Alain Gadbois Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 (edited) In with this entry! Captain Hideaki Inayama was flying this striking Ki-44 in the 87th Sentai that was part of the 10th Hikodan of the Japanese home islands’ Eastern Defense Sector. He was credited with 5+ victories (Osprey’s Japanese Army Air Force Aces 1937-1945). This is the very nice Hasegawa kit, which is a nicely detailed yet simple kit. I intend to build essentially straight from the box. Some references: The aircraft in question: The link with this GB is that this aircraft has the number 25, hand painted, on its main gear covers. Stay tuned! Alain Edited March 3 by Alain Gadbois Phantom2, BradG, DugyB and 12 others 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mozart Posted February 10 Share Posted February 10 Well done Alain…..OOB and a speed build!? The clock is ticking…. DugyB and geedubelyer 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dennismcc Posted February 10 Share Posted February 10 This is the one that I missed when I was going through my Japanese phase so it will be intersting to see how you get on, I am a big fan of Hasegawa kits. Cheers Dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alain Gadbois Posted February 10 Author Share Posted February 10 (edited) 9 hours ago, mozart said: Well done Alain…..OOB and a speed build!? The clock is ticking…. I trying to stay OOB, but this seat is crying for it’s holes to be drilled out! I must resist the chants of the super detailling sirens! 6 hours ago, dennismcc said: This is the one that I missed when I was going through my Japanese phase so it will be intersting to see how you get on, I am a big fan of Hasegawa kits. Cheers Dennis The Ki-44 is a really beautiful looking kit. Just starting to assemble cockpit and wing parts and fit is excellent so far. Very good detailing all around. Alain Edited February 10 by Alain Gadbois Landrotten Highlander, Archimedes, Borsos and 5 others 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alain Gadbois Posted February 25 Author Share Posted February 25 How time flies! Drilled the holes out with the help of this nice drill set. Next I spent 17 hrs 3d printing and painting this miniature for work! About 5cm in height but a mass of individual parts to assemble and create a nice pose for the box. I don’t have any information on the pilot, but here’s an interesting comparison of the wings surfaces of different aircraft. Top is a Bf 109 G (Hasegawa) Middle the Ki-44 Bottom a Ki-43 (Revell) Fully loaded weights of each in the same order: ‘109: 3 148kg Ki-44: 2 764kg Ki-43: 2 590kg So a much lower wing loading for the Ki-43! The Maru Mechanic had this great rivet plan for the aircraft. I followed that for the most part, but simplifying in places. The flaps are separate parts but they were glued in the closed position as that is the way they always are on the ground. They stand a bit proud from the wing surface but I couldn’t find out if that is correct. Anyway this does not look obviously wrong. Does look better compared to the unmodified parts. The fuselage has inserts but I thought I could add them later without any problems… But was I wrong! Somehow I though the doors (for loading the cowl guns) would fill the openings but they are smaller and the riveting should continue on the inserts. Also the fit was not so good as the surface ended being a bit lower than the surrounding surface. Didn’t notice that until the glue had set solidly. The edges were filled with thick CA. Then scraped and sanded flush. The concave fuselage at this spot made it possible to get a pretty smooth surface, at the expense of the rivetting but this will be done again using the still remaining bits. Most parts have been cleaned up with some subassemblies complete. Parts of the fuselage and cockpit are ready for primer, and others are sorted in two trays, one for silver, the other for black. Doing paint tests today for the fabric surfaces (visible on the underside) and the cockpit interior which will be in dark blue. More tomorrow! Alain blackbetty, mozart, denders and 17 others 20 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mozart Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 Oh that looks painful Alain! Good save though, but time consuming for sure. Alain Gadbois 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alain Gadbois Posted February 27 Author Share Posted February 27 So here’s the paint test for the cockpit and and fabric surfaces. The blue looks a bit darker than it is in reality, but I will still add a bit of white as the cockpit has a very small opening and it may end up being too dark. The cowl section. It is a beautiful single piece casting with the inner top intake and bottom oil radiator (4 parts) to add. I painted the ducting for the radiator with Citadel paint. Love this paint for little details as it is formulated for brush application. Going to paint the cockpit this afternoon. Alain LSP_Kevin, Isar 30/07, Furie and 10 others 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alain Gadbois Posted February 27 Author Share Posted February 27 8 hours ago, mozart said: Oh that looks painful Alain! Good save though, but time consuming for sure. The bigger shock was the realization of the mistake, but fixing it turned out to be quite straightforward. Luckily I had the thick CA which I had purchased for the miniature shown above. Also, the finished model is black, so that should help hidding imperfections! mozart 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazzas Posted February 28 Share Posted February 28 I hadn’t seen this one. I have one of these on my shelf of forgetfulness. Alain Gadbois 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alain Gadbois Posted March 3 Author Share Posted March 3 Hi! Since the last update I got busy again with a new miniature to print and paint up for the promo photos. If it can be moved over to the 25th anniversary GB, I would appreciate it. This is aircraft #25, isn’t it? To me it seems as the 25% threshold is not attained yet. I have not been able to paint the cockpit yet, just some of the bits in the trays shown above. Thanks, Alain LSP_Ray 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted March 3 Share Posted March 3 1 hour ago, Alain Gadbois said: If it can be moved over to the 25th anniversary GB, I would appreciate it. Done! Kev Gazzas and Alain Gadbois 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alain Gadbois Posted March 6 Author Share Posted March 6 Hi all! Back to the Ki-44! Cockpit has a coat of blue and props and spinner are painted. Colors used are shown. With wash will appear darker and should be ok. Basic coat here again. On the right side the parts are for my Ki-64, that I should get back to! The color is a mix about 1:1 of each. Also, I am making by own masks for the two « 25 » on the gear covers. By making my own I mean taking an X-Acto and cutting Tamiya tape. The originals are hand painted and somewhat irregular. We’ll see how these turn out! Next more cockpit updates. Alain Azgaron, DugyB, patricksparks and 8 others 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azgaron Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 Nice work so far! Looking good! Håkan Alain Gadbois 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alain Gadbois Posted April 4 Author Share Posted April 4 Hello all! Here’s an update showing a bit of progress. Working on the landing gear door numbers I noticed these doors were quite flat, and didn’t fit well in the openings. They needed to be bent to conform and studying photos showed the subtle curves well. You can see the stress marks on the plastic after bending. I keep my left and right gear parts in two different plastic trays to avoid mixing them. Saves a lot of eventual confusion! D is for droite (right) and G is for gauche. Free small French lesson for you! The brake lines are added with 0.5mm styrene rod. The leg is temporarily fitted to the wheel inner part to align the line with the hole I drilled according to similar arrangements on other Japanese aircraft. Now with little brackets made from a strip cut out of wine foil. Engine parts painted with gunmetal and silver straight out of Tamiya spray cans. Cylinders with black wash. Black wash also applied to the cockpit parts. Looks fine but forgot to paint the underside of the top decking! Didn’t realize at all an area would be in the interior color until I started test fitting this part to the fuselage. I still have the original paint mix so not a big problem. Bye for now! Alain Azgaron, blackbetty, LSP_Kevin and 3 others 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azgaron Posted April 4 Share Posted April 4 Very nice work Alain! Håkan Alain Gadbois 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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