This is Hasegawa's 1/72 Kawasaki Ki61-I Tei HIEN, Allied code name Tony, kit number 00621. The same plastic, with different decals, is available as kit A003. The instructions that came with this kit say A003, but there is a supplemental sheet showing the painting and decal placement.

Built out of the box. I pretty much built this to try a different primer. I used Ace Hardware white primer in a rattle can. It worked quite well. I did learn that two coats of primer make for a smoother finish. I originally gave it one coat of primer, then painted the yellow IFF bands on the front of the wings. I used Floquil Reefer Yellow for the bands, since it has a slight orange tint to it. I masked the yellow, and then gave it another coat of primer, out of fear that the yellow overspray would show through. The areas that got a second coat of primer came out better.

The bottom was painted Floquil Old Silver, a railroad paint. I've had trouble with this paint not sticking, so I added some glaze (which is effectively binder). The silver did not come up with Tamiya masking tape, although it did come up with generic blue masking tape.

I did not want to mask such a small canopy, so I painted the frames in about six steps, first doing the horizontal frames, then the vertical, and so forth. It came out okay, but this technique prevented me from covering it with a flat coat, so the frames don't match the body of the plane. Also, I used generic green masking tape, and the edge did not turn out as sharp as I would have preferred, although the tape worked well in all other respects. The green was Model Master enamel JA Green. It went on well, but the bottle dried out by the time I was finished.

The orange for the drop tanks was Floquil Reefer Yellow, with a touch of Floquil Signal Red added. I later realized the tanks are supposed to be the same color as the IFF bands, so I should have used straight Reefer Yellow. Also, I had used a dark gray primer on the tanks, so they turned out a little darker than I would have liked.

Pre-decal clear coat was Right Step gloss clear, which worked well. Decals are from the kit. They went on well. I did not use any of the stencils, as I hate decaling and they really aren't noticeable in 1/72 scale. Flat coat was Right Step matte clear, which worked as well as the gloss.

Page last updated June 15, 2023.