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1/48 Tamiya Ki-61 Id Hien


Thunnus

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Thanks guys!  The work on the Hien continues.  I've attached the front and rear canopy pieces.  Since the canopy will be posed open and the sliding canopy does not fit in a closed position, I've masked the cockpit opening with tape.

 

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The radiator intake box on the bottom has been completed.

 

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The wheels are keyed into the landing gear struts.  Being of fixed position, the flat spots on the tires needed to be in the correct location.  I dry fit the landing gear components and then set the wheels down on wet spots of paint to locate the flat spots.

 

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The wheels were rubbed on a sheet of sandpaper taped to a piece of flat glass to achieve the flat spots.

 

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I'll be working on the landing gear components a bit before I move on to painting of the airframe.

Edited by Thunnus
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I dry fit the landing gear components and then set the wheels down on wet spots of paint to locate the flat spots.

 

Hah!  That's a great idea.  I never thought of that... I normally just guessed (sometimes poorly).  I hope I remember that trick the next time I need to flatten keyed wheels.  I imagine it's a multi-step process so you keep the flat spot where it needs to be.

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Guest Peterpools

John

WOW! Just blown away on your gorgeous front office and what a steady hand - the detail painting is brilliantly done. Kit part fit is typical Tamiya but your magic just makes it so much better.

Just love the weathering you did on the AM exhausts.

Keep 'em comin

Peter

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Thank you so much for the nice comments!  Positive comments are always encouraging and help my motivation.

 

I've got a couple of LSP's lined up but I'm not quite ready to tackle a complicated 1/32 build right now. The Hien is a nice, simple project that almost puts itself together.  I'm kind of on AutoPliot on this one. 

 

I've added some brake lines on the landing gear.  Because the wheels are keyed into position on the landing gear leg, I can attach the brake line to the wheel itself.  I've drllled out a tiny hole as a receptacle.

 

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After the landing gear components are painted, I can put the end of the brake line into the little hole.  That's the plan anyway.  This is based on photographs of a restored Hien.

 

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I used a Thinnerline cutter to cut circular masks for the painting of the wheels.  This thing cuts very neat circles and is capable of smaller circles than a compass cutter.  The only bad thing is that dialing in a particular size circle is guess work and repetition... no exact measurements are available.

 

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Here are all of the landing gear components with the base paint on and a layer of clear gloss applied. 

 

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The prop has been painted.  The chipping was done with sponge... a new technique that I wanted to try.  The markings on the blades are from the Lifelike decal sheet and specific to Hien #5262.  I'm still not 100% sure of doing the all-green 5262.  I'm still drawn toward the challenge of doing a crazy mottle scheme.  Waitaminute... this is supposed to be a simple build right?

 

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A joy to see you work your magic.  I like how you get so much bang for your buck in all the little things you do to improve a build.  No matter what the subject of your build there is always a certain zing! Thanks for sharing.   :thumbsup:

 

Thanks Dan!  I like to approach each sub-assembly as its own little model.  That way, I'm more apt to take more care in my build by not rushing through each step.

 

Here are the landing gear components after painting and a dark wash over all the nooks and crannies.

 

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The tail wheel is a tiny little thing.  I'm assuming that the tire is the non-pneumatic type so I did not attempt to create a flat spot on it.  Note the repair on the fuselage side from an errant rivet wheel.

 

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The landing gear has not been assembled yet but here's what the main legs look like when they're put together.

 

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I HAVE committed to a scheme and will do the solid green over metal undersides (#5262) as originally envisioned.  I was toying with doing a mottled scheme but I think this one, with the red tail and color stripes will be a visually interesting subject.  The outside of the landing gear covers, riveted previously, have been painted in Alclad Aluminum and yellow.  The last two digits of the aircraft number have been put into place.  Lifelike provides white and blue versions of the "62".  I assume that the white is supposed to serve as a backing for the blue but I just used the blue decal.

 

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I've decided to give the prop blades a little bit of salt fading.  I think I've learned to what NOT to do from my 109G-10 Erla build and kept the fading on the subtle side.

 

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The prop spinner was given some gray and silver chipping, again using a fine sponge.

 

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Here is the completed prop.

 

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Thanks for checking in!

Edited by Thunnus
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Thanks Gaz!  The Lifelike decals are very thin and reacted very well to the Microsol/Microset treatment.  I've found that Solvaset is very effective at getting the thicker Tamiya decals to behave.

 

 

The Hien has been primed.  This time I used Mr Surfacer 1200 thinned with a mixture of Tamiya Lacquer Thinner and Mr Leveling Thinner.

 

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Terrific work, John! Most impressive riveting.

 

Kev

 

Thanks Kevin!  The primer was a good way to check the rivets.  As a result, I did some repair work on the bottom as the rivets weren't lining up.

 

 

Just marvelous! Can you share what rivet wheel you use(d) for the rivets on the Hein?

I think their spacing looks very realistic for Japanes aircraft of that era.

 

Thanks Jerry!  I used RB's Rivet-R tool with the 0.75mm wheel on this one.

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I sprayed some black on the bottom to serve as a base for the Alclad metal finish(es) that I'm going to use.

 

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Alclad Aluminum was the selected color for the bottom.  I'll mask off the fabric control surfaces and do those in a different color.  I may also differentiate some of the panels... haven't decided yet.

 

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Edited by Thunnus
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very nice NMF on the underside there.  I'm looking forward to seeing the finished paint job on this.  I love your point about thinking of each little subassembly as its own kit, so you don't end up rushing things.  That's an especially useful way of looking at a big 1/32 kit like I'm doing right now.  

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