1/48 Hasegawa Kawasaki Ki-61 "Hein"

by Chip Berseth

--------------------

 

While riding out a recent wave of "building fever", I plundered the kit stash to bring this beauty to life. Hasegawa certainly has a fine offering with this kit, as the only fit problems that I encountered were in the wing root area.  Nothing that a little putty and acetone couldn't  take care of  in an evening.  This kit was built straight out of the box as I can't afford expensive after market parts (I'm a broke college student, what more can I say?). The aircraft was painted with Testors Silver as I wasn't feeling too adventurous in the metallic finishes category.

Click on images below to see larger images

  

The decals were okay to say the least. The wing insignia (meatballs) shriveled quite a bit when I applied setting solution to them.  I have noticed with this kit, and also my B7A Grace that Hasegawa meatballs are prone to shriveling up for some reason. The panel lines were done using a method that I actually came up with myself.  Using acrylic paint that you would paint ceramics with, I applied it to the panel line. Working with just a few lines at a time I let it dry. Then I went over it lightly with a moist (not soaking) cotton swab. It takes a couple tries but eventually it comes. As always, practice makes perfect. I then sealed her up with some Future and added a stretched sprue antenna painted with a permanent marker.

All in all, it was a very satisfying build. The minor fit problems that I experienced around the wing root area could of totally been my fault and nothing to do with Hasegawa moldings. But even that little setback was quickly overlooked when the finished aircraft rolled off the work table and onto the shelf.

Chip 

Photos and text © by Chip Berseth