History Brief

Allied code named "TONY", the Kawasaki Ki-61-Id Hien was officially adopted by the Imperial Japanese Army in 1943. It was different than its Japanese aircraft contemporaries, mainly because of its liquid-cooled Ha-40 engine in a slender fuselage with a long thin wing. Needless to say, it was and still remains an extremely attractive aircraft. Our subject featured an elongated nose to accommodate two 20mm cannons, plus it had 12.7mm wing mounted machine guns. With a production run of 1,360 units, it was the most produced Hien variant.

The Product

My sample arrived in the standard Tamiya box featuring attractive cover art. Inside I found an all new tool kit featuring a superb, highly accurate rendering. All parts are well packaged and free of flash and ejector marks.

The highlights according to Tamiya include;

The Crusader Mk. III came into British service in the second half of 1942 during the Tunisian Campaign in North Africa. They were used for about a year until replaced with the M4, then they were converted to AA or reconnaissance tanks. This Tamiya kit is part of their Italeri series where they take older Italeri molds, correct errors, add details and pack them in new boxes with some extra Tamiya goodies. This Italeri kit first hit the market in 1976. Tamiya has taken these old molds and added turret and hull weld seam. They also corrected the front fenders by taking a molded-in step out of them, updated the moldings on the turret tool box, added details to the underside of the hatches, hollowed out the spotlight and included a thin, plastic lens. Two Tamiya figures are included from their Churchill Mk. VII kit, # 35210, from 1996, and a sprue from the British Infantry on Patrol weapons, kit #35223, from 1999.

Eduard has released a boxing of the very good 1/48 Hasegawa Mc. 202, which is enhanced by the addition of two photo-etch frets (one pre-painted), resin parts and a paint mask. Not only that, but you get Cartograf-printed decals with markings for 6 colorful Folgores. It is an amazing offering.

Like most airplane model construction starts with the cockpit and with two photoetch-frets it means you are going to have quite the detailed “front office”. Some plastic parts need to be modified, removed or replaced, including parts of the cockpit floor, cockpit sides and instrument panel.

Note that on the left cockpit side there is a wheel –mounted on top of PE box. If mounted as indicated in the instructions -or at least on where I think the instructions indicate it- there is interference of the wheel and the seat. I really don’t know what the problem was if it was the instructions or me.