Ki-43-1 "Early Oscar"
1/32 scale conversion for Revell

UMI Resin

U.M.I. Resin from the United States is a newcomer to resin conversion world. A “cottage industry” producer, their first three sets are all to 1/32 scale and are for aircraft of WWII Axis air arms.

U.M.I.’s conversion set #1 enables you to produce a 1/32 scale Nakajima Ki-43-1 Hayabusa (Peregrine Falcon) or “Oscar” as the Ki-43 was called under the recognition system devised by the Allied Technical Air Intelligence Unit to identify Japanese aircraft during WWII.

Both of the 1/32 scale Ki-43 kits produced to date are of latter variants of the Oscar. This conversion set enables you to back-date either the Revell (recommended) or the Hasegawa kit to produce the -1 version.

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

The (main) external differences between the -1 and the later Oscars are the cowl, increased span wings, and a two bladed propeller.

The set comprises:

• Backdated cowl

• Separate exhausts

• Two-bladed propeller

• Spinner back-plate

• Spinner

• Wing tips

All of the parts bar the back-plate have been cast in a light tan coloured resin. The back-plate is in a white coloured resin.

U.M.I has made a reasonable fist of the conversion. Being a “Cottage Industry” producer, the casting is not up to the standards of Cutting Edge or Aires. However, the set is reasonably well executed and eminently usable.

The parts exhibit a rough “texture” and will benefit from the attentions of fine grade wet and dry sandpaper. The trailing edges of the propeller are a little thick and will benefit from thinning whilst the trailing edges of the cowl flaps are pretty good.

The detail is a mixture of soft for the cowl flaps to sharp for the external starter fitting on the spinner. No pinholes were present in my samples but are evident when you hold the pieces up to the light and will present a problem when you sand through their thin walls as you prepare the parts.

The instructions required to accomplish the conversion are supplied as hand drawn illustrations and hand lettered instructions on two photocopied A-4 sized pages.

The parts are inserted into the ubiquitous plastic zip-loc bag which is then wrapped in bubble wrap and placed into a hard (corrugated) cardboard box.

The set retails for USD$15.00 and the price include shipping in the United States. Foreign orders will be more and you can contact U.M.I. Resins on harleydst1958pan@aol.com for information on the cost.

Worth the price? Be aware that you will need to do a fair bit of work to bring the parts up to speed to complete the conversion. It does however save you a lot of time in scratch building and it is for the latter reason that the set is recommended.

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