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