Golden Age - the interwar years

Ki15 Kamikaze – Hasegawa

In 1937, the Japanese news paper Asahi Shinbum, sponsored the Airplane Kamikaze (神風号) – a Mitsubishi Ki-15 Karigane airplane to fly from Japan to London. On board was pilot Masaaki Iinuma and Navigator Kenji Tsukagoshi. As the first Japanese-built aircraft to fly from Japan to Europe, they made history in April of that year.

This is a great Hasegawa kit and a great change of pace from camo schemes. Also, it’s time to celebrate Aircraft that made history trying to peace instead of war.

The kit has a really nice cockpit that is built up as an unit with side framing and then enclosed. Be forewarned, most of the cockpit will not be seen once its closed up. There is no option to open up cockpit as the clear parts are molded in close position only. You can either buy or vacuum form your own, but I just wasn’t up to it for this one. So besides some hoses in the navigator position, PE seat belts, rudder straps, and a little bit of cabling, it was pretty much a stock. Yeah, you’re not going to see much of this, but it was fun doing it.

Once cockpit was built, the rest of the kit is really quite straight forward with a minimum of fuss. The fit was excellent. I then apply the Natural Metal Finish. I did the usual masking of different panels and applying slightly different shades to simulate the graining of the metal sheets.

The masking and decals were done next. Having to hand mask the glass area was a real pain; this kit definitely could have used one a precut mask. A final satin clear coat was applied the airplane was done.

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