1:32 Ki-61 Hien

A defender of Tokyo with a liquid-cooled engine

The Ki-61 was an exception in Japanese fighter aviation: instead of a radial engine it had an inverted V12 Ha-40, a licensed derivative of the German Daimler-Benz. Allied airmen therefore called it Tony at first and thought it was an Italian or a German machine. Its best-known chapter was played out with the 244th Air Regiment, which from the spring of 1945 defended Tokyo itself against night and day raids by heavy bombers and whose pilots resorted even to deliberately ramming their targets.

Bands and markings of the home defense

Machines committed over the Japanese islands carried a white band around the rear part of the fuselage, which stood for a home defense unit, and white bordering around the red sun on the wings and the fuselage. The regiments were told apart by a prominent design on the vertical tail, different for each. Aircraft sent south, to New Guinea and the Philippines, had a much darker mottled finish for camouflage, lacked the white band and usually had markings without a border.

What the templates are good for

In 1:32 the Ki-61 has a long canopy with several narrow frames that are hard to trace with tape. Cut shapes make short work of it and the edge stays equally thick along the whole frame, saving time. The inner parts keep the frame from glowing transparent when the cockpit is slid open. Degrease the glazing before applying them and let it dry; after spraying, the template is pulled off with tweezers.

Peel the parts off before the paint has fully cured, with pointed tweezers and a pull at a slant to the side. A dried film tears at the edge and takes with it the fresh paint on the frame you have just finished.