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Ki-61 Hien Tokyo Defender


Totalize

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Hi there,

I have been working on building the Hasegawa Ki-61 Hien and thought I would share my work here in case you haven't seen my build which is posted on a

couple of other sites.

 

 

.Hasegawa-KI-61-Box_DD_zps5e077c92.jpg

Edited by Totalize
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I considered a number of a/c to do but settled on doing Major Teruhiko Kobayashi's Ki-61 serial number 3295 from the 244th Sentai. The 244th was one of the Sentai's responsible for the air defence of Tokyo. Kobayashi used this a/c to ram a B-29 on January 27th, 1945 which resulted in the loss of the aircraft but caused the downing of the B-29. Kobayashi survived the incident. For this act of bravery he was awarded the Bukosho, the equivalent to the Victoria cross or Medal of Honor. At the time Kobayashi was the youngest Sentai leader in IJAAF

 

As the leader of the 244th Sentai Kobayashi flew a number of Ki-61's' including the the Hei, Tei, and Ki-100.
Here's a graphic of 3295 which was a Hei.

 

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The young and disciplined leader of the 244th Sentai. The Bukosho medal is shown on the lower right.

 

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Edited by Totalize
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There are not many photos of 3295 but here are some shots of the actual aircraft. Note the 12.7mm nose MG's in the second shot. These were apparently removed just before his ramming mission to lighten the aircraft. Indeed many 244th Sentai Ki-61's either had their Cannon (if so equipped) or their MG's removed to lighten the aircraft's weight in order for them to be able to reach the altitude the B-29's were flying at. Some however, had well performing engines and were able to keep both the MG's and Cannon armament.

 

Ki-61-244-Sentai-R295_zps937ce355.jpg

Edited by Totalize
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Cockpit work. I don't have any pics of the pre-painted build but here are some shots of the left and right side of the cockpit. I scratch built the storage bag on the right side with apoxie sculpt and the oxygen regulator from apoxie sculpt and styrene. I first formed the bag and when satisfied I then made the flap for the bag and laid it over top. So it is actually two pieces. The oxygen hose was dipped in Mr. Surfacer 500 and wiped down to fill in some of the gaps in the winding as I wanted it to look more like a hose than a spring. I am also using the Eduard PE set for the Hasegawa kit. Lead wire in various thicknesses was used for the wiring

 

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I got the fuselage together and did some sanding on the seams whiich are mostly done. I also rescribed some of the panel lines on the top of the fuselage behind the cockpit. I also put together the Master Ho-103 12.7mm Brass MG's. They are not glued in place as yet on the engine cowling as I still have to nail down their positioning i.e. They were in a staggered position.

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Wings are on and gaps have been filled. Next up will be to put some primer on her. As you can see I broke off part of Venturi tube while handling it and had a near panic episode. I am sure you guys can imagine my horror as there I was working away on the kit, getting the wings done etc and suddenly I look down and part of the tube is missing. Of course i didn't even know I knocked it off and so I was like great now what the hell am I going to do. Scratch build another. Not easy to do with the way the tube is done. So I set off hunting around the the bench and floor for it. Looked for about half an hour then suddenly I spotted something out of the corner of my eye and there it was underneath the bench. I happily scooped it up and put it aside as I won't be attaching it now until the end of the build.

One thing I like about the wings is the dihedral. The nice upward angle of the wings I think looks cool.

 

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Edited by Totalize
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Post by totalize on Jul 13, 2014 at 10:44am
So, I started work on the landing gear and added some scratch built details. You will notice that the brake lines run down the aft portion of the landing gear strut. A number of Hien photos often show them running down the front of the strut. However, using my excellent Hien fighter book as a reference I saw that the brake lines were positioned both ways. As there are no landing gear references for the particular Hien I am doing (3295) I decided to have them run aft.

The brake lines are lead wire. the break line strapping is lead foil.
The tow lugs are taken from a 1/35 scale German armour U-clamp.
Drilled out the holes in the upper and lower torque links using a few different sizes of drills with my pin vise.
The brake line fittings are again taken from a 1/35 german panther and are the from the drivers hatch locking mechanism. These were often brass fittings but I might just paint them the same silver colour as the landing gear. Not sure at this point.
Landing gear covers have been primed.
 
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