Kawasaki Ki-10-I
Basic interior painted and given a brown wash to pick out details
Fuselage halves glued together. The lower wing includes the rear of the radiator, which is blank styrene. I painted in black and cut a piece of fine mesh to glue onto it.
Lower wing glued in place , showing the back face of the radiator - simple fix but looks much better than the flat styrene wall
Engine cover and front face glued in place
Tail surfaces glued on - a fair amount of filler needed, but not so bad for a limited run kit
Top view - not as much filled needed here
Landing gear glued in place
Propeller blades glued to spinner using a jig
Struts attached to upper and lower wings to (hopefully) make fitting the upper wing easier. Also drilled out the gun troughs to make them look better
Model in Aeroclub bi-plane jig, showing the fit issues with the N-struts
The front strut for the wing Ns and the rear strut for the centre section Ns do not fit and will need to be modified
Wing struts were the right length, just the wrong angle - I cut a slot with a razor saw at the bottom of the front strut and inserted a wedge of scrap styrene which moved the top inwards. The piece of scrap will be trimmed and sanded when the glue dries
Rear centre section struts extended by gluing a section of appropriately sized contrail strut to the end and after it was dry, filled gaps and sanded to shape
Cut some home-made masks and stuck them on either side of the film windshield - now to cut it out and
Windscreen trimmed, hole drilled for gun sight, folded and glued in place
Late in the day - decided to use the spats - here the insides of the spats have been ground out to allow the wheels to fit and the wheels and interiors have been painted and weathered
Spats glued together, filled and sanded
Main painting complete - IJA Grey and Black
Detail painting done and spats attached
Elastic rigging thread glued to fuselage and lower wing, ready to pass through holes in the top wing. I've also replaced the aileron control rods with steel wire, which will also be fixed by gluing into holes in the underside of the top wing
Top wing attached and rigging completed - now for decals
Decals added - a mixture of Blue Rider (tail) and kit decals
Comments
30 July 2024, 11:40 -
Album info
There are a couple of panels in "The Blue Lotus" showing some Japanese aircraft. They are seen as silhouettes in the distance but are clearly single bay, sesquiplane biplanes. The book is set in 1931 but written in 1935 so it could feasibly be a Kawasaki Ki-10, which was introduced in 1935 and the silhouettes do have the splayed-out struts and look of the Ki-10. I've therefore chosen to depict the planes as an early Ki-10-I and am building the Avis kit, pretty well straight out of the box.
