1/32 Hasegawa KI-43 Build COMPLETED

Thanks guys!

Turned out great!

That is one beautiful airplane ya got there PJ. Well done!

Steve

Thanks guys!

Very nice.  Great finish.

Outstanding! Great detail and I love the way the paint wear turned out. Congrats!

The Oscar is finally done. Here are what went into the build:

Eduard pe set used for the pit.

Brake lines made from wire. 

Stretched sprue used for landing gear positio indicators.

Copper wire used to wire the radial engine.

Cockpit detail enhanced with scratched built parts made from stretched sprue.

Landing light lens made from stretched sprue, and chrome chip bag punched out disc for the reflector.

Brass tubes used for 12.7 nose guns.

All markings were masked and sprayed, no decals used.

EZ line used for radio wire and stretched plastic hollow QTip handle used for wire insulators.

Paints used were Floquil and MM enamels. Flory dark grime washes used and oil paints for streaks and exhaust staining.

thanks for the kind words TJ.

Ok so I kept looking at things and something was off while looking at reference photos. I goofed and separated the clear parts but the actul canopy was a one piece long part and not separated from the rear glass as I thought. Well thanks to the thickness of the UMM saw, I was able to rejoin the canopy frames together for a perfect fit. 

All the markings were sprayed and most of the small parts are attached. The next pictures I post will be of the completed plane. 

Hoss WA

Wow! Your work is fantastic so far.  Engine, IP, cowling, control surfaces, canopy -- your bold fixes are extremely impressive. Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to the finish. 

 

Thanks Hoss for following my thread and posting.

Wow! Your work is fantastic so far.  Engine, IP, cowling, control surfaces, canopy -- your bold fixes are extremely impressive. Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to the finish. 

I've been working on this to keep sane with all that's going on. I really never noticed that the canopy was in the closed position and would further block all my added details in the pit so I did some VERY careful surgery using the UMM saw to slice off the frame.

Surgery was a success!!!

The prop and spinner were painted and chipped

The hinoramus were sprayed 

I did the halo effect around the fuselage hinoramus

The lower surfaces of the ailerons and elevators were sprayed Japanese Army Grey lightened with some white for fading. The tail unit markings still need to be masked and prayed so that will be next.

Thanks Chad and BK. Glad to see you guys following my efforts.

Fantastic work. This is gonna be a stunner.

BK

Thanks ld. That was my hs graduation year.

No this is what modeling is all about. Taking an old kit and making it look modern!!

plasticjunkie

 

 

lawdog114

Awesome work. Looks like one of their older kits.

 

 

 

 

Thanks dog. You peaked my interest and couldn't find a date anywhere on the box or instructions. A quick search at Scalemates lists my model Kit # JS-089 as "New Tooled" for 1973. Geez that's the year I graduated from High School 47 years ago. 

 

Awesome work! Gonna be a stunner my friend.  1973? Wow....I was darn near still dead. 

Ok slight change in plans. I decided to go with a scheme i like better from the 2nd Chutai, 54th Sentai stationed in the Philipines. I did the Jap Army Green mottle scheme and then chipped it. The hinomarus and unit markings will be masked and sprayed since decals are slim pickings in this scale for the Ki43. The black antiglare panel and control surfaces also need to be sprayed.

I have been plugging away at this model and I must say that I have never had so many issues with a Hasegawa kit as with this one. After many hours of fiddling, sanding and carving the cowl and engine fit properly. I'm pretty happy how things are fitting up front so now I can move to other issues.

The wing to fuselage gap was filled with stretched sprue and melted with Tenax. The bottom fuselage to rear wing join was terrible too requiring stretched sprue as filler and TONS of sanding to get things to line up. An RB Riveter was used to replace all the details lost to the sanding.

I made my own brew of Aotake paint using Tamiya metallic blue and clear green

That radial engine looks perfect in there

I also put together the tanks and both bombs. I will have the wing tanks on the Oscar and thinking of a simple dio setting with both bombs close by as if they were ready to be attached to a plane. The join lines were discolored by the Tenax but the fit is perfectly smooth and solid. Something about old silver plastic that does that.

The pit is done.  I was gonna add more wiring but once the fuselage is closed up most of the details including the beautiful IP get hidden so I stopped here.

docidle

PJ,

Everything is looking great so far! Loving your scratch building skills. I’m definitely following this one.

Steve

 

Thanks Steve. More to come .

PJ,

Everything is looking great so far! Loving your scratch building skills. I’m definitely following this one.

Steve

BrandonK

You are certainly giving this kit a lot of love. Very nice work. This will be cool.

BK

 

Thanks for posting BK. 

You are certainly giving this kit a lot of love. Very nice work. This will be cool.

BK

Aggieman

Great work on the engine.

 

Thanks Aggie. Unfortunately most details will not be seen once the cowl covers them up.

Great work on the engine.

Spent most of the day wiring up the Ha115 fourteen cylinder radial engine. It was quite a time consuming task but adds tons of detail.

lawdog114

Awesome work. Looks like one of their older kits.

 

Thanks dog. You peaked my interest and couldn't find a date anywhere on the box or instructions. A quick search at Scalemates lists my model Kit # JS-089 as "New Tooled" for 1973. Geez that's the year I graduated from High School 47 years ago.