1:48 Ki-84 Hayate

The Hayate, the last great Japanese fighter

The Nakajima Ki-84 was the machine with which the Japanese Army Air Force first came within reach of its opponent in every respect at once: in speed, in climb and in armament. Its service from 1944 was accompanied by troubles that had nothing to do with the design, though. Good fuel was lacking, production quality fell and many machines never showed what they could have done in better conditions. For a modeler it is an aircraft with a nicely shaped fuselage and fairly simple, and all the more visible, glazing.

The millimeter that matters

The films for the frames are cut precisely, and that is why shifting them is the most conspicuous mistake of the whole process. Laying a piece a fraction of a millimeter off is enough for the frame to come out thinner on one side and thicker on the other, so the finished cockpit looks crooked. Fine-tipped tweezers help, as does good light from above and, above all, the habit of sticking a piece down by one end first, checking that it runs parallel to the groove and only then pressing it down whole.

Putting a shifted film right

A badly seated piece can still be carefully raised with the tip of a scalpel and shifted for a while after application, as long as the adhesive has not taken hold fully. When it is already too late, it is solved the other way round: the frame is sprayed over and the surplus strip of paint is trimmed off once dry with a new blade guided along the groove of the glazing.

What is inside

Two masks for the cockpit cover for both faces of the glazing and three sets for the national insignia. The plastic model itself the builder obtains separately.