

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Louis Gardner said 5 years, 9 months ago:

Greg, @gkittinger
I think if you give the foil a try, you will like it. It looks much harder to use than it actually is. Thanks for the compliment !

Hello Pedro, @holzhamer

Thanks for the kind words about the BMF. You might want to consider using it on the underside of a Late War Bf-109 or FW-190 D. I have seen some late war Luftwaffe aircraft with sections of the wing left unpainted... something to think about. Previously I used the BMF on a 1/48 Hobby Boss Ta-152 C-0 "V-7" in the same manner as I described to you. Here's a link showing the model.

Focke Wulf Ta-152 C-0 V7 werk no. 110007
Check it out when you can, and think about using the BMF. I sincerely think you will like it. It comes in various shades and Matt Aluminum may be more to your tastes. I really like the stuff... however for some it just may be a little "too" shiny. "It looks like metal because it is real metal" is in their advertising... Hey Darren, @darren-d In all of my years of building I never thought too much about seat belts. But as I try to improve my models, seatbelts are definitely an area where I can stand some improvement on my builds... Thanks for the excellent tip... I'm going to have to do something, because as I was drying the model off with a blow nozzle using my air compressor, the kit supplied seat harness disappeared ! Now I'll have to scratch something together... Thanks again . I have the 1/32 scale Hasegawa in the stash and it's a wonderful kit. I almost built it instead of this smaller Tamiya one... I'll be looking forward to seeing your Hien. If you don't mind please post up some pictures... 🙂 I have another installment just a few minutes away... Hope you all enjoy it.
Louis Gardner said 5 years, 9 months ago:

Here's the results of tonight's efforts at the work bench. I was fortunate enough to get about an hour's worth of work done.

I started working on the fuselage, headed towards the nose.

I like to alter the shades of foil as I cover the model. I don't use a set pattern, instead I just go about a random color choice. Here you can see more progress as I have more of the fuselage covered in foil.

As long as two colors mated side by side are not the same that's all I'm after. However, I do try to mirror what is done on one side, and copy it on the other... Here I also changed things up a little more and used Matt Aluminum on the fuselage access hatch, while the surrounding foil is "Ultra Bright Chrome". It definitely shows up !

I used some of the trimmings to start covering small sections of the wing...

I'm happy with the progress I made tonight. I have about 3/4 of the fuselage completed now.

As usual,
Comments are encouraged.

Thanks for looking... 🙂
Erik Gjørup said 5 years, 9 months ago:

Thanx for sharing - now I really feel challenged with the two I keep in my stash.. - amazing work, super pictures, AND extremely helpful text! Well done Louis!
Louis Gardner said 5 years, 9 months ago:

Thanks for the kind words Erik. @airbum

I hope this posting will serve as an inspiration for you to start building yours. I have looked at your 109 article and it looks fantastic ! I'm sure that your Ki-61's will turn out equally as nice as your Bf-109 has...

Earlier today I was able to apply some more bare metal foil in various shades on the fuselage and wings.

The lighting doesn't show this very well, but I have included pictures from different angles to show how reflective the surface is. By using the different shades of BMF, it looks as if some of the areas have not been covered due to the way the light has reflected off the surface.

The majority of the fuselage is covered now...

As usual,
comments are encouraged.
Robert Paschall said 5 years, 9 months ago:

Hey buddy, it looks great with the BMF. I really would be a shame to cover your work with all those swiggley green lines.
I thought I had read recently about a new decal set for a bare aluminum Tony? Which would certainly be different!
Anyways, great job my friend!
Louis Gardner said 5 years, 9 months ago:

Hey Robert, @beauslx

The kit supplies a set of decals for a NMF Ki-61 for Maj. Kobayashi from the 244th Sentai. It has an overall red tail, but I wanted to build something other than that one. The main problem I have ran into with finding a plane in overall NMF, is the length of the nose.

The Akeno Fighter school used the type, and the fabric covered flight controls appear to be in "aluminum dope" color.

and most of their planes were left unpainted. Here's a lineup showing some of them.

However these are the "short nosed" version... too bad.

I did find this one from the 19th Sentai in the Philippines.

It has the long nose, and is "almost" in overall NMF. But it does have a little bit of camouflage sprayed on sporadically...

This last plane from the 19th could be a contender... 🙂

Lifelike decals has released several sets for the Ki-61,

but the long nosed versions are in overall green or have green sprayed on top of the NMF.

The NMF versions in the decal sets are the shorter nosed variants... too bad.

Printscale has released a set too...

If I decide to go with the 19th Sentai plane, I need to see if I have a fin flash in the decal stash. Otherwise I will probably go with this 244th Sentai plane with the red "arrow" on the fuselage and bandages

(the second one from the top) using my decals from Aero Master. It's #57 and also has been done by Lifelike decals above, as A/C #7.

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

Well it seems to me Louis, that you are spoiled with choices, albeit most are NMF with green mottling, they all look terrific.
Very nice work so far, but there is one question that pops my mind when I look at the foil and that is how it behaves to oils and washes if you want to weather the look of it?
Louis Gardner said 5 years, 9 months ago:

Hello Pedro ! @holzhamer

I am lucky that we have this many choices to choose from. Thanks for the compliments.

As far as how this stuff works with weathering, I honestly don't know. As a rule I normally build models clean when I use the foil. But I do plan on giving it a try on this one. On most of the Ki-61's that I have found pictures of, they appear to be affected by the environment and sun faded / or oxidized. The aluminum doesn't appear to be highly polished either. Almost like what you would expect to find on a Mig-15... so I have to think about this a little. I'll keep you posted and report my findings when the time comes.

Thanks !
Louis Gardner said 5 years, 9 months ago:

Over the last two nights I have continued on with the BMF...

Now the upper wing surfaces and 99 percent of the fuselage are complete.

I really like how using the different shades catches the light and accents each panel differently.

It's a little more work and takes more time, but I think the results are worth while.

I still have to cover the majority of the underside of the wing, and the underside of the fuselage just below the engine.

Once I get the entire airframe covered in BMF, I will apply the decals. The overall finish is a little too shiny for my liking on this one. I will have to do something to tone it down just a little and reduce the shine.

This would look great on a F-104 ! I have plans to build a NMF Airfix P-40 in the near future. I think it will look good like this too... 🙂

I have seen some restored planes that are highly polished. They would also look good like this.

I will spray on the green squiggles after the decals are applied. This might tone it down to exactly how I want it to look.

For the undersides, I might try giving it a coat of Model Master Dullcoat... but I will experiment on my "shelf of doom" AMT 1/48 scale A-20 Havoc first to see if I like how it looks before I try it on this one...

I just might build up my larger Hasegawa 1/32 kit like this using BMF on it too. It would look good as a plane from the Akeno Flying School in overall NMF...finished up just like this one, (minus the "bandages"), but only larger...

I will be building a 1/48 scale Tamiya Mig-15 for the "MiG Group Build", also using BMF on it, but I will have to tone it down a little too.

As usual,
"Comments are encouraged"
Louis Gardner said 5 years, 9 months ago:

I didn't get much sleep last night, but I did get some more BMF on the "Tony".

This was last nights progress.

The majority of the underside was completed.

Tonight I finished the rest ...

The test spraying of a flat clear on the A-20 turned out acceptable. I can go that route as a backup if needed to tone down the brightness of the foil.

The next step is to add the decals.

Then it's time to spray some little green squiggly lines.

Thanks for looking and as usual,
Comments are encouraged.
Louis Gardner said 5 years, 8 months ago:

Today I added most of the larger decals on the Ki-61.

The smaller stencils still need to go on the model. Once they do I'll start spraying on the green squiggles...maybe.

Part of me wants to keep the plane as is, and not spray on the green. I'll still tone down the shine some, as it looks too bright as is when you compare it to period photos of the type. The bare aluminum finish tends to look as if it has oxidized some on the real ones.

Maybe tomorrow I'll add the smaller decals and see what happens from there. I may decide to leave it alone, but probably not.

There was a very similarly marked Hien that is left in natural aluminum, without the green. However this one is a short nose version. It also has a wide "presumably" red fuselage band just ahead of the stabilizer.

When I look at the Aero Master decal sheet, it looks as if the green was sprayed on after the markings were applied... So I guess that "theoretically" I could leave the green off... and say this is how the plane looked just before the green camouflage was applied...

Anyhow,
Thanks for taking a look at the latest progress, and please stay tuned for another installment...

As usual,
Comments are encouraged.
Jim Harley said 5 years, 8 months ago:

That's stunning! Doesn't get any better than using real aluminum.
Tom Bebout said 5 years, 8 months ago:

That's really looking nice buddy, exceptional work indeed. You may want to try semi-gloss overcoat on that A-20 to see how that looks versus a flat coat. Worth a try.
George R Blair Jr said 5 years, 8 months ago:

Wow! The natural metal is awesome. I have always religiously avoided NMF because they look so bad if you don't do them right. This model is a clinic in how to use foil. Looking forward to photos of the finished model.
Paul Barber said 5 years, 8 months ago:

Ok, so I've been away from iM for a while, and over the weekend I logged back on to catch up. Louis, this is absolutely sensational! Your idea to use one of your favourite techniques to pick out the different panels in different shades of NMF is just a master-stroke! The decals have gone on perfectly, too! You must be very pleased, it is brilliant!

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