Kawasaki's
Ki-45 Toryu or "Nick" as it was known to the allies is a fairly
recognizable aircraft to most aviation history buffs. It was built in fairly
large numbers (about 1,700) and served the Japanese Army from mid-1942 until the
end of hostilities in 1945. The aircraft was unusual for the Japanese in 1942 in
that in had protected fuel tanks and was fairly well armed...the Kai Koh version
modeled here having two nose mounted 12.7mm Type 1 (Ho-103) machine guns and
7.9mm Type 98 gun on a flexible mount firing from the rear crew station. Its real
punch came from a 20mm cannon that was mounted in the belly which was put to
good use in anti-shipping sorties. Armament and engines were improved on
throughout the Ki-45's production run though its flight performance as a fighter
was less than spectacular. The aircraft I modeled using the kit's decals served
with the 1st Company, 5th Chutai apparently in home defense duties.
Click on
images below to see larger images
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I decided to build
this kit (and others) for the WW2 Twins Group Build here on ARC. It took only
about two weeks from start to finish. I added some sidewall detail and radios,
wires, tubing and so forth from scratch using Mikesh's superb book on
Japanese Aircraft Interiors as a guide. All major components fit well though the nose
section was slightly too large to match up with the rest of the fuselage. I
addressed this with a bit of sanding and re-scribing. The wings and
engine nacelles fit very well and no filler was needed. The wheel wells are
basically empty as can be seen from the photo. I left them alone as this needed
to be a fairly quick build. I used Aeromaster's IJA Gray/Green for the exterior
and Floquil's IJA Green for the cockpit areas. The props are Aeromaster
Red/Brown Primer and the wheel wells were finished with Aeromaster's
Aotake. I left the inside of the gear doors the exterior color as this
seems to be the norm for Army aircraft based on my research. I weathered the
aircraft using washes and a dark gray artist pencil . The various
paint chips were achieved using a silver artist pencil in addition to silver and
aluminum paint. After spraying the obligatory coat of Future, I
added the kit decals. Here is where it got ugly! The decals were brittle and the
tail bands broke into several pieces. A lot of patience and Micro-sol saved the
day though. The decals settled down and I can't even tell they broke
apart...thank goodness. There is nothing worse than getting this far only to
have decals that let you down! I enjoyed the project and hope you enjoy the
result!
Joe
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