Hasegawa 1/72 Nakajima Ki-43-ii Hayabusa (Oscar)

HASEGAWA 1:72 NAKAJIMA KI-43-II HAYABUSA (OSCAR)

Reviewer: Hrvoje Šafhauzer (contact via SMAKR webmaster)
Kit Review submitted: 7 November 2009

Kit Details:

Aircraft: Nakajima Ki43-II HAYABUSA (OSCAR) (JAPANESE ARMY FIGHTER)
Scale: 1/72
Kit: Hasegawa #A1:700 (00131)
Parts: 38 medium gray (1 marked not for use) injection molded styrene + 1 clear injection molded styrene
Surface detail: raised, petite
Options: two exhaust styles with appertain headrests, rotating propeller
Decals: 2 options
Price: 47-49 Croatian Kuna (approx 6.48-6.75 €) in October 2006

Other boxings of this kit

Aircraft History:

History of this warplane has been described here at SMAKR by Dave McDougall (please insert link here). Of note is that there were two post-WW II users: Indonesian people Security Forces and France. Indonesian used planes found at their islands, including some of them assembled from several unserviceable/wrecks, in their fight for independence from Dutch. Japanese ground crew provided technical assistance during these operations, and I bet that Japanese ex-Army pilots had some roles other than training locals to fly and fight. Immediately post war, French used the Ki-43-IIs and Ki-43-II KAIs in two their Groupe de Chasse (fighter groups) GC 1/7 and GC 2/7 in Indochina for fighting Wieth Min insurgents. Later these were replaced by American Lend-Lease equipment, after gradually becoming unserviceable due lack of spares. My model is intended to represent one of French machines.

The Kit:

I purchased this kit in a hobby/games shop in Zagreb, Croatia, together with few more Hasegawa kits of the same vintage (read "with raised panel lines"). At that time my collection of Japanese warplanes was lacking a few of the major fighters so these were duly purchased. Two sprues are packed in a heat-sealed cellophane pouch, while the clear sprue with canopy and decal sheet are located in another heat-sealed cellophane pouch. The parts contained no flash, only thing that I have noticed is presence of material molding flow/stress on wing upper surfaces and horizontal surfaces. Holes for mounting the underwing drop tanks are opened, but there is option for opening other four pairs of holes for other store shackles (bombs, outer wing fuel tanks), as well as a central ventral hole for a fairing related to –II KAI model, if one is willing to make/attach them. The box side states that the it's release year is 2004, but instructions are dated 1987.

The instructions are standard Hasegawa fold-out, with paints indicated in Gunze Sangyo ranges, and with glitches as advised by Dave. Part marked as not for use is for Ki-43-I series and engined with Ha-25 engine, but instructions are still not advising use of a smaller intake scoop numbered A16. Also positioning for the decals number 21 is not indicated at all.

Options for making two planes and decal sheet are unchanged from Dave's review.

Construction:

I started with prepainting using my fine brushes. Humbrol H11 silver was used for painting landing gear legs, including tailwheel, landing gear bays, covers, and wheel hubs, as well as the engine reduction gear casing, oil cooler and air intake interior surfaces, propeller roots and spinner interior. Revell R91 steel was applied over engine cylinders and backplate, and on the Pitot probe tip. Exhausts were painted in my mixture of R84&R91. The instructions state that the cockpit interior be painted in a mixture of RM02 and khaki green, and since I was not willing to make a mess during mixing the paints and especially since very little would be seen through small cockpit opening I commissioned R67 greenish gray, that was also applied inside engine cowling. Propeller blades were painted in acrylic brown that came in an Italeri gift set kit, probably being Model Master 1701 Russian brown. Cockpit coaming under the canopy shall be in black and blue mixture, but I used R9 anthracite, as well as for all the tires, headrest body, control stick handle, main gear legs compression shock absorbers, rudder pedals and MG ports. Rudder was overpainted in R301 satin white, as a background for French three-color. An alien was sourced to portray as a pilot, with face painted in R35 flesh, uniform painted in H25 blue and helmet in R84 leather brown, that was used for headrest pillow also. Goggles were picked by black permanent soft tip pen. During this process, I used stretched sprue for closing holes in the wing lower surfaces since French-flown fighter was to be with no underwing stores at all.

Construction started few days later when I carefully drilled holes in pilot backrest, using a 0.8 mm drill and tool provided kindly to me by Carlos Gianni (Thanks again!). Engine with propeller shaft and backplate subassembly needed some filing with a fine round needle file of casing interior to enable easier shaft rotation. Revell Contacta Professional liquid glue was used there, as well as for the most of the build. Seat, backrest and control stick were glued to the cockpit floor, instrument decal applied to panel, and all left to dry properly. Next day, when test fitting the engine subassembly to fuselage, I found out that fuselage halves mated (Hasegawan) nicely so I instantly applied liquid glue with needle applicator from interior mostly, including engine subassembly, only some glue application to fin was made before joining the halves together, and rubber band and clothespins came in handy for holding them together. When all cured, only some scraping of the joints was required, followed by placing the engine single piece cover using liquid glue again. After drying and slight sanding of its joints, the instrument panel was glued into position, followed by cockpit floor subassembly, completing operation with outward ejecting engine exhausts and appertain headrest. With 0.5 mm drill I made a hole in cockpit canopy rear part starboard side, taking care to be behind a position covered by mid-canopy tentatively slid back, for antenna lead-in.

While nicely depicted by box artwork, a port wing leading edge landing light is not provided so it had to be made. For that, I first glued together the wings using Humbrol liquid glue with brush applicator, marked the landing light position guided by the references, and after the wing became dried cared a seat. A small section of kit's own clear part sprue was sanded to rough shape and secured in position using a nitro-based aluminum bronze paint. The next day it was finely filed and sanded to final shape. The pilot was inserted from the cockpit opening and glued with Revell Contacta tube glue. While waiting for things to dry, I glued the main wheels to their legs, still at the sprue, and masked white rudder strip using Tamiya masking tape followed by painting rudder in French flag colors. For red I used household gloss enamel red, but I needed to use H25 instead French blue. Reason: only decals with post-WW II French roundels of appropriate size were to come from Revell P-47D-30 Thunderbolt decal sheet and these having dark blue center. That's about my job "thorough" preparations.

Contacta glue was applied to the wing mating surfaces, and a small gap was reduced by bending wings slightly up and keeping in position by rubber bend until dry. When doing this, I knocked off the headrest which became a victim of the carpet monsters, so I used another option from kit. Horizontal taiplanes followed, and main wheel legs were glued in position where some keeping on position was required due not so tight mating. Main landing gear covers were attached, but I separated them in two pieces. For securing antenna lead-in under canopy I used R2 matt paint, and canopy was attached to fuselage using white glue, pressing it to adhere properly. Spinner was attached at the propeller, and all ended with positioning the antenna mast at starboard front fuselage. Slight sanding of the wing fairing rear portion was made for removing a slight step, and all was ready for painting.

Painting & Decalling:

To commence with, I used black gloss enamel for painting the spinner, as indicated by a profile of a GC 1/7 Hayabusa in NMF that I downloaded from the internet a long time ago. Using permanent transparent soft tip pens, I accentuated the wing tip position lights, red and blue respectively. Then, I overpainted complete plane, but rudder, spinner and canopy frames, into R76 light gray as a base for applying "natural metal finish". Next day, R99 aluminum was brushed over all surfaces, except ailerons and elevators that were left in light gray as indicated by an other Hasegawa IJAAF kit instructions, and canopy frames in two sessions: fuselage and horizontals first, followed by wings some five hours later.

I decided arbitrarily that the plane should have a code letter "K", representing 10th plane in an Escadrille (squadron), and appropriate one was sourced from decal dungeon originating from an old VEB kit. Thunderbolt roundels were applied to fuselage, followed by kit propeller blade markings and wing walkways. Since instructions are stating that drop tank filler caps shall be painted red, I applied all four decals No. 21 at respective tank filling points at upper wing. Wing roundels application concluded the job.

Using R2 paint I attached radio aerial to post and rudder tip, it grips after some 15 minutes, as well as lead-in from aerial to rear cockpit. Brushing R2 over the rudder and propeller with spinner concluded the job.

Conclusions:

A mostly unproblematic fit and ease of construction are the basis for recommending this kit for anyone, especially if not in raised vs engraved panels debate. I needed almost two week to complete, mostly due working up to one hour at odd days. And another one is waiting in a stash to be built. And with some modeling skills it could be easily modified to represent –II KAI variant.

Review courtesy of my valet.

References:

II svjetski rat AVIONI (World War II – AIRCRAFT), by Christopher Chant, Serbo-Croatian edition 1977;
Hamlin Concise Guide to Axis Aircraft of World War II, by David Mondey;
Fighters, Attack and Training Aircraft, by Kenneth Munson;
The Encyclopedia of Aircraft of WWII, General Editor Paul Eden;
The Illustrated Directory of Fighters, by Mike Spick;
The Complete Book of Fighters, by William Green and Gordon Swarnborough;

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