Kawasaki Ki-61 "Hien" – the Japanese fighter

On June 18, 1942, a crew of American bomber B-25 "Mitchell", participating in the raid on Tokyo, Colonel Dolittle's raid, spotted a strange and previously unseen Japanese fighter near the Mito airfield. Later, the reason for this became clear - it was a converted fighter, in which the radial engine was replaced by a linear one. The Ki-61 "Hien" fighter was one of the best, that participated in air battles in World War II in the Far East. It boldly used several innovations, that allowed preserving the maneuverability of the aircraft. The hasty introduction into production without the implementation of the appropriate operational and military testing program, had no effect on the combat characteristics of the fighter, even when the superiority in the air was already firmly taken over by the opponents. But, despite its excellent combat characteristics, the Ki-61 did not work out at all in battles in tropical climates, especially over the jungles of New Guinea and the vastness of the ocean, due to the sensitive, overheating engine, that was still very resistant to dust and required highly qualified service personnel. Despite the great operational difficulties, the pilots appreciated this aircraft for its easy handling, and in addition, in battles it was in no way inferior to other army fighters, it was much more maneuverable, than the Allied machines, even before the appearance of the Grumman F6F "Hellcat" and North American P-51 "Mustang".

A medium-difficulty, well-designed and highly detailed model for modelers of any experience. The publication allows You to make a model of an Imperial Navy fighter aircraft, that fought in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands theaters, with a full cockpit and fairly good chassis detailing.. For advanced beginners and modelers with little experience, we advise assembling this model under the supervision of a more experienced colleague, making a simplified (without cockpit interior, with an opaque cockpit canopy, retracted landing gear) model in the flight phase, and this should not be one of the first more complex models. Antiquarian publication.