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1/48 Tamiya Ki-61 Id Hien


Thunnus

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John

WOW ... hard to believe the detail in the front office. Very nice work with the detail painting - looks so good.

One steady hand on the riveting as well

Keep 'em coming

Peter

 

Thanks Peter!  Yes, I was impressed with the amount of detail that the kit parts provide in the cockpit.  Almost too much... I've learned that the blue oxygen regulator on the starboard sidewall may have been added by the US after capture.

 

 

superb

 

Danke!  Hope to jump back on the Hien shortly!

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Very nice kit.  Excellent work on the interior.  I've just added another 1/48 Tamiya kit to my "must-buy" list!

 

Thank you!  It really is a nice kit.  I'm kind of regretting my decision to rivet this model and it is bogging me down a bit.  I really like rivets on a 1/32 scale subject but it is questionable choice at 1/48.  And it's not like the Tamiya kit is lacking in details.  Oh well... the road has been chosen and it's too late to turn back.  I should have a Hien update in a few days.

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Here's an update to my Tamiya Hien build.  I've managed to finish riveting all of the main components.

 

The fuselage sides...

 

IMG_1951.jpg

 

 

And the wing bottoms....

 

IMG_1952.jpg

 

 

I put a pretty big gouge in the starboard fuselage when the piece slipped in my hand during a rivet run.  You can barely make it out in the first photograph towards the tail.  This has been filled with Mr Dissolved Putty.

 

The Tamiya kit is wonderful and a superior model can be built strictly out of the box.  But there are a couple of things that I am a stickler for: hollow exhausts and convincing gun barrels.  So I chose to augment this build with a couple of aftermarket items.

 

IMG_1962.jpg

 

 

I usually hollow out exhausts manually but the design of the kit exhaust would make this task VERY difficult. The Quickboost resin exhausts should be a good drop-in upgrade.

 

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I picked up some Quickboost gun barrels as well.  Although it would be easy to hollow out the kit guns, I liked the added detail of the holes in the cooling jacket over the barrels.  Quickboost also added hollow versions of the wing cannon.

 

IMG_1960.jpg

 

I've made some minor modifications to the cockpit.  I was informed that the blue oxygen regulator on the starboard sidewall was not found on Hiens so I removed it and painted the panel behind it black.

 

IMG_1966.jpg

 

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I've also added a small circular crosshair to the gunsight.

 

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I was curious to test the legendary fit of these new Tamiya kits so I put the major components together with tape.

 

IMG_1953.jpg

 

Color me impressed!  The fit is wonderful.  If it looks this tight with tape only, I can only imagine how positive the glue joins will be.

 

IMG_1955.jpg

 

 

I don't want to mar the Hien's smooth lines with pimples around every rivet so I made sure to sand all of the surfaces down.  The white in the rivets and panel lines is the residue from sanding.

 

IMG_1954.jpg

Edited by Thunnus
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I hate to admit it because I really like to be as scale correct as possible...

 

But those rivets certainly add something.

 

Gaz

 

Thanks Gaz!  I'm hoping the addition is a positive.  The white residue in the rivets make them look bigger than they are.  The holes themselves are very small... so small that I'm afraid that they'll start disappearing when the paint is applied.  I'm wondering if there is any good way to remove that sanding residue besides physically poking them out of each hole?

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Thunnus,
get the residue out with a damp worn scotch brite scourer or paint it out with thinners or glue.

Terrific work on this and the 109 G-10 Erla.

Kais.

Edited by Kais
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I'm wondering if there is any good way to remove that sanding residue besides physically poking them out of each hole?

 

I generally use a toothbrush and some warm soapy water. It's often useful to run some Tamiya Extra Thin over them after that anyway, as it can sharpen them up a bit.

 

This build is looking great, by the way!

 

Kev

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Exellent build! Like the Hein a lot. Have to put on the "to purchase list"....

The new Tamiya kit looks very impressive with a lot of detail.

 

I too al curious how their new G-6 will stand up to the Eduard kit.

 

But for now I'll enjoy your marvelous modelling magik!

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Thanks guys!  You're comments are noted and appreciated.

 

Here's Tamiya's engine.  It's got some detail but it looks a bit bland... not something that I would want to show off without some major work performed on it.  And I'm not going to do that on this build.

 

IMG_1980.jpg

 

 

The engine is going in unpainted as the engine cowling will be permanently attached.  From this view you can see the cannon bodies.

 

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But the guns pull a disappearing act and are completely blanked off by the engine bulkhead.  Don't mind the gap... the bulkhead will be flush with the fuselage once the cockpit is glued into place.

 

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The Quickboost exhausts are a good fit as expected.

 

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Hard to do any detailed painting of the exhaust stacks at this scale.  I used my normal routine on these.  Alclad Steel followed by Alclad Exhaust Manifold.  A bit of dry-dabbed rusty brown and then the tips sprayed with black.

IMG_1998.jpg

 

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I tried out the Quickboost gun barrels too.  Tamiya provides a backing for the gun barrels.  This allows one to insert the gun barrels AFTER painting, which is a nice touch.

 

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The backing has slots that are staggered so there is no guesswork... just insert the barrels all the way in.

 

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The Quickboost gun barrels have the cooling jacket holes, which is a nice detail above and beyond the kit supplied gun barrels.  These have been painted Alclad Stainless Steel.

 

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The fuselage section behind the cockpit has been painted.

 

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The mesh grills and baffle system for the under-fuselage radiator have been painted. 

 

IMG_1995.jpg

 

That's it for now.  I've found that I've need a little bit of putty work along the fuselage seams.  Once that gets cleaned up, I'll be attaching the wings to the fuse.

Edited by Thunnus
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Excellent work John. Another must follow build.

 

Thank you!  It's going to much less involved than my usual project so I hope it's worth your while!

 

A few things to report on concerning the Hien build.  The clear parts comes into two sets: open and closed.  Not unusual.  However, Tamiya takes an extra step and provides fuselage components specific open or closed canopy configurations.  I've chosen to have the canopy open on mine.  Posing the canopy is not an option with the rear fuselage component for open canopy in place.  See the cut-out below the rear canopy piece?  That is to accommodate the open canopy without unrealistically bulging it out.  The rear fuselage piece for the closed canopy lacks the cutout.

 

IMG_2001.jpg

 

IMG_2003.jpg

 

 

Another nice touch from Tamiya is the inclusion of canopy masks.  I was skeptical about these since you are required to cut them out manually.  They many not be as convenient as the masks from Eduard or Montex but they are less onerous than doing the masking all by yourself.  Each mask is very small on this 1/48 scale kit and the rounded corners are difficult to cut.  I ignored the rounded corners when cutting the masks out and used scissors to snip tiny triangles off the corners... close enough.

 

IMG_2009.jpg

 

This Tamiya kit is REALLY good but not perfect.  I found the trailing edges of the prop to be unacceptably thick and chose to thin them down.

 

IMG_2004.jpg

 

IMG_2006.jpg

 

 

The build was going so smoothly, I was forgetting to document what I was doing.  The wings have been glued into place by this point.  The fit is simply fantastic with no putty required.  The landing light insert was painted and glued into place.

 

IMG_2015.jpg

 

 

The clear cover for the landing light is molded with part of the surrounding wing and not just the clear portion.  This is much better... by masking the clear portion, you can avoid a potentially visible glue joint.

 

IMG_2016.jpg

 

 

The gun cowling piece is glued into place.  Again, the fit is great.  Tamiya provides a mask for the landing light, which has been stuck on.

 

IMG_2018.jpg

 

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The front and rear radiator mesh covers are glued into place.

 

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The tail stabs are attached.

 

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We are quickly approaching the painting stage.  Before I put on the canopy pieces, I'll take some final pictures of the view into the cockpit.

 

IMG_2025.jpg

 

IMG_2026.jpg

Edited by Thunnus
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John,

 

This is superb! I'm just getting caught up, and it has been really enjoyable watching you progress, and inspiring! I had sworn off 1/48 scale, but now I'm going to have to check out these recent Tamiya offerings.

 

Cheers, Tom

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