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Hasegawa Ki43


Koala

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The tail marking is all in a one piece decal and nearly killed me. Beautifully printed, micro-thin and an absolute b@stard to get on in one piece!

 

I flinched when one side's was being applied and it instantly became a small rolled up ball of tangled wet plastic blob. With barely a whimper, I set to gently teasing it back out with a soft brush and water. When it was all over I took a breath.

 

The tailwheel, which came molded on at an incorrect angle, has been removed and repositioned more convincingly.

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Newbie practising kit!..........buahahahaa........the understatement of the year! :huh:

Great work, nearly brings me in the mood for starting some of my Japanese birds , but my Corsair( s).. :blink:

 

Very, very good job.......

 

congrats

 

Chris "the ripper"

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Koala, I'm getting this from D.Thorpes books. The colors used on JA A/C were different from JNAF- study of the hino's color shows the paint went from a bright red to a deep rust red. allied pilots were taught to look for bright red markings as those would denote a replacment A/C-and a "green" pilot. also to weather your anti-glare: the factory color is matte blue-black. this weathers to a DARK purpleish shade kind of cool lookin. Verify this by looking in J.Ethells books -they show some color pics of jap planes after the war. also the film used then has been studied for color fastness and ttrueness and it is remarkably clear,colorfast and retains its color spectrum -even after all these years! well made film. Keep in mind the type of weather ,and sun angles and that;the sort of day it was when the pics were shot,so to say. that will help with interpreting colors. I'm not an expert,and these are my opinions based on staring at pics over and over.(ask my wife) HTH mike in calif

you've done a fab job on the -43 by the way!!

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Excellent information Mike. Thanks.

 

The wife is dragging me away from the bench over the next few days to spend a few days away, so the Ki43 is going on ice :( I wont be able to progress much for the next week now, but your 'weathering report' has given me heaps to think about for my return to active modelling.

 

I couldn't remember if the blue-black finish on the cowl was a Mitsubishi of Nakajima thing, so I went for the flat black without the blue hint. But now I'm thinking about possibilities with purplish artist's pastels (which I have a good set of) for the final finish ...

 

Also, the info on how the hino's weather is great - another one for the pastel box too methinks!

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I don't think starting out with a "practice kit" mentality has been that helpful. I started making compromises early and then got more involved later and started having regrets about certain shortcuts I had taken early. This made maintaining a consistent quality standard difficult.

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At least I've had a crack at the stereotypical crap-paint-job-ready-for-the-knackers-yard Japanese fighter. Its good to have that out of my system before I start my Tamiya Zero as, while the over-the-top weathering is OK for army planes, it is of questionable accuracy for IJN fighters apparantly.

 

Its also been a great exercise in developing basic modelling skills and in fully appreciating new-tooled kits, which is all I have really done up until this project. Older kits certainly are alot more work and much, much less forgiving!

 

I'm hoping this will photograph up nicely on a good day.

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Guest LSP_Jay L

Superb job Koala!

 

I really like this model. Excellent mottling mate!!

 

I really wouldnt worry about what people tell you about IJA vs. IJN weathering. the paint quality varied from unit to unit as opposed to branch of service. It all depended on the amount of service an aircraft saw before it was destroyed or refurbished. Later war newly built aircraft weathered much faster as the quality of paint deteriorated and the primer generally was crap, If there was any used at all. the best way to accurately weather a Japanese aircraft is decide before you model how weathered it will be, go and search all of the photos you can find and then do the model to mathc the photo. It's a method that no one can argue with. I've got dozens of Japanese publications chock full of photos so if you ever need anything just tell me what Aircraft it mis and how weathered you want it. I'll try to find something there is a decal sheet for, but if not then the rest is up to you. I also have the very rare Monogram Japanese cockpits book so if you need any cockpits I'm going to be doing some scanning anyways.

 

That goes for any other of you Japonie fans out there.

 

I'll be looking forward to seeing your next fighter Koala!

 

Cheers,

 

Jay

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