ICM Ki-10_II “Perry” in 1/72nd Scale
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Background
According to the kit’s instructions, the Ki-10 was the main fighter
aircraft of the Japanese Imperial Army in the late nineteen-thirties.
The first prototype was constructed by the Kawasaki Company under the
supervision of Takeo Doi, and was completed in March 1935. In September
1935, the Ki-10 was ordered into production as the Type 35 fighter. From
November 1937 to December 1938, production switched to the modified version,
the Ki-10-II, which had increased wingspan and length. The Ki-10 was among
the best of the Japanese biplane fighters. After September 1937, these
aircraft took part in the war with China, and again in the summer of 1939,
they were deployed in the Soviet-Japanese conflict over the Khalhin-Gol
River.
In the Box
The kit comes in one of those end-opening boxes with one of the color
schemes shown on the back of the box. The box contains a single sprue
of plastic parts, a small set of decals for two schemes, and a small clear
piece of acetate for the windscreen. The plastic parts have a little flash
and some oily mold-release agent that will require clean-up. Unfortunately,
there are one or two slightly sunken areas on the underside of the lower
wing. I am hopeful these will be less apparent under some primer and a
coat of paint because trying to fill these will inevitably ruin the fine
fabric detail. That said, these flaws are not too prominent.
The decals look decent enough. The schemes are for 77th Sentai, China,
1938, and Captain Tateo Kato, 64th Sentai, China,1938. The decals look
nicely printed though I would probably mask and paint the fuselage stripe
for the latter rather than the use the decal. I have had one or two problems
with ICM decals. My advice is to test one of the decals that you don’t
want to use on a piece of scrap plastic before decaling your model.
According to the instructions, construction starts with the interior.
The fuselage has some molded detail interior and the kit has foot rudder
control, joy stick, and seat. At this point, you may wish to add seatbelts
using homemade items or the aftermarket ones, suc as those from Eduard.
There is also a piece for the instrument panel. Once the fuselage is closed,
the builder adds the top front section and the nose section of the fuselage.
Some may worry that this is over-engineered but the construction reduces
seam filling so I commend this approach.
Next, the tail part and lower wing section are to be glued on. The latter
contains the underside section of the fuselage, so some filling and sanding
will be required. At this point, I would paint the sub components. Except
for the red fuselage stripe and the tip of the propeller spinner, the
entire model is Japanese Imperial Army Air Force grey. Once the components
are painted, the modeler can add the top wing, the landing gear, and other
appendages.
Conclusion
Conditionally recommended for the slightly more experienced modeler;
this will not be an easy model to build because of the panel line issues
but it has potential and there is a lot of detail in the box.
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