Doing this one over in the Japanese GB so will post on here for those not following the GB progress.
Don't like surprises but there will be a few with this one. The wings came next and here we go.......why in the heck did Hasegawa do this goofy fit??
The upper wing skins don't match the bottom part along the leading egdges, extending just a hair and the trailing bottom wings have an ugly join line running along the bottom of the flaps and all along the ailerons that are fabric textured. This means lots of filling in with stretched sprue sanding and then re scribing all that fabric texteure on the trailing bottom wing and lots of sanding and re scribing along the wing LE.
I like the display plate Hasegawa included and will look cool done in metalizers and rusted up.
The kit markings I like and hope the decals are ok and will not fracture in water. I will test one of the ones I won't be using but if they fracture then some Microsol Superfilm will save them. I can always paint them on but just trying to keep the extra work away. These markings belonged to Sentai Commander Maj. Torashiro Aizawa of the 204th Sentai operating from Akyab air base, Burma. The aircraft is a KI-43 Type II made in 1943 and it had a heavy mottled dark green paint over NMF and undersides were NMF.
The kit color guide call for sollid green upper with chipping but I don't trust the info starting with Hasegawa calling this Hayabusa as a Type 1 which is wrong. This is a type II and can be made into a Type III. The Type I had a different cowl undersides and the VERY prominent long tubular gunsight thru the front windscreen and a two bladed prop. This kit has the Type II Cowl and windscreen with more modern gunsight and three bladed prop.
These Lifelike decals are a great reference source but unfortunately only come in 1/48 scale. The first plane is a Type I, the second one is a Type II and my subject . The differences can be clearly seen.
Upper view showing the heavy mottling and solid black top fuselage stripe.
I will be using my hoarded supply of Floquil Old, Bright and Platinum Silver paints for the NMF of this project. These paints IMO are pretty close to an Alclad finish.
Been working on the Oscar's pit and at 1/32 scale the scratch building is a lot easier than the smaller scales. I stretched some sprue and created the aileron rods for the foot pedals, longer handles for the floor mounted instruments and the seat back turbular piece. The Eduard PE set adds tons of details. After I figure out any more added thingies from my junk pile, the pit will get some Nakajima interior green and then all the wires and plumbing in several colors will be attached to busy things up. The pit will get busier once the paint goes on and finally the seat belts will get attached.
Same for the sides.
The IP will be next. Need to make a HL run to get some Testors flat black.
The crappy join lines on the bottom rear of the wings were filled in with stretched sprue and Tenax, then sanded. I spent several hours yesterday sanding, filling, checking and sanding. A dark silver grey line can be seen along the seam but there is no trace of a gap. The fabric texture was re scribed along the aileron bottoms.
The front LE section that had the top skin extending out sanded out nice too. It's flush and even now.
Here's the kit's IP
And the completed Eduard IP, what a difference!
Well this Hasegawa kit keeps throwing surprises at me. The engine, exhaust and cowling took several hours of careful fitting, carving and sanding to get a decent fit.
The exhaust pipes were way too thick to begin with extending past the firewall center part so that was sanded off along with removal of some of the center firewall thickness. Both parts created a large ugly gap between the cowl and the fuselage.
Here are the parts after heavy sanding and removal of the side plastic on the fuselage for the exhaust pipe clearance.
I used my thin razor saw to remove the plastic in between the open cowl flaps. The Eduard pe set includes brass flaps as a wrap around part but they cover up the separation detail so I won't be using them. I have a rule about using pe, just because the pe parts are there doesn't mean I will use ALL of them. I only use them if they give better details than the original plastic parts otherwise they go to the junk pile for future scratch building.
Here are the parts after sanding and fitting giving 120% better fit.
I also drilled out the nose gun depressions and added some brass pipes for the 12.7 guns.
The radial engine went together without an issue.
The engine will get painted and dressed up with brass wires from my junk box so that will be coming up soon.
I kept looking at the cowl flaps and noticed something missing and finally the bulb lit up, so the cut outs for both cowl flaps over the exhaust stacks were carefully cut so they can close, another goof by Hasegawa.
Speaking of goofs, no spinner back plate provided by Hasegawa either! I punched one out from those plastic cards that come in the junk mail.
Plate fitted and will be painted and attached later
main gears OOB
The scissors were thinned a bit and holes drilled. Eduard provides pe parts for this but they look too thin and flimsy. I will add some copper wires for brake lines once mounted.
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Now I have to wait for the Nakajima Interior Green paint for the pit to arrive from Scale Hobbyist. I thought I had some but none to be found in my paint stash.