Mitsubishi Ki-46 in Soviet Service. Finished pics pg 3.

[buzzbomb]

It would certainly make Air Recognition between this and a Mosquito at 300 odd MPH cease to be spectator sport

[zenrat]

First top side paint on this today.  I went back to how I used to do this way back when and just spitballed it, painting the pattern on without any planning.

Way I always do it mate, unless it's a real world build where I will try and follow the pattern on the actual aircraft.

As a young modeller I never realised RW aircraft followed pre-planned schemes laid down by the Brass Hats and thought that they were all different with whoever painted them just making it up.
And so I painted them that way myself, never thinking to follow the instructions.
These days, I may still do the same but have found that for more complex multi colour schemes it pays to plan it out by drawing it onto the primer/undercoat with a pencil.  Sometimes i'll try to extrapolate a RW scheme onto a completely different aircraft.  Which is fun and definitely needs to be drawn on with a pencil.

Here's the москит Ki-46 with some black on it.
Ki-46 in Soviet service WIP 22-12-2020 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

[NARSES2]

These days, I may still do the same but have found that for more complex multi colour schemes it pays to plan it out by drawing it onto the primer/undercoat with a pencil. 

Should have definitely done that with my current MS 406

[zenrat]

I added a filter made from a mix of mostly the green but with a touch of the black for good measure thinned with water from my brush cleaning jar.  It has muted the obvious difference between the green and the black.  Possibly a little too much but clear should change that.  Possibly.
Ki-46 in Soviet service WIP 24-12-2020 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

[zenrat]

Cleared and transfers on.
I almost added another layer of "captured by" and made it Finnish.  But changed my mind as the Finns would probly have repainted it.
I must say it looks good with red stars.  They complement the dark scheme.

[NARSES2]

  But changed my mind as the Finns would probly have repainted it.

Interesting you say that sir, I'm doing a Lagg-5 (hopefully) as a captured Finnish aircraft and I'm leaving it in the Soviet colours, but with Yellow Eastern Front ID panels. What colours do you reckon the Finns would have used ?

[zenrat]

  But changed my mind as the Finns would probly have repainted it.

Interesting you say that sir, I'm doing a Lagg-5 (hopefully) as a captured Finnish aircraft and I'm leaving it in the Soviet colours, but with Yellow Eastern Front ID panels. What colours do you reckon the Finns would have used ?

Finnish colours obviously.   

No idea mate.  Not without looking into it.  Swedish Fields and Meadows was tempting and would upset so many people due to 1) not being Finnish and 2) not being from that era.


I might make the Messerschmitt P.1099 Finnish.  What colour did they paint their night fighters?

[NARSES2]

Ah right 

No idea re Finnish night fighters, not sure they had any dedicated ones ?

[zenrat]

Googling Finnish Night Fighter gives me a lot of pictures of the Finnish scheme Airfix provided with one of their 1/72 Me 109 releases.
Dark Green or Black and Grey camo over a Lighter Grey or Blue underside.
I have the transfers from that release somewhere so might use those.

Nothing more on the Mitsubishi yet.  I now have to paint the canopy framing which is always a challenge on Japanese aircraft let alone one with as much glazing as a Ki-46.

[NARSES2]

Googling Finnish Night Fighter gives me a lot of pictures of the Finnish scheme Airfix provided with one of their 1/72 Me 109 releases.
Dark Green or Black and Grey camo over a Lighter Grey or Blue underside.
I have the transfers from that release somewhere so might use those.

Ah right, so not much different, if at all, from the day fighter scheme.

[Snowtrooper]

Short recap of FAF night fighter units during WW2 is actually the first Google search hit for me (though it is missing the post-war history):
http://www.geocities.ws/finnmilpge/fmp_faf_nightfighters.html

The "standard" FAF camo from 1940 onwards was Olive Green/Black/Light Gray, variously given as FS34096/37038/36440. Curtiss fighters bought from Germans were in RLM71/65 though. Blenheims and individual war booty aircraft sometimes had their bottom painted in light blue (FS35414) instead of light gray. Do-17's and Ju-88's were supplied in RLM70/71/65 splinter.

All Bf109's were supplied in German camo however, that is, RLM74/75 splinter on top, RLM74/75 mottle on the sides, RLM76 bottom. Couldn't find any source that the night fighters of wartime 30 Squadron would have received a special paintjob for that. 

After the armistice in September 1944, black camo patterns were overpainted on top of at least some of the 109's at the same time when the yellow Easter Front bands were overpainted (presumably to better distinguish them from German 109's). In September 1947 the black was ordered to be removed from the standard scheme (on any fighter) and when brought to maintenance, top and sides of all aircraft were to be painted olive green. It was during this maintenance that the "night fighter" 109's (ie. ones with IFF instruments) were repainted as the airframe in Airfix kit instructions (obviously their was a "special" scheme so were allowed to keep the black that was already ordered to be removed).

[zenrat]

Thanks Snowy.

[zenrat]

Painting the fiddley bits today.  This should be the first build I finish for this GB.  I should probly start on the back story.

[zenrat]

Other than attaching the UC doors this is done.

[zenrat]

Mitsubishi Ki-46-II in Soviet Service

The Mitsubishi Ki-46 was a twin-engine reconnaissance aircraft used by the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II.  It first flew in November 1939, entering service in July 1941.
In early 1940 a number of Japanese manufactured aircraft were shipped to Nazi Germany for evaluation (this arrangement went both ways with German aircraft also being sent to Japan).  Amongst them was a Ki-46-II which was sent to Luftfahrtforschungsanstalt Hermann Goering for assessment by Messerschmitt engineers.
Mitsubishi Ki-46 in Soviet Service  - 18 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
The first thing Messerschmitt did was to replace the Mitsubishi Ha 102 14 cylinder Air Cooled Radials (1050hp) with Daimler Benz DB 601 V-12 inverted liquid-cooled piston engines (1100hp).  This was done because RLM officials doubted the reliability of Japanese made engines while Messerschmitt insisted liquid cooled installations would always have drag advantages over air cooled.
Assessment of both installations in the LFA wind tunnels showed the small (44" – one of the smallest 14 cylinder radial engine designs) diameter of the Ha 102 combined with the extremely close fitting cowlings meant that the radials were actually less draggy than the Me 110 nacelles with crude, cobbled on chin radiators that Messerschmitt used.
Mitsubishi Ki-46 in Soviet Service  - 14 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
The Daimler Benz engined Ki-46 was pushed to the back of a hanger and ignored until late 1942 when RAF Mosquitos operating with impunity over occupied Europe turned Luftwaffe thoughts to fast, unarmed aircraft.  It was dragged back out, dusted off and sent to the Eastern Front for trial use as a reconnaissance and communications aircraft.
Ironically it was catastrophic failure of one of its German engines which resulted in it being forced down on its first mission.  The Red Army Air Force, recognising that what they had was not an indigenous German design, replaced the dead DB 601 with one from a downed Me 109 and put it through a comprehensive test programme.  The result of which was it was deemed slow at 375mph.
Mitsubishi Ki-46 in Soviet Service  - 3 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
More speed is often quite simply the result of more power and the Soviets had the perfect provider of this in the form of the Klimov M-105PF3 V-12 liquid-cooled piston engine (1360hp).  With a pair of these fitted its top speed increased to 425mph
Upon the completion of evaluation the now Klimov equipped Ki-46 was handed over to the Red Army Airforce who used it for reconnaissance missions over Finland, Sweden and the Baltic.  At the end of hostilities in the West in 1944 it was scrapped as it would not have done back then for the Red Army to be seen to have been using the product of a corrupted imperialist regime.
Mitsubishi Ki-46 in Soviet Service  - 8 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
The aircraft pictured is a replica built from a genuine Ki-46-II by the People's Aviation Museum at Dadswell Bridge, People's Democratic Republic of Victoria.

The Model.
Arii 1/72 Mitsubishi Ki-46-II.
Engines from Airfix Petlyakov Pe-2.
Mitsubishi Ki-46 in Soviet Service  - 12 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
Mitsubishi Ki-46 in Soviet Service  - 13 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr