Friends, hobbyists, crew chiefs, lend me your screen. I have come to present ‘Frank,’ not to shelve him.
My 1/48 Tamiya Hayate is complete. Built OOB except for the sentai insignia, representing a Ki-84, 3rd chutai, unit unknown, Indo-China, 1944. Finished in the early “depot” scheme of dark green over bare metal. While relatively new, this Ki-84 has suffered damage requiring a replacement propeller and canopy after a taxiing accident with a Ki-49. Apparently there has also been some landing gear damage as it has a replacement main gear door.
Apparently, Ki-84s had at least four antenna configurations. I chose the simplest. I also lost one of the drop tanks so ‘Frank’ is awaiting preflight servicing.
Not my best model but considering how few I’ve completed the past decade, I am happy with it.
I have another hanger queen to work on after I complete a few other projects.
Just found this film of the (then) airworthy Ki-84 flying at the Japan International Aerospace Show:
Now only the Lichtenstein radar antennas are missing. In the background there is my old Revell build from the 80s, which will be written off now. But its scratch built access ladder will go to the new model.
Have fun!
We don’t mind at all, welcome aboard! It’ll be great to see them finished, though as my eyes get a little more experience, they’d have to look hard to see them. They look good so far!
Arma has decals printed by Cartograph while I think IBG ones are from Techmod. IBG’s are more delicate and have a tendency to warp. It can be seen on bottom left wing and Polish checker marking (one next to N ) where wings profile was quite comples shape and decal didn’t stretch well, so you need to be careful when applying softer solutions or … it’s too late
They react very well to Micorscale or Gunze set & sol stuff.
Next is glossy varnish to protect decals and weathering before final assembly.
Great progress, Radek. Looks like the colors are spot on.
The orange series is the water based paint? I have considered buying the danish camo set, but really do not want another set of cleaners, thinners etc in addition to Tamiya, Vallejo, Ak interactive and mig productions.
Thanks for the tip on the IBG decals. I will order their “Ghost of Kiev” when released, so nice to hear some tips on their decals before starting on their huge pixel camo decals.
Hey Jesper, orange series are celulose based lacquers and need dedicated thinner (at least I use a dedicated one). Their smell is not offensive, but some resipratory protection should be used. I don’t know how they mix with other thinners, didn’t try that. However they are really, really great in application, don’t clog airbrush and so on. Fun part - I have also orange series gloss varnish and when I opened it after ~1yr in bottle it smells like … mead I was wondering if it started fermenting or sth (celulose is sugar after all ) .
About “Ghost of Kiev” by IBG - just in case you don’t know - sprues will be from 2015 Trumpeter’s kit. And in case of Techmod’s masks I made some tests with some spares left I had and it seems, that this “warping” problem was actually… well… guess what… my fault . Seems like I moved them with cotton bud when rolling over to remove uneccessary liquid and fit them into recesses.
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before final assembly.