Sword 1/72: Nakajima Ki-44

[Hunter]

I do like the looks of this aircraft. More or less a small interceptor dominated by a huge engine with a man riding it.



My main reason for choosing this kit, is to attempt the heavily weathered, worn appearance that is frequently seen on vintage photo's of late war Japanese aircraft. That look is fairly well illustrated on the kits box-art. I have a technique in mind to achieve that look, win or bust, that I will fully describe when I get there in the build. This effort will be built strictly OOB, and I choose to do the box-top scheme of the 3 scheme's provided.

The scheme choices:


Grey-tone 4-view:


Decal sheet printed by Techmod:


Single tree sprue - exterior surfaces. Trying to focus on this will give you a headache.


Interior surfaces. It will make your headache worse. I need to get proper lighting.


Clear sprue:


And the kit comes supplied with resin and a photo-etch fret:




That's the kit; and this is my first post on ISM as well as being my first build on the forum. With a 4 month window, I feel confident all will go well. Even though the snows have retreated and summer is upon us here.

[Richp1969]

What great looking kit. Congratulations on your first post.
Looking forward to seeing your build.

Sincerely,
Richard

[Vleugelmoer]

Love the battered look on that one zero should be a good excersize in chipping and weathering settling down with some to watch this unfold..

as always happy modeling and keep sticking styrene.

Paul

[Always48]

to ISM buddy.

thats a cracking kit by the looks of it. looking forward to how it goes together.

[fly1ngdutchm4n]

Welcome to your first GB!
You will love it here
Great kit, and I too love the heavily damaged version as well.
Good luck and have fun!

[Hunter]

Thanks for the comments fella's .

The Nakajima Ki-44 was designed as a fast interceptor right from conception. The prototype first flew in 1940, well before the Japanese were compelled to defend the home islands, and the 'Shoki' began operations in 1942. The design certainly proved to have performance issue's at altitude, but, was extremely capable in climb and dive. The firepower it could carry was well above it's predecessors. During the late war period, after the Ki-44's ammunition was expended, they were periodically used to ram allied bombers in an attempt to bring them down.

The model was de-sprued early last week. At first, I thought the modelling gods were cursing me with vexes to prevent the start of yet another project.
The cockpit floor went washing down the kitchen sink drain. Luckily, I could dismantle the pipe-work and fish it out.
That's this small piece:



Then, I supposed I was being shorted on plastic when I began test fitting:



However, I now believe that is really the design, and not a shortage. This drawing tells the tale:



So, if that is the design, then the test-fit is very good. Sword kits do not have locator pins at all.



Moving in to start the cockpit, I needed a color. Every wartime Japanese aircraft manufacturer seemed to have their own color for their cockpits. I decided to try and match the color Sword used on the PE parts for the Nakajima green.





Just habit,I suppose. I prime everything with Krylon grey before the color coat. Maybe it makes the paint stick better. It was the XF-55, Tamiya deck tan color that I went with to mimic Nakajima cockpit green.



The pit-panel employs the supplied PE. You can see how small these parts are with the IP posing on a common tooth-pick:



That's all for now, folks.

[Hunter]

I really do like this Sword kit. The boxing gives a whole lot of parts and PE to make the cockpit look very busy. Good thing, too, because test fitting shows you'll be able to see quite a-bit when all is put together.





I'll slip that pit in from underneath once the fuse sides are glued together. First, the engine and tail gear have to be installed.
I note the colors in the pics don't seem to be set off, however, in life they are quite prominent. The guns are Vallejo gun grey and the IP surround is Vallejo gun blue, for example.

[Hunter]

The resin engine supplied with the Ki-44 kit is really quite nice. It was finished and installed into a fuselage half before the two sides were joined.
A quick job of Alclad, some grey and a brownish wash.



As usual with resin radials, I fudged the valve covers slightly to reduce the engines diameter. This allowed the fuselage halves to be joined.





I continued to add major parts:



Although, I'm very happy with this kits fit, it will still be necessary to stretch some sprue and fill in the joins. Then comes the sanding (my favorite ).





I must let you know that my slow modelling is amplified during the summer months. Hence, my pathetic progress.

[Willem]

Looking very nice. Great attention to detail.

No need to apologize. Everyone builds at their own pace. As long as you are happy with things that's all that matters.

[Hunter]

Thanks for the comments, Willem

I know most modellers like to pack in the putty on wider join gaps, but, I prefer stretched sprue. It's cheap, strengthens the join, and is often easier to sand. Also, it scribes well.
The following photographs show all the tools I require to fill the gaps on a model, and give a glimpse at how I do it.







Now starts the sanding clean-up before I go over the model with Mr Surfacer and then do some rescribing.

[Hunter]

This model, my first Sword, has no alignment tabs at all. That's not an issue for the most part. At least not until the horizontal stabilizers need to be attached. These are just flush flat surface against flush flat surface... not very strong.
I thought about brass pinning them or cutting in styrene wafers. Both ideas seem to be troubling on such a small work surface. So, I settled for scratching in a rough mating surface and strengthening the joint with stretched sprue. It's working out.





Of course, all of this still has to be sanded, rescribed, and polished. It's coming along though.
Current state of the model:



Thanks for lookin in!

[Les]

How is the re-scribbing going on this kit?