Tamiya 1/48 Ki-61 Hien by Marcus Nicholls

Tamiya's 1/48 scale
Kawasaki Ki-61 Hien

by John Swarbrick

Kawasaki Ki-61 Hien

Tamiya's 1/48 Kawasaki Ki-61 Hien is available online from Squadron

Description

Here is my completed Tamiya 1/48 Ki-61.

I was pretty quick off the mark to get the 1/48 Ki-61 when it was released. However it sat in the stash for around 12 months before I got to it.

The kit is every bit as good as you have heard. The detail is excellent out of the box. The fit and general engineering of the kit is pretty much flawless. Tamiya also give us some clever features such as the canopy arrangement and the spine insert on the rear fuselage which deliver a great result.

The cockpit is superb with great detail no need for AM resin here IMHO. The only real thing it lacks is seat belts I used a set of the plastic belts from Fine Molds which worked well. Once you are past the cockpit build and painting the rest of the kit falls together effortlessly and quickly and you arrive at the painting stage. I ran with a scheme OOB for one of Kobayashi’s Aircraft. But elected to paint the majority of the markings making simple masks for the Hinomaru from masking sheet and using Tamiya tape for the fuselage band and stripe.

I used the new Tamiya Laquer silver paint thinned with Mr color self levelling thinners for the base coat this is every bit as good as decanting a spray bomb. I then made a few tones of this base colour by adding some white or grey for some contrast on the wing spar with some Gunze super metallics for some panels. I used the kit decals for the ‘kill’ marks and tail insignia. Once sealed in I made a slurry from some finally ground pastel, water and bit of dish soap and applied this liberally to the airframe. Wiping off the excess once dry. I added the exhaust and cordite staining from well thinned Tamiya enamel and a bit of EZ line for the antenna.

The build was over too soon and I’m left thinking about building another or the new Tamiya 109G…

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