Saturday 14 November 2020

Jason Brash's 1/72 Kawasaki Ki-45 Toryu

 
Jason Brash from Australia is another returnee modeller who has been busy building excellent models of Japanese Army and Navy aircraft in 1/72 scale and has very kindly shared images and details of his various builds. His Kawasaki Ki-45 Kai Ko (the Type 2 Two-seater Fighter  - Ni Shiki Fuku-za Sento-ki  - 二式複座戦闘機) is built from the splendid Hasegawa kit # 00810 released in 2006 and represents an aircraft of Hiko Dai 13 Sentai in Japan during the Autumn of 1942 prior to the unit departure to the New Guinea theatre.  In Jason's own words then:-


'I really enjoyed building Hasegawa's 1/72 Ki-45, everything just fell together and the lines of the kit look spot on. This Kai Koh was painted up to represent an aircraft of the 13th flight regiment based on the Japanese mainland, 1942.
 
 
'The build was for the most part completed out of the box. The only additions being the Eduard Kawasaki belts and a Yahu Instrument panel.Though the kit decal performed well, the only ones used were a few stencils and the tail unit markings. The majority were applied with the airbrush. 
 
 
'The paint used throughout is an Australian brand called SMS (The Scale Modeller Supply) which are Acrylic lacquers. They are airbrush ready, mix well and dry fast so these are my go to for pretty much any project these days. The other plus with these paints is the active community on Facebook who are happy to help with advise or tips and tricks. 
 

'For the interior & wheel wells Olive Drab was used, highlighted with light grey and washed with a black/brown mix of Tamiya panel liner.  The exterior was first sprayed black, then highlighted with white creating a marbled or mottled surface. A very thin brown was applied to certain areas to help warm up the tone prior to the Grey-Green being applied again in a marbled effect. I then thinned that colour with white, highlighted panels and finally blended it all with a thin coat of the Grey-Green over the top. 
 

'The smaller details were painted next, the control surfaces were painted with British silver grey, leading edge IFF strips with Trainer yellow and  Hinomaru  painted with Red. The chipping was hand  painted using an 0/5 brush & Vallejo silver, then panel lines were carefully picked out with a custom mix of Black & Brown Tamiya panel liner. A final coat of Satin clear varnish, some pigments for exhaust and dust staining and it was time to call it a day. 
 

'One of my very favourite aircraft that was both fun and enjoyable to build.'


With special thanks to Jason for sharing these images and details of his excellent Ki-45 model and others to follow. As an aside, for those who have not seen a scale model of Toryu relative to other twin-engined aircraft its small size always surprises. The Type 2 designation has in the past resulted in some confusion with the Type 2 single seater Ki-44 - Shoki - in books or unit and operations records.

Image credit: All photos © 2020 Jason Brash

8 comments:

Baronvonrob said...

Masterful work Jason !

A very fine choice of livery that really highlights the clean lines of the Toryu.

I will definitely have to check out the SBS brand of paints as well as I was previously unaware of the brand and am very impressed with your results.

Jason Brash said...

Thanks for the kind words. I was fortunate to have the colour all blend and work perfectly for this build.

Have a look at the SMS paints, really fantastic to use and easy to mix and blend.

Dan Salamone said...

Beautiful build, Jason. I'm so used to seeing later war Toryu, with the dark green overspray, that this looks fresh and interesting. Love the weathering of the grey green as well. Thanks for sharing it here with us!

Dan

Alex said...

It looks nice for the such ordinary color scheme. The weathering is cool. Thanks for sharing.

Michael Thurow said...

Excellent! My favourite Japanese fighter in a fantastic early camouflage. Again, inspiring modelling displayed on AoJ - thanks to all!

Mark Smith said...

Marvelous replica, Jason. It's odd how few builds I've seen of the 1/72 Hasegawa Japanese twins. The model looks so good, it might be its big brother, the 1/48 kit. Thanks for hosting another great build, Nick.

Kevin Bade said...

Wonderful work Jason. Very impressive shading on the paint job. Why haven't I built one of these yet. Ok...thats it...up to attic. Time to get one of these on my bench. Thanks for sharing and inspiring.

Ken Glass said...

Very good work, Jason & thanks for sharing it with us, Jason & Nick.