Thursday 27 December 2018

Tamiya 1/48 Ki-61-1 Tei Hien by Miroslav Koukal


Miroslav Koukal of the Czech Republic has very kindly shared these images of his superlative build of the Tamiya Kawasaki Ki-61-I Tei Hien 'Tony' (Type 3 Fighter - San-Shiki Sentoh-ki - 三式戦闘機) in 1/48 scale. In February 2017 Aviation of Japan hosted an in-box review of this kit by Dan Salamone here.


Miroslav judged this kit fantastic with incredible details and a perfect fit. He recommends it to everyone who loves Japanese 'war birds' from WWII. The kit was released in December 2016 and fortunately for 1/72 modellers Tamiya released an equally fine kit in the smaller scale in March this year.


Miroslav enhanced his model by using Eduard Brassin wheels and exhaust stacks, and Hauler photo-etch parts. With rivets noticeable in photographs of the real aircraft he added them to the model using Petre Dousek's 'Rosie the Riveteer' 0.65mm tool.


Masks from Dead Design and Miroslav's friend Jakub N were used and decals from HGW.



Miroslav chose as his subject the uncamouflaged aircraft of Captain Teruhiko Kobayashi of Hiko Dai 244 Sentai as presented by Tamiya with red fuselage stripe and victory symbols.


Miroslav expressed many thanks to his friend Jan Hajíček of Dead Design for consultation and the masks for inspection covers.


With special thanks to Miroslav for sharing these images of his superbly finished, ultra-realistic model with Aviation of Japan.

Image credit: All © 2018 Miroslav Koukal.

8 comments:

Dan Salamone said...

What a beautiful rendition of this model Miroslav. The NMF and weathering are perfect to my eyes...what paint did you use for the natural metal?

Thanks for posting this Nick.

Dan

Ronnie Olsthoorn said...

That's one of the very best representations of oxidised aluminium that I've ever seen! Very nice! Such a shame therefore that the modeller used the kit's inaccurate red decals for the fuselage stripes, which were undoubtedly blue as illustrated in "Ki-61 and Ki-100 Aces". Same goes for the victory markings (which should have blue B-29s and a red Hien symbol). Otherwise flawless.

Unknown said...

Thank you very much.

To Dan

For NMF I used great Gunze SM 01 which I mixed with some drops of white and black. Next step was applying PLW (panel line wash) of Ammo - Mig, blue black, and dark brown. At the end I tried to imitate dirty surfacer with oil paint with fine brush applicators, of course, Ammo Mig :-)

To Ronnie

Yes, I'm aware of it, but I trust more to the red stripes than blue and now is too late change to anything. I hope my next project will be less complicated :-)


Dan Salamone said...

Thanks for the reply on the paint finish, it is truly superb!

Dan

73north said...

wonderful Model - I do like the Hasegawa Ki.61 better myself .

Michael Thurow said...

Such a wonderful model. The blue vs red stripe problem proves once more how 'dangerous' it is to trust kit instructions, decal sheets and even most publications. Research moves on and unveils new opinions every day.
I think the stripe can be corrected, Miroslov. Mask it and apply several very thin layers of blue enamel with a flat hand brush. Then reinstate the weathering. I bet that with your skill the correction won't be visible afterwards.

George Bryant said...

Where did you get your "shrinking ray gun". Fantastic work and finish.

Ken Glass said...

Very nice work, Miroslav.