Ki. 62 "Inline Hayate"

[GTX]

Looks fast and dare I say, even has a bit of the look of a late model Spitfire or perhaps Yak.

Regards,

Greg

[Brian da Basher]

Excellent SR! It makes me think of a later mark Spitfire too, or perhaps the love-child of a Hurricane and a Mustang. Your work never ceases to give me goose-bumps!

Brian da Basher

[sequoiaranger]

>Excellent SR! It makes me think of a later mark Spitfire<
>Looks fast and dare I say, even has a bit of the look of a late model Spitfire or perhaps Yak.<

Thanks Brian and GTX. Yes, I think it looks kinda Yak-9-ish. No other inline-engined fighter has the coolant radiator in quite the same place as this Ki.62, so it gives it a distinct look.

I am going to paint the beast like the Hayates of the 29th Fighter Sentai, with the "blue wave" in the tail. I don't like NMF's, so the main color will be very light green (British "Sky"-like) overall, with the dark blue anti-glare panel. I have a suspicion that the decals will shatter, so I am going to spray something over them before using them, to keep them intact (crossing my fingers---the look I want is DEPENDENT on the decals working!!).

As an aside, I am very glad I did not try to mate the Revell Ki.84 Hayate with the fine Hasegawa Ki.61 Hein---the former is much wider in the fuselage, and the latter is considerably narrower (than my current setup of Hasegawa Hayate and Nichimo Hein).

[The Wooksta!]

I doubt it'd be able to carry a pair of 30mm cannons in the nose - two 13mm machine guns perhaps or a single 30mm firing through the spinner a la the Bf 109.

Hans't Unicraft done this as a "kit"?

[sequoiaranger]

>I doubt it'd be able to carry a pair of 30mm cannons in the nose - two 13mm machine guns perhaps or a single 30mm firing through the spinner a la the Bf 109.<

Perhaps I will use "20mm guns" instead. The "bomber-destroyer" version of the Ki.61 Hein did have 20mm guns in the nose (without "bumps"), and 30mm cannon in the wings. The Nichimo Ki.61 nose that I am using is slightly larger than its "proper" Hasegawa Ki.61 counterpart, so maybe there is room, especially with "the bump" like the Bf-109G. It's not TOO MUCH of a stretch to put 30mm guns in the nose with fuselage bulges. Still an undecided WIP. It seems a bit surprising to me that the "engine-mounted cannon" idea never surfaced with the Japanese license-built DB engines---one would have thought it to be a "natural", considering that both Soviet and German aircraft featured it.

>Hans't Unicraft done this as a "kit"?<

Yes (see one of the early posts here), but that would be WAY TOO EASY!!

[ChernayaAkula]

My, this looks tasty! 

<...>
>Hans't Unicraft done this as a "kit"?<

Yes (see one of the early posts here), but that would be WAY TOO EASY!!

Wow! "Unicraft" and "easy" in the same train of thoughts - that's gotta be a first!

[sequoiaranger]

I THOUGHT I was ready for painting, but...! I needed to move the underwing gondolas forward on the wing, resulting in a glue FUBAR (is a "glue goof" a "gluef"?) that needs rectifying (AFTER it dries--wait, wait, waiting impatiently). The fuselage is done with the PSR, and came out as well as I had wanted!! I ended up making a Vac-form canopy from the Revell canopy (WAAAY too thick--if it were "armor glass" it would probably stop a tank round!).

I did indeed put on the Me-109G-type fuselage bumps for the gun breeches of my 30mm nose armament. It looks nasty from the front end, but not "clean" for speed (probably dives like a meteorite, though). Presumably my "Mozu-II" has the high-altitude capability to get to the B-29's with the "DB-605" cloned engine, and hordes of American fighters have not yet appeared, so, like their encumbered German counterparts, it's not terribly speedy and manuverable, but there is still merit to be found in the heavy armament.

Here is a color drawing mock-up of the paint scheme--the green will be lighter still. The drawing does not have the underwing guns or fuselage bulge, but otherwise should be similar:


>Wow! "Unicraft" and "easy" in the same train of thoughts - that's gotta be a first!<

I admit to never "bothering" with Unicraft kits---have just heard too many derogatory comments over the years.

>My, this looks tasty!<

Thanks, BlackEagle. I am sure some American fighter will "give it a lickin'" and find out how tasty it really is!

[Pablo1965]

Nice scheme.

[sequoiaranger]

WHEW! Way more PSR than I first imagined. But why does that surprise ANYONE? Here is the "completed" aircraft just before the primer goes on, with the "bumps", the exhaust deflectors, and the mega-cannon in the nose:



and here is the pilot (moments later installed in cockpit):



And here is the underside (still a bit of PSR to be done, but irrelevant to the look):

[Pablo1965]

 Heavy weapons and perfect lines, it gets interesting... even more.

[Taiidantomcat]

Nice additions!!

[sequoiaranger]

>Nice additions!!<  >Heavy weapons and perfect lines, it gets interesting... even more.<

Thanks, guys.

I may have some pics of the painted (kind of a "Sky type S" color) plane later, but right now I am futzing with the canopy/fuselage interface (from a too-stiff Vac-formed canopy), and making a mask for the vertical stabilizer so I can "blue" the tail "wave" with spray (I am going to make the "arrow" part a painted clear-decal piece the same color). Trickier than it may seem.

[sequoiaranger]

I masked off the anti-glare panel and the tail "blue wave" with tape and cardstock. As Murphy's Luck would have it, there was "overspray" and "leakage" under the mask in places that I will have to correct, but it came out pretty well. I will probably  NOT post another "in progress" shot until it's all done, as I am virtually to the decal stage, now (needing only to correct the spray goofs, clear-gloss the plane, then add decals).

[sequoiaranger]

Here is a "preview" of the Ki.62, decalled on top. I really like how the "no step" striping for the Hayate stands out on an otherwise somewhat-bland, single, light color. The striping would have gotten kind of "lost" on the more typical dark-green Hayate finish.


The "blue wave" is actually part spray-paint and part decal. Both the same color, of course. I used the same color as I used on the tail (Floquil "Conrail Blue") to spray on a sheet of clear decal. The "wave" was masked and sprayed on normally; the "arrow" was carefully cut out of the blue-sprayed, clear decal paper. You can BARELY see the differential line under the middle of the tailplane.


Under the Hinomaru on the very bottom of the plane, you can see some extra putty that I reluctantly applied to a "flaw" that somehow I didn't see after applying the light green paint. Gotta fix THAT before doing the underside decals. But...you can see inklings of the final product!

[Sticky Fingers]

It's coming up beautifully! Can't wait to see the finished item.