Skyraider3D Posted January 6, 2023 Share Posted January 6, 2023 (edited) Alain, the chutes could indeed be opened up, or simply fill in with black paint, seeing as it's on the undersides anyway. Few pics show the undersides of the Ki-61-I Hei well, but this is one that does and it happens to be of #88 in its spring 1945 camouflage pattern! Like many 244th Sentai machines, it was camouflaged in the summer of 1944, stripped in the winter and re-camouflaged in the spring of '45. The droptanks are Yellow-Green #7, by the way. The best match for this is AK RC330. Leading edges in typical orange-yellow and the 88 on the wheeldoor is red with white piping. Now about that venturi of #88, after some digging I must conclude that two types of venturi tubes were tested on it. One type is this small tube (5" long), which is generally used as a pilot relief tube(!) and mounted in reverse! (Note the cowling stencils, one of the few stencils that remained as all others were wiped off with the winter camouflage removal.) Here is a modern day application as a relief tube. The more common 10" venturi was also tested on #88 as evident from this shot. I'm trying to find out which one was the latter application, but I put my money on this one seeing as other 244th Sentai machines have it too, and it has a better performance: Edited January 6, 2023 by Skyraider3D Updated info on #88 venturi tube usage. MikeMaben, Gazzas, Alain Gadbois and 3 others 4 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alain Gadbois Posted January 6, 2023 Author Share Posted January 6, 2023 Great photos! Note the small venturi is placed more towards the front, which is probably why there is the tube going backwards. It seems the bottom of the fabric control surfaces are in metallic paint. Alain Skyraider3D 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juggernut Posted January 8, 2023 Share Posted January 8, 2023 Dammit, these Ki-61 builds made me want to build one so naturally I had to go out and buy one. Skyraider3D, Alain Gadbois, Greif8 and 1 other 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alain Gadbois Posted January 8, 2023 Author Share Posted January 8, 2023 Hi all! Scribed the round hatch, hopefully it’s in the correct location as it is a bit hard to tell in the photo. Also I just had to drill out the opening under the wing the depression in the kit part was very shallow. Thanks for watching! Alain Alex, Sasha As, themongoose and 11 others 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alain Gadbois Posted January 9, 2023 Author Share Posted January 9, 2023 22 hours ago, Juggernut said: Dammit, these Ki-61 builds made me want to build one so naturally I had to go out and buy one. It’s nice, simple but quite detailed kit. Very good fit as much as I can tell at this point. You can’t go wrong! Alain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juggernut Posted January 9, 2023 Share Posted January 9, 2023 Thanks for that. This will be my third or fourth Hasegawa Ki-61 build... The only one that I have left in the case is an otsu variant painted up with the palm tree camouflage used in New Guinea. Alain Gadbois 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greif8 Posted January 9, 2023 Share Posted January 9, 2023 Nice scribing work Alain. Ernest Alain Gadbois 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skyraider3D Posted January 9, 2023 Share Posted January 9, 2023 17 hours ago, Alain Gadbois said: Scribed the round hatch Excellent! You're probably one of the very first modellers to do so too Alain Gadbois 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juggernut Posted January 9, 2023 Share Posted January 9, 2023 1 hour ago, Skyraider3D said: Excellent! You're probably one of the very first modellers to do so too Now is this round hatch just a circular inspection panel that covered the ammunition/gun and needed to be removed to have a look inside or was this like the early A6M's that had the circular window where the ground crew could see the ammunition or just an open hole? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alain Gadbois Posted January 14, 2023 Author Share Posted January 14, 2023 (edited) Hi all! A bit more done in the last few days. Looking at references, I added mostly cables to the kit parts. One bundle going aft on the right side isn’t glued in place as it would interfere with the rear bulkhead. It will slipped in after this part is glued in place, when all painting is done. Also, the ejector chutes are boxed in and the upper wing painted black. Also now thinking of riveting the model, as they are quite visible in the photos of the bare metal aircraft. Thanks for watching! Edited January 14, 2023 by Alain Gadbois KiwiZac, Alex, TAG and 11 others 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alain Gadbois Posted January 14, 2023 Author Share Posted January 14, 2023 On 1/9/2023 at 3:55 AM, Greif8 said: Nice scribing work Alain. Ernest Thanks, I only had two circles to scribe, but the second one was way of center so I filled with CA and repeated the operation with tape holding the template in place. Waited until yesterday to do that, as I had some apprehensions about messing up a second time! Now I pretty certain I’ll br riveting the kit so I will be planning with extra care to do a nice job. On 1/9/2023 at 9:14 AM, Skyraider3D said: Excellent! You're probably one of the very first modellers to do so too And again, thanks for the photos! Alain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skyraider3D Posted January 25, 2023 Share Posted January 25, 2023 On 1/9/2023 at 5:03 PM, Juggernut said: Now is this round hatch just a circular inspection panel that covered the ammunition/gun and needed to be removed to have a look inside or was this like the early A6M's that had the circular window where the ground crew could see the ammunition or just an open hole? In many pictures it's not visible, so it's an aluminium hatch for sure and not a viewport. I think it may have been used for sighting the guns (adjusting converging and elevation), rather than actual maintenance. Juggernut 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greif8 Posted January 27, 2023 Share Posted January 27, 2023 That is some really nice scratch building in the cockpit Alain. Ernest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alain Gadbois Posted January 27, 2023 Author Share Posted January 27, 2023 1 hour ago, Greif8 said: That is some really nice scratch building in the cockpit Alain. Ernest Thank you! The kit parts offer an excellent base to ad the amount of detail one feels like. I have the Japanese Cockpit Interiors book which has great photos. Just have to be careful that these were taken of a captured example and some modifications were done before being flown by US pilots. Alain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alain Gadbois Posted May 23, 2023 Author Share Posted May 23, 2023 (edited) Rivets…………! A good photo provided the info needed to rivet the fuselage sides. I made a template to add the curved rivet line marked with a pencil line. The finished left wing shows the much better effect with the rivets. Bye for now, Alain Edited May 23, 2023 by Alain Gadbois LSP_Kevin, Mark_C, themongoose and 5 others 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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