1/32 Hasegawa Ki-43 Hayabusa 

(Oscar)

by Tony Feredo

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Nakajima Ki-43 "Hayabusa" (Allied codename: Oscar)
2nd Chutai, 20th Sentai, Japanese Army Air Force
Grace Park Airfield, Caloocan
Manila, Philippines
October 1944
 
Here is my Hasegawa Ki-43 "Oscar" in 1/32 scale.  The kit used to be in my "shelf of doom" in the last two years until I decided to revive it as its been a quite a while since I built a large scale aircraft.

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It was built mostly OOB and I did rescribe some of the panel lines on the fuselage.  The kit is a combination of raised and recessed details and some of the engraved lines are a little out of scale.  The only fit problem I encountered was when I was gluing the lower wing against the upper wing. I filled the gaps with CA (super glue) and spent a little time sanding and re-scribing some of the lost lines.  The rest of the assembly was straight forward. The tail wheel was originally molded in the fuselage and it got "lost" (or detached) so I went to my old trusty spares box and found a suitable replacement.

After assembly, the entire model was sprayed with Mr. Surfacer 1000.  I painted and masked the 20th Sentai tail markings and the leading edge IFF. Then the entire model was given automotive gloss black primer color and after considerable drying time, I used Mr. Color No. 8 (Silver) as the NMF base for the aircraft.  I masked and painted the fabric covered control surfaces with my mix of IJA Light Grey Green.  The camo was airbrushed free hand with Mr. Color No. 129 (Nakajima Dk Green).  I washed the entire model with diluted black paint and  weathered it  with exhaust stains and few chipped paint.

I had to go to my decal spare and lucky enough there were a few "hinomarus" that were up to scale.  The rest of the sub-assemblies were installed the finishing touch was putting the aerial wires using stretched sprue.

Despite its age, I had fun building this Hasegawa kit.  I am considering of getting another one soon.

Cheers and Happy Modeling!

Tony

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Photos and text © by Tony Feredo