Talk About Tony

Tamiya’s Kawasaki Ki-61 Hien.

- Bob Foster

Kawasaki’s Ki-61 Hien entered service as the Army Type 3 Fighter in 1942 and first saw action in defence of Yokohama during the Doolittle Raid. Nicknamed Tony by the Allies due to its resemblance to the Italian Macchi C.202, the Ki-61 was powered by a licence built version of the Daimler-Benz DB 601 engine called the Ha-40 and was one of the few Japanese aircraft of World War II to be powered by an inline rather than a radial engine. More than 3,000 were built and the aircraft saw service throughout the war, including in special attack units tasked with ramming attacking American B-29 bombers.

Tamiya took the modelling world by surprise in late 2016 when they announced a brand new tool Ki-61 in 1/48, which includes a full Ha-40 engine, a fully detailed cockpit and a choice of two eye catching schemes as well as an optional transparent fuselage to show off all of the internal detail. The kit itself consists of four grey and one clear sprue. As one has come to expect from Tamiya the moulding is perfect, with no flash and clear fine panel lines throughout.

Construction begins with the cockpit, which is extremely well detailed and includes several separately fitted controls and panels, all of which fit together perfectly. Tamiya’s instructions call for the cockpit to be painted XF-59 Desert Yellow, which was sprayed thinly over a base of black Alclad primer to create some shading. This approach also had the effect of toning down the paint somewhat, which looked a touch too yellow to my eye. The instrument panel was sprayed black and the decals for the instrument dials themselves were added. The panel was then added to the cockpit, along with the two nose mounted machine guns, before my attention turned to the seat. Once again this was straightforward to assemble, with seat belts added from an Eduard cockpit set for the Hasegawa Ki-61. The completed cockpit was then set aside while my attention turned to the engine.