FCM 32025: Ki-84 Hayate, reviewed by Scott Van Aken

FCM 32025: Ki-84 Hayate

Units:	See review
Price	$
Reviewer:	Scott Van Aken

FCM's next offering for the 1/32 crowd is this very nice sheet on the Ki-84 Hayate. There are two kits of the plane in this scale. One is by Swallow, which while fairly nice, is also fairly old. The other is by Hasegawa and will be the choice of most modelers. All of the planes offered are in dark green upper with light grey undersides. There are those who state that the undersides should be unpainted metal, so I'll leave it to you to decide which to use.

Starting from the left, the first option is with the 21st Hikodan which was based in the Philippines during 1944.

Below it is an aircraft from the 52nd Sentai, this plane was based at Shimodate in 1945.

Moving to the upper right we have a 104 Sentai plane with a with a broad white fuselage band and yellow trim on the fin and wing tips. This was based in Manchuria during 1945.

A 71 Sentai in full home defense 'bandages' is next. This was based in the western sector of Japan in 1945.

Finally a white spinner is on this 112 Sentai plane that was based at Nitta in Japan in 1945.

You will notice a coupe of things about this sheet. One is that the white home defense markings and fuselage bands are not supplied as decals so you will need to paint those. Another is that you are given a set of leading edge ID bands. The thin stripes are to go on the trailing edge of the wings. FCM has chosen to go with the dark red option for the Hinomaru. There is still discussion going on about the shade of these with some thinking this is correct and others stating they should be brighter. The decals themselves are superbly printed by Microscale and you are provided sufficient common markings for one aircraft.

A most welcome sheet for the fan and well worth picking up. There are a number of places that sell FCM decals, so check the web for your nearest dealer.

January 2020

Thanks to FCM for providing the review decals.

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