The second model kit I go from my sister for christmas, a 1/32 Ki 84 Hayate from Hasegawa

Backround: The Ki 84 Hayate-alliied reporting name "Frank" was one of the fastest and best fighter aircraft of the japanese army. It was first flown in 1943. It was the successor the succesful Ki 44 Shoki which was itself a replacement of the Ki 43 Hayabusa, the legendary Oscar. Although the successor to the shoki, it wasnt based up on it and was more based up on the oscar than on the shoki. The Oscar was extremely agile and quite fast for its time but lacked armor and armament with just 2 12,7mm machine guns. It had also a terrible rate of climb. Although the Ki 44 cimproved all this , an even faster and better plane was desired as the Ki 44 was primarily an intercepto. The new plane, name Ki 84 was built as an air superiority fighter aircraf, it had the same good rae of climb that the ki 44 had and also took the armament of it with 2 12,7mm machine guns and 2 20 mm cannons (although there were variations in both, the ki 44 and ki 84) while also taking the Oscars agility. Additionaly, the Ki 84 was also faster than the Ki 44 . It was the fastest mass produced fighter in the Japanes army. It could reach 685 km/h with high octane fuel(which the japanes lacked so it only reached around 630 km/h in japanese use). Visibility was excellend and the hard hitting armament was good enough to take care of most allied fighter. It was found equal to ht eP 51 and P 47. I also had armour and self sealing fuel tanks whic hthe Ki 43 lacked. Approximaely 3500 weer produced till the wars end. Its main problems were its weak main landing gear which tended to break in the last war year as the factories were constantly bombed and the quality went therefore down. The engine wasnt also always reliable. But overall this aircraft proofed to be a deadly opponent,its performance was legendary and it became one of the most feared fighers of the Japanese. In the last year of the war it was one of the 3 single seat fighter aircraft that were found the best o counter the new allied types, he other ones were the Kawanishi N1Kj 2 Shiden,knows as the George , and the Kawasaki Ki 100 which was basicallya Ki 61 equipped with a radial engine. The Ki 100 however came relatively late and no codename was give to it. From all of these the Ki 84 was the only plane that was available in at least slighly bigger numbers but they still were too few to succesfully fend off the americna bombers and escort fighters. In a dogfight, the Ki 84 was equal to all other combat arcraft used in the pacific theatre. It wasnt howver suited to fight high flying b 29 superfortresses,which were supercharged, because the lack of high flying performance, this job was more suited for the Ki 44 and the Mitsubishi j2m3 Raiden(known as "Jack" by the allies) While these interceptors were used to attack the bombers, Ki 84s and other figher aircraft took on the escort fighters. The Ki 84 proofed itself a deadly opponent but they couldnt turn the course of the war.
Today only one Ki 84 survives, it is still in flying condition and flew I think until the 80s but is now in a japanes museum and it hasnt flown since then(but hopefully it will one day took to the sky again).

The model kit: it is from Hasegawa in 1/32 so its a quite big bird. Believe it or not this was the most surprising feature because my Ki 44 is somewhat samller. I just found out why. I mentioned in my 1/48 ki 44 review that the 44 is surprisingly small,even smaller than the bf 109. This is because it was that small! The Ki 44 was extremely small for a high performance single engine fighter aircraf, it was smaller than the Ki43 which itself was quite small. That was also the reason why the 44 was successful because it was threfore light and packed a big powerful engine which gave it its quite good high altitude performance. I never realized that it was small because if you just look at a ki 44 you think that it is a huge thing because of that big ass engine. But I´m gettin sidetracked, lets review this beauty
Detail: Stunning,absolutely stunning.The cockpit looks amazing with all its joysticks etc. Again its much differnt from the 44 which seems to have less joysticks,either thats because it was that in real life or the model kit lacked them. The landing gear interior is also very good detailed with all those cables and elegant lines. The engines is a masterpiece and looks very realistic. The coolers look awesome as well as does the 20 mm cannons. Detail is superb
*****
Fitting: Very good, just what you exspect from Hasegawa. Everything went well together.I had some minor complains but these arent enough to kick it off the 5 star ranking.
*****
Functions: Again sadly suprisingly basic Only the prop is movable. It would have been nice of the wheels could have made movable, actually how the wheels are produced in the kit would work favourable for moving wheels but they gave away that chance.
****
Decals: Typical Hasegawa quality. Thin decals allow a very realistic finish and the lines can be visible through the decals,but therefore they rip easily and also fold up often. Some modellers like that but I prefer the thicker but stronger and in my opinion simply better Revell decals. They are a bit thicker I think ,bu still look very realistic. The Hasegawa ones are also good and this time they didnt turn yellow like in my ki 44. Decals for 3 planes are included. I made the first one that is also picture on the box art. Unforunately the white stripe on the fuselage broke apart and so I decided to put only the Hinomaru´s one he fuselage without the white stripe although I placed the other white stripes on the wings. I didnt apply the yeelow wing leading edge because I knoew I would mess up. I will paint it maybe but I dont know because I am just afraid to somehow mess it up. The decals however are good,but no the awesome revell quality
****
Extrapoints: The kit is awesome, a pilot figure is included but I didnt apply it. If I get a two seater in that scale(I am thinking of a Ki 45 wich I think is available from Hasegawa but i think not in that scale . But what I really wanna have would be a Ki 102 Randy, a twin engined heavy fighter and ground attack aircraft from which only few were produced till the wars end. It just looks beautiful and just looks so powerful-which it was. But I´ve so far not seen any ki 102 kit,so if there is one please tell me)I will apply the pilots as my ki 44s pilot is also "planeless". Well the Ki 84 kit is superb and is a masterpiece. Its an awesome addition to my collection and one of my best model kits yet. I love the result and the kit
*****
Fazit: what an awesome kit. it looks so awesome and I love the outcoming and the kit itself. In my opinion this is one of hasegawas best-although most of theri kits are awesome- I hink this one is a masterpiece. Of course theres always some additional accessoir sets but I review the kit from an out of the box view. And for that its awesome. The kit has everything i like(for the most part)and its 187 pieces are also not too much for a beginner. It is suitable for beginners and for experienced modellers. The good fitting allows that a beginner shouldnt have problems and it will enjoy any experienced modeller who doesnt like bad fitting models (like me).I would absolutely recommend the kit,despite its quitehigh price of i think nearly 50€.
*****
Note. This was actually my most dangerous assembly yet. Why- because as I cleaned my airbrush I put off my safety goggles because the cleaning wa sfinished-I thought. And as I screwed out the airbrush gun from the air hose, it snapped back a bit and some colour hat was still in it flew right in my face-into my eye and onto my cheek. I immediately washed out the eye-I got lucky that I dont use enamels any more and only revell aqua colours. But I stillwas a bit afraid because the water I used o clean was already a bit dirty from all the colour I used to clean the brushes. And some of tha was still mixed with the res colour I think. I dont feel sick and it didnt burn in my eyes and I am also treated against blood poisoning, but I am still a bit scared cuz i dunno if the colour or the cleaner can cause cancer. There are no signs n the colour or the can that indicate if its dangerous but I am still not sure, maybe someone of you has some experience with getting colour int their eyes accidently.

Colouring: I only used revell airbrush guns and aqua colours. Dark gren for the upper surface and light grey for the underisde. Iron and rust were used for the engine and rust for the propeller. Cockpit was painted in ligh olive which I think comes closest to khaki green suggested in the manual. I used real aging methods for the first time and applied a method called chipping . This is espeacially handy when it comes to aging japanes aircraft because the colour on japanese aircraft weathered more easy than on american or german aircraft. I used a brush, with silver paint and hen randomly placed spots of silver over he airplane. Well they are not that random, I placed many spots at specific places where the colour often comes loose like the canopy,or the rudders and the engine. I think it looks amazing,very realistic. I love the outcoming.