Hi everyone!
I'm new here. I've been building this Ki-61 for about a month. It is about 80% finished now, but I didn't take any pictures of the build process until today. My original plan was to just build it and show off the pictures of the finished model in the gallery. The reason I changed my plan is, well, I think I need your help:D
The airplane is Kawasaki Ki-61 Hei (or Ki-61c) of 244th Sentai stationed in Chofu, Tokyo. The specifications listed on the cover page are actually those of Ki-61 Tei (or Ki-61d), but I believe this model is Hei because it has shorter fuselage than Tei. On this particular aircraft, the long-barrel Mauser MG 151/20 cannons have been removed from its wing. One of the books I have states that the 20mm cannons were removed after the squadron switched their airplanes from Ki-61 to Ki-100, leaving this particular aircraft in 'reserve' state.
The coloring of this model is questionable. The vertical stabilizer should be painted in red. I have never seen an airplane of 244th Sentai with a blue vertical stabilizer. The propellers and the spinner were probably painted in brown. And if this model is the airplane that Major Teruhiko Kobayashi flew on, the 'lightning' stripe was also drawn in red.
Enough for the history. Let's move on to building the model. I tried to build this model out-of-the-box, no modification, as clean as possible (well, I tried).
The fits are marginal, I would say. At each connection of the fuselage I had to adjust the diameter of the sections being connected so that their cross sections match. It was pretty tough, but it is still doable. Even if you manage to fit the sections perfectly, the panel lines, the stripe and other markings don't match perfectly. I could not do anything about that.
The biggest challenge so far was the fillets. They are simply too long. I had to cut it about 5 mm at the front and shape it to fit between the fuselage and the wing nicely. The rear end of the fillet also look different from the actual airplane.
The wing and the rear section are good. They fit well. I could have done the canopy better, especially at the front.
It may sound like I hate this model, but no, I like it. I really enjoy building this model. It doesn't have props and landing gears yet and that makes it look as if it is flying. It's a cool looking aircraft, isn't it?
