Hasegawa 1/32 Ki-84 "Hayate"
By Jeff Herne
This model started as a natural-metal aircraft, but ended up as a demonstrator for my local club on chipping with salt. The cockpit was stock with the exception of the lap-belt and instrument panel, which are Eduard.
Another new tooling from Hasegawa, the fit of this kit is excellent. The engine is lovely, and I added copper wire to the cylinders for plug wires.
The entire model was primed in Gunze flat black, buffed out, then sprayed with Alclad. At this point, something went terribly wrong and the Alclad dried hazy, effectively ruining the natural-metal finish.
The model sat for a while as I contemplated its fate, when a phone call from one of our club members requesting a demo for an upcoming model club meeting saved it from the trash bin.
I did the demo at the next club meeting, using the salt and water (brine?) method of paint chipping. I applied the salt, then sprayed Gunze Sangyo Japanese Army Green over the top, and rubbed off the sale about 30 minutes later. The results were great, the demo was a success, so I brought the partially-painted model home for unit markings, hinomaru, etc.
The cover photo on Thorpe’s Japanese Army Aircraft book prompted a decision to use masks, and no decals. I used Scale Precision Masks for the hinomaru, and 3m Kapton for everything else.
I chipped the painted areas using a thin brush and weathered the exhaust stains with Warpigs pigments.
When I was finally ready to flat-coat the model, I applied Future mixed with Tamiya X-21 flat base to the model, which promptly started curdling the paint underneath. Fortunately, the cracking is very faint and only noticeable when up close or at certain light angles.
I loved this build right up until the point the Alclad went bad on me. I have another kit in the stash to eventually replace this one and send to the back row on the display case.
© Jeff Herne 2014
This article was published on Thursday, May 22 2014; Last modified on Monday, March 28 2016