I've got three Hasegawa Japanese fighters - just haven't built one. They remind me of the Tamiya 90s kits (believe most of the Hasegawa kits were new tool around then). They go together pretty well - I did a Spit IVX that Revell reboxed and it was very nice, as was their 1/48 Val. But the new Tamiya things are simply a different generation - not saying you'll necessarily get a better model when the dust settles, but I guarantee there will be moments when you mumbel - "good grief - how'd they do that? (I would have done the 2014 Tamiya rendition of the A6M5 if I didn't need to try NMF: it looks like a terrific kit.) Wish Hasegawa made more kits - not sure when the last 1/48 "new tool" plane came out from Hasegawa. I sure they'd rebox the B-26 though - a very important WWII plane that's not available. Listen Eduard? Airfix? Tamiya?
Ki-61 is mostly assembled and primed. I've used the Vallejo Metal Colors on a paint mule and I am "hopefully optimistic" (how's that for a 1980's non sequitur?). This has been an education. As noted Tamiya makes better kits than anyone else - period. (Heard about their new tool 1/48 P-38F/G? I know what my Xmas present will be.) I decided to use gloss black stynelrez. I had good luck with it when I primed my SU-76. But I had not heard their recommendations of 20-30 psi with a .5 needle. Well, had I looked at my Paul Budzik (one of the two or three best YT modelers I think) video on nozzles, I would have remembered that .5 can mean a lot bigger or smaller depending upon the complexity of the needle. The Harder Steenbeck .5 I used is complex - a very shallow slope - which means a whopping big hole. Had this been a Paasche Talon, .5 would have been right. Stynelrez is "self-leveling" which means it should clean up when laid on thick, which you'll do with a .5 at 25psi. It didn't altogether - there were some streaks that I may or may not fix. Stylnelrez did follow the scratches on the surface too well - I had the whole fuselage very smooth but there were some very light scratches on the side - and the primer pooled on top of them. OK - time for surgery. I sanded the primer off and worked more on the scratches. Then I found out that despite claims of glory from other quarters, Stylnelrez does not sand off like a lacquer - it peels around the edges. (I've heard that a coat of future will allow Vallejo primer - famous for peeling - sand solid. That wasn't what I wanted here with NMF coming.) So, after trying to reapply the primer with a slower build up (think .20mm Harder Steenbeck at 20psi) it still didn't look right. So off it came and on went my Duplicolor Hot Rod Black Lacquer Primer over the offending area on the side - barely visible on the pic below. Duplicolor - being a no joke lacquer, grasps plastic like glue (but it does not damage it at all - zero). But Duplicolor is both "fillable" and "sandable" - which means small scratches disappear and you can sand the primer very nicely to give it a very smooth satin finish. I'm guessing that the Vallejo Metal Colors are opaque enough that it won't matter a bit. Anyway, stylnelrez is now for armor only - aircraft will get Duplicolor - it's great for black basing and I'm guessing it will work perfectly well for an opaque NMF. We'll see.
I've also researched some pics of the NMF Ki-61s. It looks to me that the NMF finish is more irregular than I've seen on US planes. Below are a wartime photo and one contemporary museum pic which is no doubt pitted, but still shows sign of an irregular finish. Many other photos show the same I think. (Yell if you think I'm wrong.)
Eric
primed by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr
MetFlight by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr
metal2016 by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr