History

The Hasegawa 1/72 Ki-61 dates back to the early 1970s and is still a nice kit, but basic. CMK has come out with some detail sets to spice up these old kits.

What You Get

17 crisply molded resin parts and a clear film of instrument faces are provided along with a 9 X 3.5 folded sheet of instructions. Some of these parts are very fragile so please be careful when handling them.

Construction

The instructions have you removing the rear bulkhead and thinning the fuselage sidewalls to begin with. I did not have to thin the fuselage halves that much so don’t over do it. I am pleased to say that this set literally fit like a glove and went together with no problems. I guess if you want to, you could consider that the size of some parts a problem, but it wasn’t that big a deal. The biggest problem for me was trying to find the right color for the interior. CMK has Humbrol 52 Interior Blue as the color. Most people I have found use a tan color. Some people say green is the color. There is quite the debate on this and that is where I will leave that! I used Testors enamel Italian Sand as a primer then over sprayed that with Tamiya Khaki (XF-49) and was happy with the finish.

Conclusion

A VERY nice set that I would strongly recommend to modelers who are experienced with resin and have the old Hasegawa kit in their stash.

I would like to thank Special Hobby and CMK for providing this and the IPMS Review Corps for letting me build it.