1/48 Nakajima Ki-84 Type 4 Hayate (Frank)

Hasegawa's new Hayate ("Frank") is, simply put, perhaps the nicest tooling of a 1/48 aircraft that I've seen since Accurate Miniatures stunning Avenger. The cockpit, landing gear bays, and surface detail are amazing. They've really pulled out the stops on this kit.

Besides the Butterfly (Fowler) flaps, and the fine inner detail recreated there, they've added a cute, new feature to this kit -- rolling wheels! The kit employs poly-caps in the wheels so that they can turn after assembly. Of course, the prop uses a poly-cap, too, so it can spin and be removed after you've finished the kit. The talk from review modelers here in Japan who have already built the kit is that it assembles quite nicely, too, with the landing gear being particularly easy to build.

Markings are included for two different aircraft, both in the green scheme seen in the beautiful Shigeo Koike box art.