Jump to content

ICM 1/72 Ki-27-finished!


Recommended Posts

I will be building the ICM Ki-27 in one of the kit's schemes, but with Print Scale's decals. According to build reviews on the Net the kit decals are awful.

Box shot:

Ki27_box_zpscbd4ff73.jpg

Sprues (and decals):

Ki27_Sprue_B_zpsb06c558e.jpg

Ki27_Sprue_A_decals_zps8a9b4e59.jpg

Instructions:

Ki-27-instructions_zpsb1ff2ae1.jpg

And for fun, this kit's little brother with the scheme I'm going to use:

Ki27_1.jpg

A link to Nick Millman's blog describing the colours:

http://www.aviationofjapan.com/2008/03/colours-of-97-sen-part-7.html

At a first glance, there is little flash and fine detail (not well-captured due to the camera's flash), but some parts (like the engine and tailskid) could be tricky to assemble. Let's see how it goes!

Edited by atvd1020
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ooh, like the look of this!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've finished assembling and painting the cockpit, pictures tomorrow when the paint is dry. Based on dry fits, I will say this, however: the next Ki-27 I build will not be an ICM. The kit's engineering is not build-friendly.

Looking forward to seeing how you have got on.. :popcorn:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I updated my first post to add a picture of (most of) the instructions, and a link to Nick Millman's blog showing the aircraft I want to paint.

Got the cockpit more or less assembled and painted since the last post:

Ki-27-pit_zps11af0c8c.jpg

In general, my work bench gets untidy quickly. Not shown: an Amodel I-190 struggling against its struts being glued on where they should.

The interior was the old Humbrol 157, based on an interpretation of Nick Millman's blog post on IJAAF interior colors. It's darker and greyer than in the photo, due to the flash. Apart from that, I cleaned up the fuselage halves and painted the cockpit walls the same colour. On the wing (which will be hidden later, ha ha) is a test mix of Revell 363 and 50 which I later mixed with Humbrol 191 to give a passable aotake for the rest of the fuselage interior. Revell 363 by itself will do for the green in the camouflage.

This is the fuselage (with the aotake painted on) dry-fitted to the lower wing:

Ki-27-dry_zpse714d9a4.jpg

I still have to glue up the fuselage and add the instrument panel. Dry-fitting the fuselage halves led me to trim off the locating pegs provided as the 'holes' on the other half were too shallow to properly accept them (and one was misaligned, too). This is not how it's supposed to be done according to the instructions, but mock-gluing the fuselage together and trying to fit it to the wing was impossible, so I went ahead like this. The fit of the fuselage to the lower wing is tight-almost a snap-fit, and poor. Fortunately, the machine guns and seat were not broken off at this point.

I should hopefully have finished the engine and stuck the wings on by the next post.

All the finer bits in the kit (rudder pedals, control column, engine parts-not shown) are eminently breakable.

Edited by atvd1020
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The fuselage is now closed up and the tailplane attached:

Ki-27-underside_zpsdf8b6e77.jpg

The latter was to be slotted in, but I had to clean the slot of flash before it went in neatly. I need to add a little filler where it meets the fuselage. The actual gluing of the fuselage to the wing was rather messy as you can see at the cowling and near the wing, and though it's not obvious from the photo, part of the fuselage stands proud of the wing and will need to be sanded down. The reference I have (the Kagero book on the Ki-27) doesn't make it clear if that part does lie flush, but I will sand it down anyway.

Ki-27-with-wings_zps42ffec22.jpg

The wings have gone on now, and the location tabs for their joining were good enough to retain.

I should hopefully finish the engine assembly by today, though I'm worried about fitting it over the guns.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ideally, this would be the post where I declared that I really warmed up to this kit, but no, this was where I realized I had thinned out the right surfaces too much or too little. The rudder and tailskid did not go in neatly into the slot until I had sanded down too much :banghead: :

Ki-27-gap_zps9345b7f1.jpg

Once this had gone in, I realized that the rudder was thinner than the rest of the tail (picture not shown), but that would be too difficult to correct. I filled in the gap between the rudder/taliskid piece and tail with plastic card and putty, and then fitted the wheels to the undercarriage spats and then glued those to the wings:

Ki-27-spats_zpsd5b790ec.jpg

Here was the 'thinned too little': the wheels were too fat for the spats and threatened to split them! So I split open the spats and spaced them out with strips of sprue and clamped them down. I also touched up the seams with Vallejo putty. Though cleaning it up is not as precise as, say, Tamiya or Mr.Surfacer, it can be smoothed down with a wet cotton bud without damaging what's left of the detail.

On the other hand, I fixed a better aotake mix for the rest of the engine cowling interior.

Ki-27-seams_zpse8763cc6.jpg

So here is the model with the spats partially cleaned up and the engine almost done (just one more ring thingy and the cowling). The engine was too fat and I had to sand down some of the lovely detail. I also broke off the machine gunbarrels to fit the other engine/firewall and exhaust bits and then re-glue them between the cylinders of the engine.

Ki-27-tidied-up_zpsf8fada4c.jpg

I ran a little more putty over the new spats and closed up the engine. Hopefully I should have finished gluing on the rest of the kit's bits tomorrow. Past builds of the kit on other fora don't suggest such problems with the fit as I had; the moulds must be getting on, my ineptness aside.

On the whole, this kit reminds me of the suit you got tailor-made for your brother's wedding a year or too ago and discovered just exactly where you gained (or lost) weight between then since then when you need it for your nephew/niece's christening :weep:

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've essentially finished building the plane, and will begin the painting tomorrow:

Ki_27_ready_1_zps3510c387.jpg

In the end, one of the kit's features which seemed a strong point to me-having the undercarriage moulded onto the lower wing-simply led to an impractical way of attaching the spats. The spats with the wheels have to be 'threaded' into the rest of the undercarriage, though the plastic rod which did the threading did not lie flush with the upper wing. I filled in the holes with stretched sprue and smoothed down the ends with putty. The join between the undercarriage legs and spats was weak and I needed to reattach them after smoothing down the spats too vigorously.

Ki_27_ready_2_zps7b61b851.jpg

End result-if looked at from the right (wrong! angle), the plane looks like it has swollen ankles, or is wearing anklets. The undercarriage legs are meant to be narrower than the spats where they join, but I made it look worse.

The ailerons were meant to be joined to the wings so that they could be posed up or down, but the slots on each aileron needed to be cleaned of flash before the join was neat, and even then...

I'm quite sure the fine riveting and panel line detail that's left will disappear under the first coat of (brushed-on) paint. Maybe I should try pre-shading, though I'm skeptical about it.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

No pictures for the moment, but I'm currently painting the underside with a 2:1 mix of Humbrol 23/165 (Duck Egg Blue/Medium Sea Grey). The colour so obtained is within the range suggested by Nick Millman on his blog here:

http://www.aviationofjapan.com/2008/03/army-hairyokushoku-part-1.html

The Humbrol 23 was a funny tin with the paint coming out gloss (and taking a long time to dry) even after stirring for a minute and a half. At least it brushed out nicely.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm watching this one keenly. After seeing your 144th version & reading Nicks blog on the colours, it was too much for a camo junky to resist. Mine has cost me a little more than a tenner though. :( :shrug: :D

Steve.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks guys! However there won't be any updates until Sunday or so since photos I took of the kit under the lighting at home in the evening made the colours look off, or using the flash to make the warm lighting look more natural washed out the colours too much. I will have to wait until the weekend when I can photograph in daylight (assuming there is enough of it).

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Chapter 7: In Which We Say Goodbye to the Surface Detail

Between this post and the last, the Danish cousin of the Carpet Monster called the Monster-Between-The-Floorboards demanded SACRIFICE, so I gave up the two little thingies which were on the port wing to appease it. I still dropped the plane after this, but it surprisingly landed on its feet and lost no other bits. After that, I finished painting the underside and the topside in two of the three-colour scheme's colours:

Ki-27-painton_zps5dbb388f.jpg

I've done this because I'm making the indigo from Lifecolor acrylics and it will stick better with enamel below. As it stands now, the top surface is painted in Humbrol 93 and Revell 363. The former lacks a bit of the redness of the colour chip in the blog post linked above, but I couldn't get a satisfactory mix with what I have at the moment. It also thinned and brushed out badly, and I got a bunch of sweater fluff in the paint which needed to be taken out (hence the occasional bare patches) of plastic. On the other hand, I promptly overthinned the green, and the result is seen above. I will add a second coat of green tonight and then paint on the indigo tomorrow in several thin coats, then touch up the underside.

I swear, the next Ki-27 I build will be the RS Models or Hasegawa. At least I know the former's surface detail survives my heavy hand. If the pitot tube looks crooked, it could be due to the dihedral.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The indigo has gone on, and it's not fully dry yet:

Ki_27_3colour_zps8f3a3f16.jpg

It's a somewhat convoluted mixture of Lifecolor blues and greens, but came out OK. As all the profiles I found only had details on the port side of the fuselage camouflage, the starboard side is pure artistic license. This is the second time I've painted (relatively) large areas with thinned acrylics, and used several thin layers to build up a coat. The flash makes things look worse, though :weep:. The patterns are more or less done now, and I simply need to touch up each colour (and maybe add a final coat of dark green too), make the edges of the camouflage neater, and then add the gunsight, propeller and canopy before going ahead with the decals.

Edited by atvd1020
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I call the model ready for gloss coat and decals:

Ki_27_before_decals_zpsa63baeeb.jpg

This was taken yesterday night, so some of the indigo paint and glue for the canopy are still a bit wet. The gunsight was tricky to fit as you had to thread it through a hole in the windscreen and make it sit on two points on either side of the canopy. After the gloss coat, I will reinforce the points with superglue (knock wood). The decals should go on today, and I will add exhaust stains (there isn't much surface detail left to bring out with washes). If things go well, I will post the sprues for my second entry in the GB tomorrow too.

Edited by atvd1020
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's done. The lighting was variable today so the pictures aren't the best, but I will try and post better ones the next time the sun comes out and I'm available to take pictures.

Without further ado, here is the Ki-27 of Lieutentant Hyoe Yonaga of the 24th Sentai, 2nd Chutai, stationed either in the Philippines (according to Print Scale decals) or China (according to the ICM kit instructions):

Ki27f_8_zps580b1b54.jpg

I had to paint the walkway and propeller stripes because both the kit's and Print Scale's decals misbehaved at this point. And the ICM decals are as bad as other builders of this kit have mentioned. I'm not sure the Print Scale decals were meant for this kit, as the tail and rudder markings were too big for it. I completely left off weathering, exhaust stains etc. as the lack of surviving surface detail made me decide to keep a slightly toy-like finish. The lack of visible panel lines was sorely missed while positioning the decals.

Ki27f_4_zpsa0b05a7a.jpg

In the end, I found this aircraft quite aesthetically pleasing. Here are Big Nate and Little Nate, like these professional wrestlers with midget versions of themselves:

Ki27f_7_zps604bcc86.jpg

'Hey, Dad, how do I get to be as big as you?'

'Hmmm....'

Ki27f_5_zpsfc9ed31f.jpg

Ki27f_9_zpsf5d2246e.jpg

In case I need to touch up varnish etc anywhere I will do so and add the updated pictures to the gallery.

Edited by atvd1020
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm liking this a lot, looking forward to mine turning up, I'll be trying to emulate your camo scheme, I like how you've done this.

Steve.

Thanks! Remember to use a darker brown though, as mine is too pale but easier to mix (i.e. out of the pot). You can get a good match from Humbrol 83 and 62 if you have (or use) them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Remember to use a darker brown though, as mine is too pale but easier to mix (i.e. out of the pot). You can get a good match from Humbrol 83 and 62 if you have (or use) them.

Thanks for the tip, I have both of those in stock. Its been quite a treat to me to see this build, I've long thought I should have one of these, but always thought the IJAAF grey scheme was a bit boring. Nothing boring with this scheme though, its a cracker. :)

Steve.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...