1/72 Nobi 24th Sentai Ki-43 Hayabusa

[georgerutherford1861]

Slowly starting work on this one. Nobi’s Ki-43, rescaled from 1/48 to 1/72, recolored to 24th Sentai around May 1943. Also toned down the green some to try and indicate some fading in the South Pacific sun.

I triple thickness the formers on these, leaving the joining strips single thickness. I have not made much progress yet, front to about 2/3 down the fuselage at this time.

I make duplicates of the formers as well, sometimes putting them on both sides of the joint before joining both pieces. In some places it helps the smoothness of the joint, sometimes it does not, like when the fuselage shape starts to vary quickly off to one side.

This one has an open bottom to the fuselage. Then shortly the wings are built as one unit then attached to the fuselage. I am looking forward to seeing how it ends up coming together.

Doug

[MacSongLi]

You're off to a great start.

I built Nobi's Ki-43 a while back, and enjoyed the kit.
Ki-43 II - (Nobi)


Gary

[Don Boose]

Looks very good, Doug!

I'm following this build, not only because I like to see your models, but because I hope to build some of Nobi's Ki-43s as part of a long-term project of building Nakajima Army fighters. My first couple of attempts have not turned out well - not because of any shortcomings in Nobi's designs, but because of my own lack of skill. I hope to learn some useful things from your build.

Don

[georgerutherford1861]

Gary, thank you for the inspiration, I definitely will be taking a look at your progress work as I go along to see how things end up lining up.

Don, I will try to post some more "in the works" pictures as I go along.

Note on the picture of the overall sheet with parts - the original does not show the wheels in the retracted position, I did that on mine just to have something there as I was not going to do any landing gear. Then I thought, well if I eventually build some South Pacific strafers then certainly there will need to be some targets on the ground for them, so looks like I'll be having the removable landing gear on this one.

Other note on the parts sheet picture, pay no attention to the darker colored part on the upper right hand side, that is for another project down the road where I needed to adjust something but forgot to on my original printout of it. *Move along, nothing to see here...*

Doug

[georgerutherford1861]

Not a great deal to report here, got most of the main fuselage put together. I was having a bit of difficulty getting the bottoms of the fuselage section seams to line up smoothly. I moved on to the wing, and will then see how things line up when I look at joining the two together.

This Nobi model is a bit different from ones I have worked up in the past. The wing is put together entirely separate, then joined to the fuselage. In the past I have built the wing frame, then glued the wing sections on by either starting with the rear bottom or the rear top of the wing, then gluing it on a small bit at a time, wrapping it over the front and then to the rear of the wing.

This has had varying degrees of success, as sometimes my inaccurate cutting makes me have to sand down the wing frame some to get a decent fit. This time I am gluing the rear seam of the wing partially, then sliding it over the wing frame, then gluing. We shall see how this works.

Doug

[Don Boose]

Excellent in-process images, Doug! Very helpful.

Don

[MacSongLi]

Looks great so far, Doug. Keep up the good work.


Gary

[georgerutherford1861]

This update has been long delayed. Not a great deal of progress I am afraid. I held off for a while because I was having trouble envisioning how the fuselage would match up with the wings.

Turns out I should have just trusted Nobi, as where the fuselage spreads out to join the wing lines up perfectly with the darker areas on the wings (not sure why they are darker, perhaps as areas marked for walking on when getting into the plane?)

My recommendation when building this one is to not glue the fuselage panels all the way to the bottom of the formers to give you some adjustment room. I have no doubt Nobi’s design is right on, just my execution was not. The fuselage panels did end up matching perfectly, I just had to take my time. Work is now progressing on the cowling and going pretty well.

Doug

[Don Boose]

Good work, Doug!

Don

[georgerutherford1861]

Still making progress. The vertical stabilizer and rudder went together quite nicely. The model has a small former in it, which I was concerned about, it being a fiddly bit and needing to line up with the rear fuselage as well.

I just had to remind myself to take it slow, so I glued the former to one side of the stabilizer one small section at a time, letting it dry completely before moving on to the next section. The horizontal stabilizer also has a nice former in it. Laminated it to several pieces of card to make it less flimsy for me.

Finally, the cowling came together nicely.

I know that the Ki-43-ii is often seen with drop fuel tanks. This kit has them, but the picture I have of this particular plane does not even have the attachment points set up under the wings. Does anyone know if these were sometimes later adds in the field, or were these only added in the factory?

Doug