Francois Wurtz
Bangkok, Thailand
A captured Ki-43 is pressed
into service by the French air force in 1945 at Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Francois
scratchbuilt a cockpit for FineMolds’ 1/48 scale kit, along with adding
ignition cables, landing gear and a rebuilt propeller, then painted the plane
in Japanese markings, weathered it, then overpainted French colors according to
a file from the archives of Groupe de Chasse 1/7, he says, noting the project took him about 200 hours over four months.