Tony The Swallow

Historical Background

The odd duck among Japanese fighter planes of World War 2 (together with the early versions of the Yokosuka D4Y Suisei 'Judy' dive-bomber) by being powered with an inline engine, the Nakajima Ki-61 Hien was developed by the Kawasaki Aircraft Industries as a response for a 1939 tender by the Koku Hombu. The tender specified for two fighters powered by the Daimler-Benz DB601A engine, built locally as the Ha.40. The first, designated Ki-60 was to be a heavily-armed high-altitude interceptor, while the second, the Ki-61 was to be a general-purpose fighter intended to be used in an air superiority role at medium to low altitude. Unlike many other Japanese aircraft of the period, the Ki-61 was to be fitted with a self-sealing fuel tank (semi self-sealing for the wing tanks), armoured windscreen and armour plate behind the pilot. Armament was two 12.7mm machine guns on the upper fuselage and a 7.7mm machine gun in each wing.

The Ki-61 (or officially, Army Type 3 Fighter, Model 1) first flew in December 1941. Test pilots were enthusiastic about the self-sealing tanks, pilot protection and improved armament (Japanese Army fighters up to that time were mainly armed with two rifle-calibre machine guns only). However the top brass of the Koku Hombu, who still believed in highly maneuverable, lightly-armed fighters, like the Ki-43 Hayabusa, viewed the aircraft with some scepticism as it has a higher wing loading than previous fighters. To address their concern, a fly-off was staged between the Ki-61, Ki-43, a pre-production Ki-44 Shoki, a Lavochkin LaGG-3 (flown to Manchuria by a Soviet defector), a Bf 109E and a captured P-40E Warhawk. The results showed that the Ki-61 was faster than the other planes, and being inferior only to the Ki-43 in maneuverability. Production was planned to start in April 1942, but following delays, it was only started in August 1942.   

The Ki-61 Hien (Swallow) actually first saw action in April 1942 when the prototypes were thrust into action over Yokohama during Doolittle's Raid on the 18th. The operational aircraft first saw service with a training unit, the 23rd Chutai and first saw combat service in the South-West Pacific with the 68th and 78th Chutais based in Wewak, New Guinea and Rabaul, New Britain respectively. The jungle and tropical conditions, together with lack of spares undermined the efficiency of the new fighter. Like many new aircraft being rushed into service, the Ki-61 suffered teething problems and the engine, unlike the original DB601, was not reliable through poor quality control at the factory. Despite the problems, the Hien was considered with some concern by the Allies, as unlike against the Ki-43 and the Japanese Navy's A6M, they cannot escape from the Hien by simply diving. The Hien was also also used elsewhere in the Pacific Theatre and as B-29 interceptors over the Home Islands. As interceptors, the Ki-61 was also grouped in special units which used ramming as part of their tactics. The Ki-61 looked so different from the other Japanese fighters that Allied pilots misidentified them as German or Italian in origin. In fact, Captain C. Ross Greening, who took part in the Doolittle Raid, took the intercepting prototype Ki-61s as Bf 109s. Based on this observation and the perceived origins of the fighter, the US War Department gave the codename 'Mike'. Later, it was finally revised as 'Tony' as the Ki-61 looked like an Italian-designed fighter, specifically the Macchi MC.202 series.

A total of 3,159 Ki-61s were built with the Ki-61-I being the main production version. The Ki-61-I Ko (or 'a') was armed with two 7.7mm Type 89 machine guns in the wings and two Ho-103 12.7mm machine guns in the upper fuselage decking. The Ki-61-I Otsu ('b') replaced the rifle-calibre wing machine guns with the H0-103 heavy machine guns. The unreliability of the tailwheel retraction mechanism caused the tailwheels to remain fixed in the 'down' position for this (and the Hei) variant. The Hei ('c') version replaced the wing machine guns with German MG 151/20 20mm cannons. As only 800 weapons were managed to be imported into Japan by U-Boats, just 368 Hei variants were built (the remainder of the cannons were utilized as spares). The Tei ('d') version have a revised armament arrangement by mounting Ho-103 12.7mm machine guns in the wings and a single Ho-5 20mm cannon in the fuselage. The final Ki-61-I version was the KAId  interceptor, with two 12.7mm machine guns in the fuselage and two 30mm cannons in the wings. The Ki-61-II was supposed to be an improved version, featuring a more powerful engine, the Ha-140. The engine was however even more unreliable than the Ha-40 and with the destruction of the Asahi plant making the engines in 1944, an alternative powerplant was sought, creating the Ki-100 fighter.

The Kit

The kit I build was the 2005 reboxing of the 1/48 Hasegawa kit originally released in 1994. This particular reboxing is of the 'Hei' or 'c' version of the Ki-61-I.  The parts have nicely engraved (and raised, where appropriate) surface details with thin trailing edges of the flying surfaces. The cockpit has adequate details to show especially when the modeler decides to use the kit's one-piece canopy. The parts count are relatively low for a 1/48 aircraft kit but does not sacrifice the details (of course modelers can spruce up their kit further by using aftermarket resin and PE parts). The decals provide markings for two aircraft from the 244th Sentai, a premier Ki-61-I operator during the war. Unlike earlier Hasegawa decals, the white portions are white instead of ivory for 1990s Hasegawa kits. The options are for:

1. Captain Fumisuke Shouno, Chofu Airbase, February 1945; and
2. Captain Yukio Ishioka, Chofu Airbase, 1945

Construction

As usual with aircraft kits, construction starts at the cockpit. The cockpit parts were painted Tamiya XF-59 Desert Yellow with the various detail parts in XF-64 Red Brown, XF-69 NATO Black, X-7 Red and XF-3 Flat Yellow.  A hole was drilled into the left fuselage in order to accommodate the oil cooler intake. Then I moved to the radiator assembly which consists of four parts. While the instructions suggested silver, I painted the radiator flat black and then drybrushed silver onto it. The sidewalls were then cemented onto their respective fuselage halves with the dashboard, cockpit floor and pilot's seat and the radiator assembly cemented onto the right half of the fuselage. The fuselage halves were then mated together using Tamiya Extra Thin Cement. There is a little gap on the fuselage spine, but I add a bit more cement and squeeze the halves that bit more. The resulting ooze were left to dry and was later scraped off with a sharp hobby knife. The front fuselage decking was then cemented onto the fuselage but I did not attach the gun barrels, gunsight and exhaust manifolds at this time. A hole was also drilled into the fuselage decking to accommodate a, uh, 'thingy'.

Moving on to the wings, I first drilled holes on the upper wing halves in order to fit Parts Q2 and Q3 (cannon breech covers on the real plane) and on the one-piece lower wing half, to accommodate the drop tanks. The wing halves were mated together and the wing assembly was then fitted to the fuselage. There is a slight gap at the upper wing roots which was swiftly dealt with putty. The cannon barrels were however left off at this stage. The tailplanes were then cemented onto their places and this was followed by the radiator flap. returning back to the cockpit, after painting the rear cockpit decking the same colour with the interior, the parts were fixed in place, at the same time not forgetting the gunsight. This was followed by the canopy, which was masked beforehand. The rest of the parts were left off until after painting.

Painting and Decaling

As mentioned before, Hasegawa provides two marking options; the first in plain natural metal and the other with green splotches all over the fuselage. The kit instructions specify Mr Color 8 Silver which I think does not look right in simulating natural metal. Yet I have ran out Tamiya AS-12 Bare Metal Silver and end up using TS-30 Silver Leaf anyway. The anti-glare panel was painted XF-69 NATO Black. Having done the basic painting, I decided to do the second option with its camouflage pattern. Looking at the instructions, the green splotches were painted over the air defence white bands and around the 244th Sentai's tail markings. So, I modify my approach by applying the Hinomaru/AD bands and the 244th Sentai's markings first. I let the decals settle and then started painting the camouflage pattern using Tamiya XF-13 JA Green. Once the paint had dried, I applied the rest of the decals.The wing leading edge ID bands, together with the forward part of the propeller spinner,  was painted using a mixture of Tamiya XF-3 Flat Yellow and XF-7 Flat Red. The panel lines were highlighted with a 2B pencil.

Finishing

The drop tank halves were mate together and painted Tamiya XF-53 Neutral Grey; when dry they were attached to the pylons and cemented to the wings. Finally the smaller or the more fragile parts can be permanently fixed to the model, starting with the fuselage machine guns and the exhaust manifolds. Tamiya Weathering Master Soot was then applied to simulate exhaust deposits on the fuselage. This was followed by the more vulnerable parts like the landing gear assembly, tailwheel, radio mast, pitot tube and the wing cannon barrels. The propeller was then fitted. Finally Tamiya TS-79 Semi-Gloss was sprayed and when dry, the masks were removed, finishing the build.

Conclusion

Another fine 1/48 aircraft kit from Hasegawa. It was easy to build and have no real nasty surprises (the gap on the wing root is just a minor annoyance). I guess there is not even the need for aftermarket stuff for this model (with the exception of decals probably). When displayed with its other Japanese comrades, it immediately attracts attention due to its inline engined nose profile.