Yet another Hasegawa Oscar for my collection. This one is a Ki 43-I, whereas my previous Hasegawa Oscars have been Ki 43-II's. There really isn't too much to say about this kit, as it was a pretty uneventful build. The only lesson I learned, that I hope I will remember before starting my next Oscar build, is to glue the wing tips to the top and bottom before glueing the wing top and bottom together.

I primed with Tamiya Liquid Surface Primer from the 40 ml jar. I have not had good luck with this in the past, so this time I mixed it with my Badger electric paint stirrer. It went on much better than in the past. The exterior was Tamiya XF-14 J.A. Gray for the bottom and XF-13 J.A. Green for the top.

The decals are from the kit. I was a little apprehensive, since I often have trouble with large decals. Some did wrinkle, particularly at the front of the wings, but not nearly as bad as I feared. Having low expectations sometimes helps.

I first painted the canopy Polly Scale Weyerhauser Green to match the cockpit interior. I thinned this with Future, which resulted in a rather glossy finish. In the past, my canopy frames always seem to be darker than the main airframe, so this time I lightened the XF-13 with some XF-2 Flat White before I sprayed it. It went on very well, but was too light, so I then sprayed straight XF-13 on. It did seem to match the rest of the plane better than it usually does. The windscreen didn't fit that well, but it isn't too obvious in the photos.

Page last updated June 15, 2023.