1/32 Hasegawa Kawasaki Ki-61 I Kai C (Hei) "Hien"

Gallery Article by Olivier Barles on Dec 7 2011

 

Kawasaki Ki-61 I Kai C (Hei) "Hien", 23rd independent Chutai (Okinawa, Spring 1945) 

I can't help myself to contribute to ARC now that I've started to!

So, here are a few photos of my "Kawasaki Ki-61 I Kai C" from Hasegawa in 1/32 scale...

A nice model for a beautiful machine!

Not to say that all the airframes created around the DB 600 engine series have been indeed at the origin of some of the nicest plane designs that ever came out of "the air engineers' brain" wherever they are from, starting with "the German efficiency" and the Me-109 (more particularly the 109-F to my personal taste!), continuing with "the Italian touch" and the Macchis 202 & 205 and finishing with "the Asian harmony" and the Kawasaki Ki-61!

Thing is that I had been looking for an old 1/32 Revell Hien for quite some time when eventually Hasegawa released their model and now, with the Mitsubishi Raiden that Hasegawa has also just released, the two legendary missing Revell Models seem to have found their dignified successors! 

 

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Construction of this "Hien" was quite pleasant and straight forward with little personal investment limited to some (small quantity of) putty when needed, to add a safety belt in the cockpit, to dig a few rivets on the canopy frame, to add some joints at the edges of the windscreen and at the front of the sliding part of the canopy, to add pipes for the braking hydraulic system of the landing gear wheels and to finish with the antenna mast and its wires.

Then, came the time to paint this pure breed...
Wanting to escape the 244th Sentai decos and at the same time doing "a sort of" significantly weathered and aged painting, I went for a plane of the 23rd independent Chutai who fought from Okinawa in Spring 1945.  Dominant color is made of a dark red brown partially applied, leaving wide surfaces where metal re-appears, that metallic tonality also re-pointing out where painting looks very used (the quality of Japanese paint available at the end of the war was not that good!).

Then, I also found cool to circle the fuselage hinomarus with yellow color and I liked the drawing of the Chutai on the tail that was good fun to paint as well!

Truth is that whatever are the decoration and markings, it is "impossible" to make this plane looking disgraceful...

Hope you'll be pleased with the result.

Merci,

Olivier Barles

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Photos and text © by Olivier Barles