Planet Models
1/48 Nakajima Ki-4

By Chris Banyai-Riepl

History

The Kit

The Planet Models kit of the Ki-4 is the only 1/48 kit I know of the Ki-4, which isn't all that surprising. The Ki-4 isn't exactly on everyone's want list, but that doesn't mean that this kit is poor. On the contrary, it is one of the better resin kits I've seen. It won't be an easy build, though, and there are some areas that could be improved upon, mainly the interior.

In fact, the interior is probably the weakest part of this whole kit. While the detailing throughout the kit is very fine and well done, the interior seems to be soft and indistinct. With the large cockpit openings a lot will be visible, so some additional work here will definitely pay off. The sidewalls are the worst of the bunch, and it would probably be best to just replace them altogether with styrene rod. The cockpit floor gets the rear stool, front office rudder pedals, the control stick and a couple boxes on the floor added to it. The front seat is better, but is missing seat belts. These can be added from a generic PE set, though.

The front and rear bulkheads are well done and will help add a lot to the interior. An instrument panel is provided in resin and while it can be painted up and detailed out of the box, you might want to look for some decal instrument faces to fit the holes. The final bit for the interior is the rear gun mount, and this is fairly well done, although the die-hard detailers might want to replace the gun barrels with tubing.

The wings are one piece affairs, with the lower one including a portion of the lower fuselage. The detailing on the wings is exquisite, with no fabric texture and just a hint of ribs. The rear fuselage and tailplanes get the same treatment, which will really look good once painted up. With this being a resin kit, the one-piece lower wing should probably be glued with epoxy or some other slow-setting glue, giving you time to make sure everything is lined up properly. If you don't get this one step right, the upper wing will also be off and it will be a nightmare to fix.

The landing gear is an interesting setup of struts and it would probably be wise to replace the wheel axle with wire and pin the main struts to the fuselage for strength. There will be a lot of weight resting on these parts, so every extra bit will help.

The engine assembly is nicely done, with a one-piece cowling trapping the engine and exhaust manifold inside. The construction of the nose assembly will allow you to add this stuff last, so you can get a really nice finish to the cowling without having to worry about masking anything off. The front engine cover is well done, and thin, so all the openings will really look good. The final finishing touch to the model is the rigging, and a basic drawing is given showing what goes where.

The decals included in the kit give you a couple of interesting choices. The first one is from the 3^rd Hikodan, 4^th Hiko Rentai Pintung, Formosa 1936, and is finished in a three-color camouflage with a white emblem on the tail and hinomarus on the upper and lower wings. The second option is finished in light gray overall, with a black cowling. Blue stripes are on the vertical tail and a red arrow with a question mark runs down the side.

Conclusion

While this is not a kit for the beginner, it has a lot of potential and the interesting color schemes given will make for an interesting plane to display. If you've got an interest in pre-WW2 Japanese aircraft, this is a kit you might want to check out.