Ki-43 II Oscar, Chinese Nationalist Air Force - Finished

[Telepatu]

After building a few airliners in 1:144 I thought that a nice therapy model in larger scale would be in order. This group build directed the choice towards some Hasegawa kits and the old Oscar looks like an easy kit. It looks nice form the box, but I was shocked to see that the original kit is older than me Really nice kit in that context.

 

 

This will be pretty much an out of the box build, quick and simple. Perhaps some aftermarket decals, but that remains to be seen.

It'll be interesting to see if I can get this done within the group build schedule.

 

Br, Jani

 

[mywifehatesmodels]

Although a new tooling of this kit would be very welcome, this is a decent offering for it's day. Not a tough build (I've built at least three of them). The fit of the windscreen can be a little tricky. Other than that, it's not bad. I'm anxious to see your progress!

 

John

[Troy Molitor]

Hey Jani,  

 

I'm with John.  I'm also looking forward to seeing your build progress.  The Oscar is so over looked compared to the Zero.  

[MikeMaben]

  Yep, just have fun Jani. 

[Telepatu]

Thank you all

 

Time for first progress report. I realised that this is the first 1:32 Hasegawa kit I'm building. In the past I have done Hasegawa kits, but mostly if not only in 1:72. So far this has been a pleasant surprise.

 

I started with the cockpit, primed with black and sprayed some Tamiya XF-61 cockpit green, which looked good enough to my eye.

I added some panel line washes and drybrushed scuff marks just for the fun. Looks like it can't be really seen from the small opening anyway.

 

 

 

I closed the fuselage from top part and glued the meter board from below. The rest of the cockpit could be added from below as well.

 

Ok, not the greates pic, but it is quite hard to see anything from the cockpit once the fuselage is closed.

 

 

[Telepatu]

Something I've been watching while gluing and sanding the Oscar together: Colonel Kato's Falcon Squadron from 1944. It looks like they have used actual Oscars in the film, although most were the early model with two blade propeller. Interesting film, I've never seen a Japanese propaganda film from 1940s.

 

 

[Out2gtcha]

That's pretty cool.......

I enjoy old documentaries and films from the 40s onward like this. 

The mother-in-law got me a WWII documentary set of films on disk from one of those bargain bins at the mega store for Christmas one year many years ago.

It was made back in the 50s or 60s, and I ran through all the disks so many times I got to know exactly what was playing on the screen without even looking up from the bench.

[Telepatu]

Time for the next update. The fuselage and wings have been built and primed. The fit was quite good, only issue was that I glued the wings separately and when trying to glue the wings to the fuselage, the upper wings sat a bit too low. I added small pieces of sprue to lift the wing root a bit higher so they are closer to the fuselage, thus avoiding a bigger filling and sanding session.

 

 

 

 

After taking the pictures I saw that I forgot to add the seat belts I have a set of Eduard IJA seatbelts, I'll try to put them later.

I have decided the decaling option as well, this will be a Chinese Nationalist Air Force plane.

 

I haven't used Kora Decals before, we'll see how it goes. The instructions do suggest spraying a light varnish before soaking them.

 

Br, Jani

 

[Telepatu]

The model has been primed and painted with dark green on top and light gray on the bottom. First try was with a Vallejo green grey , but that was too green and too dark. The pictures I found around the net showed more of a light grey color on the underside.

 

 

I built engine and did some light washes there. Not much will be seen once the cowling is in place so even that was "wasted" effort.

 

So far rather uneventful build. Which is a good thing, no big problems. Biggest issue was that the exhausts didn't seem to fit from under the cowling. The reason was found between the chair and the keyboard, I glued them them rotated around 90 degrees. Luckily that was quite easily fixed.

 

Next up is clear coat before decals.

 

Br, Jani

Edited November 25, 2023 by Telepatu

[MikeMaben]

10 hours ago, Telepatu said:

                          The reason was found between the chair and the keyboard,

 

Hahaa, I have that problem frequently too. 

[Out2gtcha]

20 hours ago, Telepatu said:

Not much will be seen once the cowling is in place so even the reason was found between the chair and the keyboard.....

 

 

PEBKAC!

 

Regardless of any issues caused, it's looking fantastic so far.

[Telepatu]

This is pretty much the only color photo that I found of a Chinese Nationalist Air Force Oscar.

Another one is a picture taken directly from the right side:

 

This seems to be the early variant of the Oscar, I have not been able to find any (color) pictures of the later variants in Chinese Nationalist Air Force.

 

As far as I can see, the yellow identification colors on the leading edges of the wings are not present in the first picture. So I decided to leave them out for now. That can be wrong, but I guess they can be added later as well.

 

The decals from Kora Decals were thick, and required careful trimming around the edges. There are some edges that didn't go perfectly and the light blue carrier film can be seen especially on the dark green. I tried to paint the worst places with dark green color. I like the red spinner and propeller, brings some nice contrast to the otherwise quite dull green finish. I did some panel washes, they don't show too well on the top and they are perhaps too visible on the bottom. I used Tamiya Black panel wash on both, a tad lighter wash would have been better on the undersides. Well, live and learn.

 

Pictures of the finished model to follow.

 

Br, Jani

 

[Telepatu]

The finished model.

 

 

 

The seatbelts are there, honest

 

 

 

 

 

All in all, I'm quite happy with the results. The idea was to do a Hasegawa 1:32 plane for a change. It is not a perfect model, but one of the better ones for me anyway. The old kit was a pleasure to build, simple and easy - just like me   I will build more of these in the future.

 

Br, Jani

 

Edited November 29, 2023 by Telepatu

[LSP_Kevin]

Looks good, Jani! Congrats on getting it across the line.

 

Kev

[BradG]

Very nice, right in my interest area too. I will add to the gallery!