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Old 01-19-2021, 06:56 AM
georgerutherford1861 georgerutherford1861 is offline
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You are correct, sir! It is a Ki-43 from 24th Sentai taken from a profile in Michael John Claringbould's "Pacific Profiles Volume One: Japanese Army Fighters New Guinea & The Solomons 1942-1944." It is from a picture reported to have been taken at Palembang as the Sentai was moving to New Guinea.

I was looking for an early JAAF entrant to the New Guinea fighting, so this will be from around the May 1943 timeframe. I struggled with the base color a bit, was wanting to go for a color somewhat beaten down by the tropical sun, so I took several "samples" from the same profile (which has some shadowing to it) and went with one in the middle of the range.

I was going to go with an even earlier Ki-43, but Nobi's Ki-43 is a slightly later version with a larger oil cooler, so this is one of the earlier examples of that type that I could find. At some point I might try to go back and modify it to make it the earlier version, but this may involve some surgery on the wings as well (I think this version may have had slightly narrower wings than the earlier versions).

Don, I did notice that the rudder seemed to "not quite" line up with the scan of the profile I was using for the marking, I'm going to go with "3D model unfolded and squashed out to 2D paper" as maybe part of the reason. We will see what it ends up looking like when complete.

I have had good luck with the Nobi Spitfire I am working on with using his formers on both sides of each fuselage joint (previously I used the one former provided for each joint on one side of the joint), it has allowed me to joint each section together with less fiddling. Yes, there is some filing with the glass file involved to ensure a good fit, but as long as I do not force the former in it does not deform the fuselage section and makes the join less noticeable.

Doug
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  #12  
Old 01-19-2021, 09:17 AM
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Don Boose Don Boose is offline
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Thanks for this info, Doug! It was the straight trailing edge of the rudder that threw me off.

I have Pacific Profiles (and most of Claringbold's excellent books) and am now looking at the painting and the photograph of Tail Number Yellow 34 of the 3rd Chutai, 24th Hikō Sentai Ki-43-II at Palembang en route to New Guinea in early May 1943.

I'm really looking forward to seeing this build.

Incidentally, Jim Di Crocco sends good wishes. He has retired from the Army, but is still teaching at the USAWC and is finishing up his dissertation on the U.S. and Philippine Armies in the fall of the Philippines.

Don
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