I got started last night/early this morning. I'm not going for accuracy in the details here- for one thing, references on the Ki84 seem very difficult to find, and for another, what the kit gives you to work with is so miserable it's not even worth it unless you've got a resin replacement or something. Anyway, here's what I've done so far.
First up, cockpit floor. I cut a replacement rear bulkhead out of sheet styrene- the kit provides a solid piece, which is totally incorrect. I cut this to at least look a bit closer to correct. You can't really see it behind the seat, so I didn't spend too much time on it. The other massive error on the floor is the strange pedals. Besides being sized for what looked like a 72nd scale figure, they were at a ludicrous angle. I used the kit figure to cut better sized rudder pedals. They are a tad large, but are hidden beneath the IP, so I they'll do the job.
Under primer, and after I added a couple more details. I based this off of pictures of an aftermarket cockpit set. The only notable features I could easily add were what looked like an oxegyn bottle (chopped up cannon from old Gecko kit) and and a lever on the left. I'm pretty sure that this is supposed to be represnted by the kit on the sidewall, but it doesn't stick out nearly enough. I cut an old piece of throttle quadrant from a b-25 to fill the space.
One of the two big things I wanted to fix was the kits seat. The kit's seat is awful- it is rectangular, and the sides don't meld- it doesn't have a pad on the seat, and has a very deep ejector pin mark right on the seat. I cut the seat down to a more proper curve, and resanded the sides. I filled the center of the seat with a piece of styrene, which both fixed the pinproblem and serves as pad. I marked and drilled holes into the seat by spinning an exacto blade, and cut a very thin piece of styrene to match some pictures I found of the seat back. Belts where made from two pieces of tamiya tape on top of each other, with the ends superglued down.
Under primer
This was the other big thing I wanted to fix. The kit's solution to the IP was a solid piece, half in each side of the fuselage, and a large decal to be applied by cutting it in half before attaching the two sides. Ki 84 very noticably have open segments behind the machine guns. To fix this, I cut out everything except the bottom rail, and sanded smooth. I photocopied the decal sheet, and cut out the outline of the actual panel from two pieces of sheet styrene glued together. It'll get it glued in once the fuselage is assembled.
I also added a fuel line to the side of the cockpit, but I don't have a picture of that. I've got to let primer set, and then I'll get her painted. I'm thinking of using the green for this one- or do a late model and go natural metal. I haven't decided yet.
-TWA
youtube.com/c/thewaggishamerican
On the Bench- Tamiya 1/48 Raiden, Rufe, Buffalo, He 162; Academy 1/72 F-89, Eduard 1/48 F6F-3, Accurate Miniatures 1/48 F3F-2, Minicraft 1/48 XF5F, Academy 1/35 Hetzer, Zvezda 1/35 KV-2 (Girls Und Panzer)
