Part I | Part II| Part III | Part IV

I’d originally planned to follow up my Bf 109G-4/R6 and Bf 109G-6 double-build with Tamiya’s new Corsair, but by the time I was in a place to consider making a move, approximately 7,490 F4U-1 builds were underway over at Large Scale Planes. Can’t speak for anyone else, but a thing like that has a way of killing my enthusiasm for a project. Nah…I’ll come back to the Corsair in a bit, once all the mindblowing aftermarket stuff has had a chance to work its way out.

In the meantime, I’ve had this urge to tackle a Japanese subject for awhile, and I’ve always like the lines of the Nakajima Ki-84, so…

Aftermarket Roundup!

You know how there are some kits with just tons of aftermarket flying all over the place?

This isn’t one of those kits.

There’s a bit out there. Not much. But a bit. So I got most of it.

• Eduard interior photo etch
• Eduard exterior photo etch
• Quickboost exhausts
• Montex mask set

Cockpit

Work started with the cockpit. For the most part, Hasegawa did a pretty bang-up job here, and Eduard’s interior detail set picked up the slack where things got a bit weak. I also added some wiring with 0.2mm and 0.3mm lead wire.

Speaking of weak – that’s an apt description for the kit seat. Folded PE replacement is much, much easier on the eyes.

Prior to laying down the cockpit green, I laid down a base of Alclad Duraluminum.

The Alclad was masked selectively with liquid frisket, then painted over with Gunze C128 Nakajima Cockpit Green. Frisket masks were pulled off to reveal the metal beneath…then it was on to detail painting and many successive stages of weathering. End results?

Engine

With the cockpit sorted, I moved on to the Homare engine.

After using my trusty airbrush needle to poke holes in the ignition ring, and the plug locations on the cylinders, I base-painted everything. Cylinders were done in Alclad Magnesium. Crankcase cover in Semi-Matte Aluminum. And the ignition ring in Gunze SM06 Chrome Silver (wonderful stuff!).

Wiring was then added with 0.2mm lead wire (and some assorted other wire where necessary), a stencil borrowed from the Eduard interior set to gussy up the crankcase was added, and everything given a raw umber oil wash. Viola!

Next up for the engine is some oil and grease staining, but need to wait until later in the build to tackle that one.

Main Construction

It’s almost not worth talking about construction with the Ki-84.

Almost.

The Ki-84 falls together for the most part. The fuselage fits phenomenally well, the stabilizers are literally press-fit, etc.

The only challenge is the wings. There is a wing spar/strengthener element, that helps, but the wings on my Hayate left some noticeable gaps at the wingroot when everything was taped together.

I got around this by working inside-out and outside-in. So I tacked the wingroot down just enough to get a proper hold. At the rather flat dihedral they had, the lower wingtips protruded further than the uppers. By lifting the wingtips, however, all was brought into alignment, so I welded the tips, then went back to the wingroot. The rest of the wings went together quite well…but those first welds were a bit of a stumbling point.

With the major airframe construction done, I flipped the Frank over and began playing with Eduard’s exterior set, which includes appliques for the gear bays. The Eduard wiring looms were pretty awful, so I dropped those in favor of lead wire.

While I was at it, I also replaced the oleo scissors with some very finely detailed Eduard PE. BIG improvement there.

From the gear bays, it was literally a hop, skip and jump to being done. Some filling and sanding , and off we go to painting land.

Up next?

Paint! My favorite!