Nakajima Ki-84 - 1/33 - Halinski

[Don Boose]

Beautiful work on the undercarriage and wings, Ricardo.

I will be interested to see how you join the front and rear fuselage sections. One of the most difficult tasks for me, and usually unsuccessful.

Don

[ricleite]

@ Don – I try to choose a relatively loose joint section, if possible. As the front of the tail assembly is not close to a card former, it has flexibility to adapt to a slightly different cross section. So, this task usually goes well. I find mating the fuselage to the wing and installing the wing root fillets much riskier!

The wings have some pretty details. Their use is obvious on several cases but not so much on others…

[smithdr]

Ok...that machine gun must be a resin aftermarket.

Man! What a joy to see this. Thanks for continuing to inspire.

Dan

[MrConk]

Beautiful, beautiful work on what seems to be a fine kit and now I know why, with my old man eyes, I shy away from Halinsky planes.

[ricleite]

@ Dan - no, it is, indeed, rolled paper
@ Mr Conk - thanks I need glasses to see at short range, unfortunately. The good part is that they are very effective.

The engine cowling is harder to assemble than it may look to be. The upper air intake interrupts the main parts and, from the assembly viewpoint, doesn’t help.
The back former is not glued. It is in place to check the fit. Obviously, it must be removed to put the engine in its place.

[Texman]

The only flaw I see so far, is the inside of the machine gun barrel. It is white, and
stands out.

If that is the only problem visible, what an outstanding work!

[ricleite]

@ Ray - not too hard to correct But, inevitably, there are more glitches. Hopefully, they fade when the model is complete...

I usually assemble the canopy only at the end of construction. In this case, I anticipated a bit. The plastic accessory is conceived as 3 parts in a common plastic bit. They have to be separated and may make the life easier if the objective is to leave the canopy in the open position. I’ll decide about it later.

[smithdr]

Beautiful! How on earth do you keep from smudging glue etc. on the canopy? What kind of glue is it? Just a lovely job...

Dan

[Erik Zwaan]

Canopy always difficult, very well done Ricardo. I like the idea of keeping the canopy slid open. Provides a better view inside the cockpit and all its fine details.

Dan, there is a simple way of working clean with canopies: Don't apply too much glue and with a tooth pick you can rub away any excess quite easily right after installing the frames when you use acetate based glue. Some of us use double-sided tape but I would say that can be rather risky.

Cheers,
Erik

[ricleite]

@ Dan - I couldn't say it better than Erik It is normal to apply glue (all-purpose - cellulosic) only on longitudinal frames and not all at once. If there is a frame along the centreline, I start with that one and let it settle before dealing with the outer longitudinal frames, one at a time.

Mating the fuselage to the wings is almost invariably a delicate task. I guess that the kit was conceived to make that step much earlier. The fact is that I had to make some cuts on the wing structure (central part, only), in order to squeeze it onto the proper place.
The back of the wing root fillets are part of the upper fuselage skin. They didn’t align exactly to the wing trailing edge but the difference goes relatively unnoticed. The mating of the underside skin went well. As I experienced problems in the wing (reported before), it was a good surprise.