Mistral Posted January 9 Posted January 9 (edited) This is the ancient Hasegawa 32nd Ki-43 Oscar hailing from the 1970's. I bought this kit as a teenager when I accompanied my Dad on a business trip to New York in 1977. In those days we were fortunate in South Africa to be able to get the Scale Aircraft Modelling (SAM) magazines. However, there was very limited access to the decent Japanese kits (Otaki, Hasegawa, Nichimo, Fujimi etc.) from our LHS. In the SAM, there were advertisements for Gateway Toys and Hobbies in New York accompanied by an intriguing black and white photo of the shop with literally hundreds of model boxes on display - the mother load ! So, I convinced my Dad to take an empty suitcase with. I got a job at the LHS at home for the first two weeks of the school holidays, and then off we went to New York. In those days the South African currency was at 2:1 to the mighty dollar (today is $1:ZAR20 - I guess you can call that progress...). I returned to South Africa with a stash of note that had all my modelling buddies salivating. I still have a few of these unbuilt after all these years. This kit is one of them. Anyway, enough reminiscing. I started and completed this one in 2024 and had a blast building it. A bit of a trip down memory lane and a reminder that time flies when you're having fun. The only tricky part was reinstating the raised rivets after having sanded the seams. I used the HGW rivets to replace these. A bunch of additional details using plastic card/rod were added inside the cockpit. Eduard seat belts were used. Ignition harnesses were added to the engine using 0.25mm Fishermans lead wire. Edited January 9 by Mistral Spelling corrections hworth18, thierry laurent, Alain Gadbois and 19 others 22
Mistral Posted January 9 Author Posted January 9 Paints used were : Base natural metal - 50% Tamiya LP-11 silver / 50% Tamiya LP38 flat aluminium Green squiggles - Atom 20076 IJA Nakajima Green - this Atom paint is wonderful for fine airbrushing. All markings were masked and painted. Yellow leading edges were painted by first applying a pink base followed by Mr. Colour yellow - this results in a richer yellow hue. Chipping was done using Tamiya chipping fluid. Weathering was done with a combination of MiG oil washes and pastels. Final seal coat using Mr. Colour matt varnish (which is actually more satin). The Oscar was a very pretty little aircraft. Model_Monkey, s00ntir, FW190A-5 and 17 others 20
Mistral Posted January 9 Author Posted January 9 One final thought - according to some sources on the web, the Japanese were particular in maintaining the Hinumarus in good condition, contrary to the rest of the aircraft paint which tended to peel and chip quite drastically. I read somewhere that the Hinumarus were applied at the factory onto properly primed aluminium, and that the rest of the camouflage colours were applied in the field or at field depots without proper priming. This may explain why you very seldom see Jap aeries with chipped Hinumarus. I'm open to correction / comment on this one.... Martinnfb, Isar 30/07 and John1 3
Steve Eagle Posted January 10 Posted January 10 Nicely done. The Ki-43 is a nice kit. Could stand some updates for different marks, but simple and easy build. Like your story on getting kits. Martinnfb 1
Dpgsbody55 Posted January 11 Posted January 11 Nice work. It's very well finished and detailed and really doesn't look like an ancient kit. Cheers, Michael Martinnfb 1
Whitespirit Posted January 11 Posted January 11 Hi, Very nice job on your ki-43! Beautifull coincidence! I did this kit in 2024 too, with practically the same kind of deco. 😊😊 I'll publish my article soon on the website. Martinnfb 1
s00ntir Posted January 11 Posted January 11 What a lovely build - and what a lovely nostalgic story. Respect! Martinnfb 1
MikeMaben Posted January 14 Posted January 14 Very nice finish Mistral On 1/11/2025 at 12:37 AM, Whitespirit said: Hi, Very nice job on your ki-43! Beautifull coincidence! I did this kit in 2024 too, with practically the same kind of deco. 😊😊 I'll publish my article soon on the website. Hi W be nice to see what you have to share Martinnfb 1
Mistral Posted January 14 Author Posted January 14 Thanks all for your kind comments . Really appreciated. Whitespirit, l'm looking forward to your build post of this kit ! Martinnfb 1
FW190A-5 Posted January 14 Posted January 14 Mistral, Very fine model! Great build and great story. Especially the nostalgic part. Thanks for sharing, John Martinnfb 1
gregair Posted January 15 Posted January 15 Brilliant job on the mottle and weathering! A beautiful build Martinnfb 1
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