mywifehatesmodels

Looking forward to this one! Great start, Jay! John

Amazing and inspirational! And so what if that's a kids'chair? It covers a whole card table! Thanks for posting! John

Great to see another IJA subject, alongside my own, with Olivier's fantastic Ki-61. John

Thanks, Kev. Anytime. I'm flattered to be featured. Thanks, Mike. I wish there were more good SEATED pilots and crew available. I've had an urge to include them, lately. Thanks to everyone for the kind words! John

Been a while since I posted (or even finished) a LSP build. This Ki 43 was supposed to be a quick weekend project, but it ended up taking me a couple of weeks, as I ran into some trouble. This particular boxing was one of the limited edition versions that came with a replacement resin cowl. The new cowl, while not exactly "correct", was still an improvement over the original kit part. However, that was not to be, as I found out that the resin part had either shrunk significantly, or was never quite large enough to begin with (kind of leaning toward the latter). So, I used the original plastic cowl, instead, but did a few modifications in an attempt to improve it's looks. Not sure if I accomplished that, but it made me feel better, anyway. I sanded about a millimeter off the front face of the cowl to shorten if a touch and then recontoured/opened up the opening, itself, to round it back off again. The next step was to improve the looks of the intake by building it up with Milliput and sanding it smooth. Hardly noticeable unless you're looking for it. But, again, it made me feel better. I also decided to add a pilot, but didn't want to use the "Gingerbread man" type that was originally issued with the kit (which I believe may be older than I am). I used the pilot from Hasegawa's more recent Ki 61 kit. Beyond that, I made a new pitot tube from Brass/hypodermic tubing, as well as adding brake lines made from wire. The cowl flaps are PE parts that I had left over from my last Ki-43 build, several years ago. I used mostly Model Master enamels for the main finish and took a swing at the hairspray technique to achieve the chipping I was after. I made a big painting blunder on the fuselage sides, so I ended up going over those areas again. I like the way it looked before I messed it up, even better, but it is what it is. The final step was to do some oil filters/wash. The photos don't do it justice and I found it extremely difficult to get good, representative photos of the model. It's no contest winner, but I can honestly say that it looks much better in person than in the photos (especially the depth of the finish). Oh, I also forgot to mention that all the markings were masked and painted, using the kit decals as a stencil to cut masks for the tail number. The only decals used were on the trim tab and flap warnings, which are almost invisible, anyway. A fun build, but also reinforcing my opinion that we need an updated kit of this iconic aircraft. Hope that comes soon! Thanks for looking! John

Looking GREAT! So many great paint schemes for the Ki-43. I just finished a 1/32 Oscar of my own. Will be posting pics as soon as I get some decent weather for photography. I look forward to seeing you finish! Thanks for posting, John

Great start! I'll be following this one, for sure. Lord knows I have enough 1/32 German twin projects to keep me more than busy for awhile, but I''m hoping that ICM (or somebody) decides to do a 217M. That's one 1/48 kit I could see myself buying! John

Excellent! Just the right amount of everything and well executed. John

Wow, Foxtrot. We are on the same wavelength, two threads in a row! I have another Hasegawa Ki-43-II on the bench right now. However, when I started building it, I found myself daydreaming about early Hayabusas in this scale. I also think Ray might be right. It's hard to believe that a new tool Oscar (of any variant, but hopefully the -I, at least) won't see the light of day, soon. In fact, while we're asking about the 43 and our VVS wants, it seems that many IJA/IJN subjects are still lacking, as well. I find it hard to believe that the market in Japan, at a minimum, for more WW2 Japanese subjects, won't drive the decisions in that direction. Actually kind of surprised it hasn't, already. I can see Hasegawa doing a new tool, for sure. And why not Tamiya? Seems like a no-brainer from those companies and I wouldn't put it past Zoukei Mura, as well. We can hope, at least. John

I'm with you on this one! Hoping that ICM keeps going in the direction they have been. Wouldn't mind seeing Zvezda get into 1/32, either, having built one of their 1/48 Bf 109F kits. I think they could do the VVS stuff justice in 1/32 scale, as well, should they take the leap into that scale. John

Super cool!

FAN-FREAKIN'-TASTIC! Great idea and finish. I can see that parked on the tarmac at Reno, right now! Thanks for posting! John

Just wow!

Great work, across the board. Love it! John

I'm with Martin on the earlier variants. Being able to beat ZM to the punch with an A-1 to A-4 variant would have grabbed my attention. Other than that, I'm about full on A-8s. But, if you really want to get me to pull out my wallet in a frenzy, do a good kit of the 190V-1 prototype!