Friendship Scale Models 1/72 Ki-59

Following previous retrospectives in November and December 2019 about the late Horatio Hernández of Mexico and his pioneering line of Friendship Scale Models resin and vacform Japanese aircraft kits, Kevin Bade has very kindly shared these images of an unbuilt 1/72 Kokusai Ki-59 kit from his own collection. This was Horatio's first release as Kit FSM-001.

Kevin purchased this kit direct from Horatio in 1994 together with the Tachikawa Ki-77 and Kawasaki Ki-78 kits. He found that all of them were very well done with good decals, instructions and historical notes, presenting thorough, high quality products with vacuform parts as good as any he had ever seen and good resin casting too.    

The quality and completeness of the kit as a first release is self evident from Kevin's photos, with the main components shown on two vacform sheets, together with separately bagged resin moulded detail parts and vacform transparencies. The decal sheet looks excellent and the instructions, exploded view, plans and especially historical notes are of an exceptional standard.  

With very special thanks to Kevin for providing these views of a very rare kit in its pristine and as bought' condition. 

Image credit: Heading photo © 2019 Guillermo; Kit photos © 2020 Kevin Bade