my 1st build with hasegawa and I do not care for the seperately molded wing tips, one side did not fit flush despite having the wing on that side perfectly aligned and glued seems like a lot of extra work to blend them in with putty ECT.Are all Hasegawa aero models like this? really nice detail otherwise.

Most separate wingtips are trouble, but Hasegawa has more of them than other makers because they want to cover more variants with the same moulds.

Blend them separately to each wing half before assembling the wing halves (being careful to keep the added wingtip portions straight), then scrape away or fill in the in-between halves mismatch visible by dry-fitting.

The Hasegawa Ki-43 fuselage (all variants) is extremely inaccurate in profile: The cockpit canopy sits at the "peak" of two slopes that are basically non-existent on the real aircraft... The Finemolds kit is marginally better but has an inaccurate shallow canopy and is not very accurate generally.

By a huge margin the best Ki-43 ever produced in 1/48th scale is the Nichimo Ki-43-I, all of 30+ years old and engraved with truly amazing finesse and full, exquisitely done, riveting... Even the canopy glass is very clear and not bad at all in accuracy, but the Hasegawa glass is broader at the top and thus slightly more accurate in cross-section.

For some reason, the Hasegawa glass is VERY difficult to fit neatly to the Nichimo fuselage, and I would actually recommend not trying unless really prepared for trouble...

I would say the Nichimo Ki-43 was the best of ALL WWII fighter kits in 1/48th scale for well over 20 years after its release, minus the even more formidable Ki-27 Nate made NOT by Hasegawa but available under Hasegawa boxing nowadays...

The Nichimo Ki-43 should be possible to find, though not the most easy by now. Sadly, Nichimo never did the more advanced Ki-43-II variant, whose improvements were largely responsible for making the Ki-43 by far the top scoring Japanese fighter of all...

Gaston

the defect will be slightly noticeable on the left side, after painting it should be acceptable.your suggestion makes sense and I will try that next time..thanks so much.

eyeballing this model from the front I realize the whole fuselage is twisted looks like bad molding? the seams aligned and went together perfect on my part, this things going to the 'will do it maybe someday pile' this is the SP244 'motorized' oscar purchased from hannants.mildly bummed by this...oh well,next project please

Wow! Tortionally twisted? Unusual for Hasegawa...

Hasegawa's usual hard brittle plastic makes "untwisting" it hopeless in my view: It will crack severely except on some Ki-61 kits that are quite soft (?!?)...

The Nichimo plastic is even harder, but has a very nice feel to it and is not prone to cracking as much... It is always straight from what I saw too...

Again, try the Nichimo some day: It is truly a beauty.

Keep the canopy!: It is the one good part of the Hasegawa kit...

Gaston

Yes, torsionally twisted,I cannot say for sure how, it shipped from the UK all the way here to the wilderness of Idaho, the box was a bit bashed, so to trash Hasegawa may be wrong? this model has removable wings that part from the fuselage so as to be able to change the motor batteries so maybe theres a quality difference from the regular non motorized model.I will keep an eye out for the nichimo..thanks.