AviS 1/72 Ki-10-I

With the imminent re-release of the AviS 1/72 kit of the Kawasaki Ki-10-I 'Perry' aficianado Ken Glass has kindly shared some observations about it, enhanced by images of a very finely finished example made by Alexey Klyuyev and shown here with his kind permission via Dmitry Korolkov and Alexander Sibirev. Alexey's full build article can be found here complete with nice clear sprue frame images, and there are other examples of his aircraft modelling skills here.

Ken writes: "I doubt that there has been any change to the original AviS tooling.  In March 2016 I made a basic comparison of the three 1/72 kits - AviS, ICM & Aviation Usk (AvUsk - later Xotic-72).  That effort was not really a kit review.  The AviS is arguably a best of three.  It looks most like a Ki-10 of the three when built up and has the characteristic down slope from the cockpit opening forward & aft which the ICM & AvUsk kits lack.  The AviS kit matches exactly the 1/72 Ki-10-I variant drawings in the 2007 Tenzan Publications monograph on the type by Tadeusz Januszewski and Zygmunt Szeremeta. 

"I now have an AviS kit fully prepared for pre-painting prior to assembly.  It has no major issues, but is definitely a limited run kit. Each part must be worked at the mating lands, to smooth and flatten them. The external surfaces of all parts will benefit from a light rubbing down with a very worn foam backed sanding pad or similar flexible abrasive film.  Some fine builds feature removal of the relief moulded slats at the radiator intake face and replacement with individual slats from strip stock. There is a span-wise raised line across the top and bottom surfaces of the lower wing, that is most likely  meant to represent the rear spar.  Both lower wing spars show up in the skeletal drawings in the Tenzan monograph, but those spar lines are not apparent in photos.  I recommend sanding them off as I plan to do for both the AviS and ICM kits.

 
"The kit has no locating pins.  That should not pose a problem and fuselage halves mate nicely with only a rubber band to hold them.  The locations for strut end placements are indicated by small indentations on the underside of the top wing, top of the lower wings & forward fuselage for the cabane strut lower ends. There are no placement marks for the landing gear struts. Since the AviS kit appears derivative from the ICM mouldings I suspect the strut lengths of the AviS kit may need adjustment as do those of the ICM kit.  I feel sure an AviS kit build would benefit from use of a jig for its wing placement.

"The carburetor intake trough should be drilled out at the intake face as it will show on the finished model.  The exhaust ports and cover strip depiction is a best in scale although the small indentations of the exhaust stubs would benefit from being drilling out.  The balloon tire option of the box art image is catered for.  There is no aftermarket photo-etch fret for the kit, but that included with the AvUsk kit can be adapted, the most important part being its instrument panel.  The box art shows placement for most of the flying wires, which are not provided in the kit.  Suitable photo-etch fret flying wires are available from Steelwork Models, run by Uwe Borcher in Berlin.  The modeler will have to provide the ‘broom handle’ stabilizers that ‘ride’ within the ‘X’ where the wing flying wires cross.  The cockpit has molded-in side wall detail, which appears a little soft.  Super detailers may want to remove those raised indications and replicate it using the 1/48 Fine Molds  kit as a guide.  But I think most modelers will be more than satisfied w/ cockpit internals as provided.  The windscreen treatment is the same as with the ICM kit - a small flat sheet of acetate, just like that provided for instrument panels, but with a printed outline of the framing.  It must be cut out, folded and affixed, probably with super glue.

"There are three markings options in the kit, the first being that of the box art and first Ki-10 ace Lt Kosuke Kawahara.  The katakana character 'ha' ハ for the rudder and three vertical rear fuselage bands are printed in red, which until recently I considered to be an error.  Since the April 1969 AirReview magazine Ki-10 article they have usually been shown as orange.  But the recent re-boxing of the ICM kit by Hasegawa also resorted to all red markings for Kawahara's aircraft. Even the spinner is shown as red in the AviS box art image but I have no doubt that at least is in error, as a red spinner denoted the 3rd Chutai of the 2nd Daitai - the former 9th Independent Flying Squadron.

"The second option is for Capt Tateo Kato, again with all red personal markings including the katakana rudder character 'ka' カ, except for white victory claim 'wing' markings. Kato's markings should be all orange, including the 'wing' victory markings, except for the 1st Chutai small red eagle.  The spinner caps for all three options should be orange, the 1st Chutai colour since some time at Tianjin, China during August and September 1937.  I speculate that prior to August the spinner cap colour and rudder katakana character could have been the Kelly green colour of the 4th Chutai of the 5th Rentai, from which the 2nd Daitai was formed in mid-July 1937.  If 2nd Daitai's 1st Chutai did use a Kelly green spinner cap colour then it did so for only a month or so at most.  

"Although not identified as such in the kit instructions the 3rd markings option, with white katakana character 'ta'タon the rudder is the aircraft of Sgt Maj Renpei Tanaka, (Ed. as Alexey's model depicts) one of the 2nd Daitai/64th Sentai top pilots, who had quite a career, if not a victory claim score.  He was there as wing man to many of the top scorers and in due course selected by 2nd Daitai-cho Maj Tamiya Teranishi to be his wing man."

With special thanks to Ken for providing these notes about the kit and to Alexey, Dmitry and Alexander for the images of Alexey's excellent model. The combination of both should prove useful to anyone embarking on a build of this kit or any other Ki-10 project.

Airframe Colours 

The Ki-10 was finished according to the 1936 IJAAF requirements. External fuselage surfaces were finished with a primer coat of # 3 Hai Ran Shoku (ash indigo colour - grey[ish] [dark] blue) paint for light metals, followed by an intermediate coat of # 17 Tan Sei Shoku (pale blue colour but in appearance a light blue-grey) and then an overall top coat of # 1 Hai Ryoku Shoku (ash green colour - grey-green) The latter two coats were carefully sanded and polished to achieve a smooth surface. The wings were clear doped and the # 1 grey green colour applied. Photographs reveal no apparent difference between the appearance of the painted and doped parts of the airframe although one or two show an overall finish which appears distinctly darker than the grey green. The interior was finished in a single coat of the # 3 colour without the need for first applying a clear coating to the metal which had previously been specified. 

There is no close match to the # 3 colour in FS 595. The colour is more greyish than FS 35045 but more blueish than FS 36076. In Methuen it is around 21 F 3-4 - dark blueish grey/dark blue. RAL 5008 Graublau is a little darker and RAL 7026 Granitgrau a little too greyish and not quite blue enough. Humbrol 77 Matt Navy Blue is ok as an approximate match. Revell 69 Granite Grey (which is equivalent to RAL 7026) is a good basis for the colour, but needs lightening slightly and a dab of blue. Vallejo Model Color 816 Luftwaffe Uniform WWII is matched to RAL 5008 whilst their 964 ‘Field Blue’ is lighter and perhaps more suitable for such small scale interiors.

Image credits: Box art © 2018 AviS via Alexey Klyuyev; all model photographs © 2018 Alexey Klyuyev