This is the Hasegawa 1/48 Ki61 Tony. I have several boxings of this kit, and several aftermarket decals sheets. It went together well - I don't recall any real difficult spots. It is not as overengineered as the Ki84 Frank. The painting was the most difficult part of this kit - which says something, given the simple paint scheme.

The cockpit was painted Model Master Enamel RLM 79. I used Mr. Color C-28 Steel for the guns. The propellor blades and spinner were painted Mr. Color C-131 Propellor Color. The landing gear was painted CreateFX Aluminum. The tires are Model Master Acryl Flat Black. For the exhaust, I used Model Master Metalizer Burnt Iron. The kit is engineered so that you can attach the exhausts after painting the exterior, which is handy, but I did have to sand the starboard exhaust quite a bit to get it to fit. I didn't have that problem with the port side.

For the exterior, I first primed with Mr. Surfacer 1000. I painted the white background for the fuselage hinomaru with Testors Lacquer Header White, from their automotive line. That did not cover as well as I had hoped, so I then sprayed with Mr. Base White 1000. I also painted the leading edges of the wings with Floquil Reefer Yellow. I masked those areas and covered the white and yellow overspray with another coat of primer. I have found that yellow can bleed through a bit, odd as that seems.

I then sprayed Testors CreateFX Aluminum on the bottom. That looked terrible. After thinking about it for a few days, and almost tossing the model, I decided to spray the top, and then go back to the underside. I used Tamiya XF-13 JA Green. The first coat was rather rough, so I gave it a light sanding and did a second coat. This time it turned out better, although it is still rough just below the cockpit on the port side.

At this point, I went back to the underside. I've never tried spraying the top first, since the lower side is nearly always a lighter color. I masked the top - not as easy as masking the bottom - and sprayed Tamiya X-1 Black as an undercoat, then sprayed Tamiya XF-16 Flat Aluminum. This paint turned out grainy, as it usually does, but a little buffing helped. I had sanded the old paint prior to applying the Tamiya Black, but there were still spots where it turned out rough. I decided to live with it.

For the wheel wells, I used Polly Scale RLM 79. This was a slightly darker shade than the cockpit, which was Model Master Enamel, but I wanted something that would dry quickly so I could apply the clear coat.

My first attempt to mask the canopy was to use the EZ Mask for it, but it did not fit well. I remove that and tried to mask by hand, but ended up putting a few scratches in the canopy. I re-Futured the canopy and tried a different approach: I scanned the EZ Mask cover sheet, scaled it down, and used it as a template. This worked quite well - the canopy turned out better than usual, and since I did not cut anything on the canopy, there were no scratches.

I used Future for the gloss coat. I had to apply several coats, and was reminded of why I don't normally use Future. The decals are from the kit, and represent an aircraft from the 56th Flight Regiment stationed at Itami Airfield in 1945. The pilot was Major Haruyoshi Furukawa. I didn not apply the stencils, since they were mostly for the upper surface, and black writing doesn't show up terribly well on a dark green background. The fact that I really don't like applying small decals was also a factor in this decision. I used Right Step Matte finish, thinned with Jason Jones reducer, for the flat coat.

Page last updated February 14, 2024.