Graffiti Tony : 1/48th Otaki Ki-61 Hien (Tony)

Here is another vintage Otaki kit, originally released in 1972. For its time it was a decent model with recessed panel lines and lots of overdone rivets (common for this company's releases) that could be bought inexpensively. My version here was the 1980 re-box. You can still pick up these kits (cheap) and are able to produce a decent model for your efforts, however it doesn't hold a candle to the Tamiya kit. (So builders have a choice on what they want to invest.)

Notable Kit Features:

• Low parts count

• Basic construction

• Single piece canopy

Build Inspiration:

Lacking any Japanese types back in the day, I decided to add some opposition to the couple of USN types I had just built. This would also be a test of my airbrush and airbrush skills to see how a squiggle paint scheme would turn out on a 1/48th scale fighter.

Heads-Up Report:

• Poor Instructions (in Japanese only on my version :)

• Spartan cockpit with barely passable detail

• Thick single piece canopy

• Overdone recessed rivets

• Low quality pilot figure

• Thick decals

Note: These same molds were also later re-released by ARII

Kit Additions / Modifications:

This was a basic Out of Box build.

End Result:

I was okay with the result at the time, but ruled out further squiggle paint schemes for the future (maybe now with a better airbrush and skills I may tackle a Ju88... but not anytime soon.)

The After-Build Report:

I would only recommend this Otaki / ARII kit to a novice modeler who wanted an inexpensive kit for a simple build or possibly an intermediate, where you want to try out a technique on a kit and don't want to chance a potential disaster on a more expensive kit.

As a contrast, the 1/48th scale Tamiya kit is the real gem in this scale with excellent engineering and an outstanding cockpit.

Completed build #17 - January 1987 using the 1/48th scale Otaki #OT2-6-500 kit.

Feel free to comment or ask any questions - Keep on building, gain experience, challenge yourself if you like, but try not to stress yourself out over the build - it is suppose to be an enjoyable hobby after all - Cheers