This build is of another kit that I have built before. I had Bestfong decal sheet 48053 “Ki-43 I/II in foreign service” in my decal stash, and one of the subjects is a captured Ki43-I. That's what this build represents.

The kit went together very well - I had no trouble at all. The only thing I recall being a little tricky was the engine.

The captured plane has a very simple paint scheme - a light grey on the bottom and a green on top. The decal sheet gives a mix for the grey: Mr. Color C-128 + Mr. Color C-115 + Mr. Color C-62, in a 4:4:1 ratio, or, alternatively, you can just use Mr. Color C-20. The C-20 is just described as Light Blue. I just used XF-14 JA Grey, which is what I assume the aircraft would have been painted with before it was captured. The top is shown in the decal sheet as Mr. Color C-123, which is RLM 83 Dark Green. The image on the decal sheet shows a lighter, more olive color, so I used my US armor Olive Drab mix: XF-62 and XF-57. Unfortunately, I did not record the ratios.

I wanted to try thinning the Tamiya paint with lacquer thinner. I've done this before, but never really made a note about how well it worked. The bottom was painted using hobby lacquer thinner (either Tamiya or Mr. Color Thinner, I'm not sure which). It was a little rough. I used Mr. Color Leveling Thinner on the top, and it worked better.

Although the decal sheet included decals for the stripes on the rudder, I decided to paint it. The white was Tamiya White Primer, in the 40 ml bottle. The blue was Model Color Flat Blue, thinned with Quick Shine. I thought it would match the decals, but it was not quite dark enough.

I think this was my first experience with Bestfong decals, and they worked well. As is now my habit, I created a custom mask for this kit, which can be downloaded from here). Note that the rear section is in three pieces: the two forward corners and the rear corner. I cut strips of masking tape to connect the three pieces. It fit very well. I was happy about this, as I have six more of these to build, from the Magnificent Kotobuki series that Hasegawa released with Creator Works.

Page last updated November 26, 2025.