Kawasaki Ki-61-Id Hien, Tamiya, 1/48 scale, kit review.
Hi everyone and welcome to the kit review video of the Kawasaki Ki-61-Id Hien by Tamiya in 1/48 scale.
It is a relatively new kit by Tamiya form the year 2016. This means it is made with the latest methods and if you know Tamiya well you can expect quite a lot.
What i really like about this plane is the shape. It reminds me a bit of a Bf 109.
There is actually a reason for that: The engines of the Ki-61 planes were license built Daimler Benz DB601 engines.
Alright, let´s have a look inside the box. What we find inside is just what we know and expect from Tamiya.
The sprues are all individually sealed in bags, which is good. Also, we do not find too many parts. It promises to be a quick and easy project.
First we take a look at the instructions. The paint chart refers only to Tamiya paints, a nice advertisement for their own paints so to speak.
Here it is pointed out that there are two variants of the plane in this kit. One has an antenna mast, the other one does not.
That specific difference will play a role when it comes to painting the model and its markings. We will take a look at that later.
The assembly begins in a very typical manner with the cockpit.
It is clearly shown in an additional drawing here how to position the parts. I like that.
Down here we are shown how to paint the instrument panel and all its details.
In my opinion the instructions by Tamiya are the best out there. You won´t have any questions here.
A pilot figure is included. Nice addition. This feature is often missing nowadays. Often enough one has to look for expensive resin figures if you want a pilot in the cockpit.
Here are the two fuselage halves. There is also one additional fuselage half included, which is transparent. It gets all explained here.
A very unusual option indeed. It allows you to have a look inside the plane.
We continue with small installations on the fuselage, then comes the engine. It looks fairly complete to me, which i like a lot.
Here the fuselage come together already. A few more bits and pieces get attached.
What i really like about the Tamiya aircraft models is how you can fit the cockpit into the complete fuselage through an opening at the bottom.
That way you can paint up the interior quite easily. Otherwise it is hard to reach everything with the brush. Superb solution!
Here we have the wings. The model is not complex at all. It should be doable for beginners, too.
This is also beautiful! Here, towards the rear section of the fuselage, we put in a long thin panel. That way you do not have to take care of a seam line there.
This is very handy! Saves us a lot of work. Tamiya put in some thouht here.
Then we put on all the rudders.
The exhausts come separate. Also a very handy thing, because you can paint them separately from the plane.
Air intake. Actually a pretty complex part right here, well done Tamiya.
Running gear.
Here they explain how we can mask off the canopy. The right masking material comes with the kit, which i like very much.
I won´t have to buy that myself then, very good! I am glad this is included in the kit. It saves a lot of work and hassle.
Propeller assembly and such things. Just as we expect it.
Then the model is already assembled. On the back we find some information on painting the plane.
There is also some info on how to deal with decals, we all know that.
On a separate piece of paper we find more background information of the real plane in Japanese, English, German and French.
They explain what certain parts of the plane are and some technical data is provided, too. In my opinion this is a nice addition to the kit.
The painting guide is printed on a big sheet, which i like a lot. That way we can see it all in detail.
What is interesting about this version here is, that you have to apply some decals before you apply the green camo pattern.
It is great that they explain it here in detail how this is done.
This plane here was flown by Lt. Shunzo Takashima of the 244th Air Group at Chufo Airbase in May 1945.
That is the plane you can see in the boxart picture. I really like this one.
On the other page we have the second variant. It does not feature the green camouflage pattern and lacks the antenna mast.
This plane was flown by the pilot Teruhiko Kobayashi, also in the 244th Air Group, stationed at the same base in February 1945.
Now let´s take a look at the plastic parts. There are not many sprues in this kit. Tamiya kits tend to be fairly simple to build.
The fuselage has some very nice engraved detail and rivet heads. Looks superb.
There are quite a few details at the inside. Of course we will add a lot more during the assembly.
I like that the parts do not have too many connection points to the sprue. It promises to be a fast paced project without much time wasted on cleaning up the parts.
The propeller looks nice, too.
The guns do not have open muzzles. You either have to drill them open yourself or might get some metal pieces for it. The model certainly deserves that. It will enhance the level of detail a lot.
On the second sprue we have the wings and rudders, as well as various cockpit parts.
Again, there are wonderful texture details on the wings. A wash will accentuate all of that perfectly.
The running gear bay features some small and crisp rivet heads.
Tamiya certainly has a lot of molding technology know-how.
Very nice all in all. You won´t find any flash or sink marks here at all. It all looks pretty much flawless to me.
Here is the pilot figure. He looks pretty decent. I do not like the look of his hands, but you won´t really see much of that later anyway. Some people might not use him anyway.
At his back there is this big gap. That won´t be visible in the end.
On this sprue we find the DB601 engine. A true gem.
It would be a shame to hide it in the fuselage. For that reason we get one fuselage half in clear plastic.
Superbly detailed, few parts: It promises great joy during the assembly.
As i mentioned already one fuselage half comes as a clear piece.
I compared it with the non-transparent part. They are absolutely identical.
The details are equally crisp. Normally clear parts tend to have softer detail, but this is not the case here.
What i do not like about this part is the fact, that it is not absolutely transparent. It looks rather milky to me.
Well, it allows you to see a lot of the interior anyway, but you certainly do not get a perfect view inside. I do not know why they did the part this way.
It is certainly a nice option to have, but in my opinion this is a bit edgy. It is not my taste at all, but it is a cool idea and option.
It is a cool option for all of those modellers, who are also very interested in the technology inside the aircraft.
There is also an option for the canopy parts, so we get pretty much two sets. One canopy is closed, the other one opened.
I really like that. I sometimes had problems with the canopy parts being separate. During the painting process the color would sometimes seep into that little gap between the clear parts and mess things up.
I prefer it to have an actually closed canopy, when i aim for that option. Here no paint will seep into the cockpit through a gap.
The parts are very clear indeed. I´d call that pretty much perfect. I can´t see any problems here.
If the fuselage half was as clear as the canopy parts it would have been interesting for me.
There is also an aiming device and a landing headlight.
Not much else to see here. All in all: Superb clear parts.
For lazy people like myself the kit comes with maskings for the canopies.
It is not pre-cut, but the shapes of the individual sections are laid out, so it is easy to cut them out.
The maskings are self-adhering, so you just put them on and start painting.
In my opinion this is a great addition to the kit. If it wasn´t in the kit i´d buy it from Eduard.
I have two left hands when it comes to masking canopies. I also hate it. I´d build much more aircraft models if the canopies would be easier to handle.
I also do not like to deal with millions of tiny decals.
Since we are already talking about decals, the kit comes with two decal sheets. This is the smaller one.
It mainly contains generic markings or a decal for the seat harness.
Tamiya decals tend to be fairly thick, but these seem to be a little bit thinner.
The carrier film is small and what i like in particular is the matt finish of the decals. They are shiny at all. I find it horrible to have shiny decals.
Here we have the second, much bigger decal sheet with the insignias and so on.
The quality is very high here, too. They are also not as thick as the decals of other Tamiya kits.
All in all i like to work with Tamiya decals. They are quite reliable, even when they are several years old they still work very well. The same can not be said about decals of other brands.
These should be easy to work with.
Finally we get two polycaps. I really do not have to say much about them.
They are just soft-plastic rings, which are used to keep the propeller rotating for example.
It is a well tested Tamiya concept. I like them, because they allow you to get firm attachements by simply plugging parts in.
Just as i expected it is a very sophisticated kit by Tamiya. I suspect they put a little bit of extra effort into this one, because it represents a Japanese plane. The national pride plays certainly a role.
The option for a transparent fuselage half is interesting, but i certainly won´t go for that.
Anyway, it is cool to have the option and i have no doubt it will find it´s lovers out there.
All in all the kit appears to be pretty much flawless. Simple layout, easy to build, good details.
You can certainly improve one or the other thing with photo-etched parts, metal gun barrels and what not. There is always room for improvements.
In my opinion this is a very nice and simple kit, which is equally interesting for beginners and advanced modellers.
The only thing i do not like about this kit is the price tag. In my country it costs about 40€
This is very expensive for a kit of this size. If you compare that to the offerings of Revell, ICM or Zvezda, you will probably spend less than a half of the money.
Well, of course these are not as sohpisticated when it comes to details and options, but one has to see what is actually necessary.
40€ is really too expensive. I am glad i got this kit as a gift. I did not buy it myself.
A 40€ price tag makes me hesitant for a kit of this size. I would not buy it for that money.
Thats it for the kit, i hope you enjoyed the kit review. See you again in the next video, your Hamilkar Barkas.
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