1/32nd Nakajima Ki-44 "Tojo" - Completed wt Photos

[trickyrich]

Ok I hadn't planned to join any more GB's this year due to Mojo issues....and I need to clear a backlog of unfinished builds. But I found that resin is a great mojo restorer and I couldn't help myself with this model.

 

So I'll be building a Scratchbuilders 1/32nd Nakajima Ki-44 "Tojo" though it is sometimes referred to by it's more official name "Shoki". This is a full resin hollow cast model with white metal accessories and aftermarket resin engine. Scratchbuilders was a small company out of California that produced a few 1/32nd resin models around 1996 to 200?. They're quite had to find now and this one just happened to show up at the right price, so i couldn't help myself!! 

 

To help improve it I'll be adding Eduard's BigEd PE set to it, it's meant for the Hasegawa model but it should work nicely. I'll also be adding some Master Model barrels to replace the white metal ones.

 

It's a nice simple model and reasonable well cast so there shouldn't be too many issues with the build, though both upper wing sections are a wee bit warped, or in this case flat! This should be just the build to restore the mojo to full MOJO!!!  Though I have heard there are blue pills for this? 

 

I haven't had a chance to upload the photos yet but will have them up soon...ish!  

[CliffB]

Nice to have you on board Rich

It sounds like a wonderful project.

 

Cliff

[trickyrich]

Ok finally some photos/resin porn to look at……..

 

I’m not sure exactly how many were produced but she’s #125. Quite a slim looking fighter with a huge radial from a bomber fitted. They had excellent climbing rates and were used extensively in the later stages of the war in defense of the homeland against B-29’s. Like here sister the Ki-43 she had a Bubble Canopy which gave superb view for the pilot, something the Allied aircraft too a bit longer to make standard.

 

 

 

Nice simple casting of the main bits, everything is thin hollow cast. The detail is really nice and right up there with some of the best castings you can currently get. Not bad for a 20yo model.

 

 

 As mentioned she is quite a simple model with not a great number of parts. There’s a bit of casting flash on a lot of the smaller bit but they’re really simple to clean up. Only one part was damaged, one of the legs for the engine mount had broken off, this was caused by a large air bubble in the leg. I will be replacing these legs with plastic round stock anyway to help give this area more strength.

 

 

 

The cockpit is quite basic but I have plans to update this area.

 

 

 

As well as resin bit you get the usual White Metal smaller parts, most of these look to be quite poorly moulded, more work here I think, plus some will be replaced as well. Only one VacForm canopy is supplied so I’ll have to be extra careful cutting this one out!!!!!

 

 

 

The “extras” with this model are a Engine & Things Nakajima Ha-109 resin engine and an Insight Type 100 resin gunsight. The engine is quite nicely moulded but will need some extras added to make it look a bit more realistic, so out with the plastic rod and lead wire. The gunsight is really fine so I’ll have to make sure it’s kept well away from the carpet monster.

 

 

The decals a quite basic, I haven’t decided on a colour scheme yet.

 

 

 

The instructions are very much the standard fair for resin models of this era, mostly words telling you how to fit everything together and some basic exploded diagrams. They remind me of the really early Airfix instructions.

 

 

 

I started to have a wee play of this before I headed off to work. The cockpit does need work to improve it, though most of it will be hidden as the actual opening is quite small. The seat, seat frame, instrument panel, and rudder pedals will be replaced with either new Eduard PE bits or scratchbuild bits. The Eduard PE set gives you the option to open the cockpit side doors so I may do that as well.

 

 

 

The wing has been moulded a bit differently to what you’d find in most resin model. Instead of being a single cast it’s been done in 3 parts. Unfortunately as can be seen the upper wing sections are almost completely flat and without profile! With luck a nice hot bath in water will return them to their original shape. Depending on hard it will be I’m tempted to add the “butterfly” combat flaps, the only problem with that is that I’ll have to grind out the old ones and completely rebuild them. Not

really hard just time consuming….will wait and see how the rest of the build goes.

 

 

I’m looking forward to starting this one in full, a check fit of everything didn’t show up any problem areas. The cockpit and engine need the most work but this is just detailing. The wings look more of an issue than they actually be, that correction work is quite simple.

[SimonT]

So you picked this to restore your mojo? 

 

love how nuts you are!

[trickyrich]

17 hours ago, SimonT said:

So you picked this to restore your mojo? 

 

love how nuts you are!

  bonkers!!

 

As I tell everyone, most resin models are not any more difficult than a lot of the limited run plastic models. Plus with resin models you expect to have to do some extra work to get things to fit properly or have to make/remake bits, when you get a model that doesn't need this then it's a real pleasure to build. Plastic models though, you sort of expect them to all fit together without too many issues and not have to remake or replace items. Too often of late I've had plastic models I really should have thrown in the bin because they're pieces of and need way more work than they should have. 

 

That said I have some truly frightening resin stuff in the stash, but I just can't bring myself to throw them away!

 

This build should be a breeze. There's a 1/32nd P-39 by the same company I've seen at a good price which is really tempting! Pity the postage is around $100USD!!

 

 

[Davek72]

Looks like fun Rich.   Good luck will follow with interest.  

 

Dave

[trickyrich]

Ok time to get this one going, not too much to report as I’m in the middle of trying to buy a new car so that’s eating up lots of time.

 

First up I needed to fix those wings. The wings tops were dipped in some boiling water to soften them and help return them to their correct shape. They are a lot better but already I can see quite a bit of work required on this wing!

 

 

and after

 

 

The parts have been moulded quite differently to most resin model. They appear almost as a part from a Vacform model after you have just cut it out, there is a “lip” around all the edges of the parts that needs to be removed. Added to this the trailing edge of the wing is way too thick and the rib structure on the lower wing also won’t allow the wing to join together at all. Eventually surrounded in a mountain of resin dust I got the wings done!

 

 

Surprisingly very little filler was needed for the joins. I did however have one issue, there was a bulge midsection of the upper RH wing which I needed to sand back to even the profile….not sure how that came about. The only other issue I found was the panel lines on one of the upper wings don’t line up at all with the lower wing. There are a few others areas with other parts that have the same issues.

 

 

The tail unit was equally fun to tidy up and fit. Quite a bit of work was required for the control surfaces to fit correctly, the fit to the fuselage wasn’t the best either. More sanding required here, and the panel line don’t match up well here either.

 

 

A few blemishers in the fuselage required filling.

 

 

The cowling was next, it’s made up of 3 parts. The opening for the engine wasn’t nice and even in shape and the thickness of the lip varied greatly. Lots of careful sanding and filing was required here. The flaps at the back actually fitted quite nicely, they were just a bit thick and required sanding back as well.

 

 

The engine mount and engine bay bulkhead. One of the struts for the mount had broken off. It tuned out it had a giant air bubble in this strut so it was very weak from the start. Rather than just fixing it I decided to replace the lot with plastic tube……..that was an interesting job! Looks better and is much stronger.

 

 

The engine has been cleaned up and is ready for detailing, the prop was a bit thick and needed sanding back. Looks quite nice together like that. The rear section of the engine bay can be seen from the wheel wells so I’m going to have the add some detail there to make it look busy.

 

 

So far I’m happy with the progress, a lot of the difficult stuff has been sorted or I’m aware of problem areas. The key here is masses of test fitting to see how it all should fit together before the glue comes out.

 

I haven’t started the cockpit yet, I’m sort of waiting for a book on this aircraft to arrive before I start detailing. None of these aircraft survived the war so there are no detailed photos, the period photo’s aren’t detailed at all. I could use the Ki-43 Oscar for some of the references, as she was very similar to the Ki-44 but just had a longer fuselage and smaller engine.

 

Anyway plenty of time. I am so enjoying myself with this build, there’s quite a bit of work involved but it’s easy stuff and enjoyable to do.

[CliffB]

Excellent progress Rich.  I can almost smell the resin dust from here!

 

Cliff

[trickyrich]

15 hours ago, CliffB said:

Excellent progress Rich.  I can almost smell the resin dust from here!

 

Cliff

I've got a few bags of the stuff if you like? 

[trickyrich]

It’s been a little while since I updated this build. I’ve had a few distractions outside of modeling, plus this build is becoming even bigger than I had planned!! This update may be a bit photo heavy.

 

First the main distraction…………my new toy!!!  

 

 

 

Ok back to the build, the company that made this model was called Scratchbuilders, but I now I actually think the name was more to do with what’s required to build this model!! I bought the Revi Publications book on the Ki-44 and its been a bit of a lifesaver as there are a few issues with the model.

 

So I’ll start with the engine. After rebuilding the engine mount I discovered it was completely wrong, so that had to be rebuilt, so out with the razor saw……

 

 

Looks much better now, I’ll have to add some bits and pieces to it to make it look a bit more busy.

 

 

Now the engine, it’s a bit bare and needed quite a bit of detailing, plus as I found out not 100% accurate. The issue here is the intake ring at the back of the engine is lined up correctly with the cylinders. This results in the intake pipe work being not square, this is a hard fix so I’ll just leave it as it is. It’s out but not really noticeable as it’s at the back of the engine.

 

I added plastic rod for the push rod sleeves and 10mm lead wire for the intake pipes. Lead wire is my new favourite material!!!

 

 

It looks much better already.

 

 

Next up was to paint the engine and add the ignition wires and ring. I was in luck with the ignition ring as I had some plastic that was exactly right for the job. The ignition wires are 3mm lead wire…..not I job I liked doing at all.

 

 

 

 

Sadly not a lot will be seen once it’s installed! I’ve left off a few bits on the top of the cylinders as they won’t/can’t be seen and they’re a real pain to fit!!

 

 

 

The prop blades needed to be thinned down quite a bit, plus I had to add a join line to the spinner. The small tube in the spinner nose (for the Hucks starter….I only just learnt that’s what it’s called) it may be a wee bit small so I may have to replace that. It wasn’t included in the model.

 

Now the exhaust pipes. I’ve wasted quite a bit of time on these before and after I got the book. Initially they didn’t fit at all so I spent ages trying to get them to, only to discover they are wrong as well.

 

 

I though they may have been cast pipes but they are actually just tube pipes and nothing like the ones supplied. I’ve tried to file and shape them back, but really that’s not been successful….they still look crap. So either I rebuild them from scratch which is a big job (and would use the Quickboost outlets) or just leave as is, again because you can’t really see them that clearly. (the ones on the right have been modified). 

 

 

In-between all this I started on the cockpit…….and there’s issues here as well! I’m using Eduard’s Interior PE set for the Hasegawa model to supply most of the parts, or scratchbuilding the rest.

 

The issues with the interior is that it’s too shallow! Unfortunately details and photos of this area are really hard to find, pretty much none in the book either. Because I’m not sure how it is meant to look I will leave the interior as is and modify things to suit!

 

First off the models rudder pedals were crap, so I made new ones.

 

 

The kit-supplied seat is crap and too short, though the Eduard one is correct, it’s too tall to fit but I’ll work around that some how.

 

 

I added some basic details to the cockpit knowing that most of this will be completely hidden even if I leave the canopy open.

 

 

So after some painting and new PE bits it’s starting to look quite good, I still have a bit of work to do to complete.

 

 

The cockpit opening was wrong along with the headrest. The front of the opening was square where’s on the aircraft it was rounded as seen here. I may need to round it out a bit more. The headrest was too tall and too long, that was sanded back. Plus I found out the canopy is completely wrong and too small! Unfortunately that’s unfixable so I’ll have to live with that!!

 

 

Somehow Eduard also got the size of the small cockpit side doors wrong, the PE ones are far too tall, being for the Hasegawa model I suspect the ones on it are incorrect as well! Because the cockpit is too shallow I’ll be leaving these closed, but I think I’ll open the canopy.

 

 

 

As you can see not too much of the interior can/will be seen.

 

 

 

Finally I started to see just how everything is going to fit……….and it doesn’t!! I had to chop a section of the rear of the wing assembly as it was wrong in shape plus do some reshaping of the cowling. Unfortunately I’ll have to pin the fuselage to the wing in places as it’s a bit out of shape. But I do need to finish off the cockpit and fit that first before I can go any further.

 

 

What was to be a fairly simple build and Mojo restorer is turning out to be something quite a bit more involved!! Most of my projects seem to be going that way of late!

[CliffB]

Excellent work Rich.  I think you deserve your new toy!

 

Cliff

[SoftScience]

Brilliant work on all of this, but the engine is particularly striking

[modelling minion]

Excellent work Rich.

The engine in particular looks fantastic, a real work of art.

[trickyrich]

hi guy's thanks for the comments.

 

haven't been back to this one yet, sort of gotten stuck with things outside of modelling! When I have had a chance to do anything it's been on some older projects, the OSA-1 and my Arado Whiffy and a couple of other things, which I'm trying to finish (am nearly there on a couple..look for the updates). Should get some more done on her this break, I do notice time is starting to slip away from me!!

[Dazey]

Hi Rich,

 

I've just caught up on this GB... your choice of kit is impeccable for a radial engine GB, and the work done so far on the Tojo's engine is fantastic. I'm looking forward to seeing how this progresses.

 

Do you mind me asking what kind of filler you use for resin models? (I've only used a few a/m resin pieces, no full kits)

 

Regards,

David

[trickyrich]

On 11/2/2017 at 11:20 PM, Dazey said:

Do you mind me asking what kind of filler you use for resin models? (I've only used a few a/m resin pieces, no full kits)

 

Hi David, thanks for that. I generally use Tamiya's White filler for just about everything. It works fine on plastic and resin and it gives you a really nice smooth finish. It's one down side is it will shrink and crack if you use too much. That's why I'll generally fill as much of the gap with plastic first, if I'm really lucky I may even get away without needing any filler. If I'm in a hurry Gap-filler or normal CA glue and accelerator, just don't leave it to cure too long else it can be a right pain the clean up!

 

Ok I’m back to this build and have made some solid progress as well!

 

First up I needed to get the cockpit out of the way, as mentioned there are some serious fit issues with the kits cockpit and the Eduard new bits (from Hasegawa model). Somehow I suspect they’ve got the scaling wrong on this model and the cockpit sits a little to high and is a bit too small! I’m not going to get too excited over this and I won’t re-build the whole thing as I do want to finish this one. So there’ll be a bit of bodging going on here, but it shouldn’t be that noticeable……..so after some “bodging” we have this!

 

 

 

I had to open up the cockpit opening as I found it was too small plus change the shape of the front section as well. All in all it doesn’t look too bad. At last now I can fit the wings!

 

I have spent ages on this section just trying to get everything to fit. After a little bit more test fitting I was ready to glue it all together. I need to make a support to hold the wing in the correct position as well as give it some structural strength at the back as well. So out with a scrap resin block.

 

 

 

I had to glue the wing in multiple stages to get everything to sit correctly, I had planned to pin it all but after careful thought that wouldn’t have worked. So out with the CA cement and accelerator.

 

All in all the joins as a lot better than I had expected. Other than the port side join with I filled with plastic rod first, very little filler was needed.

 

 

 

 

 

While I was at it I fitted the control surfaces as well, cleaned up the wheel well openings (before I glued the wing on), and reshaped the wing trailing edge where the lower flaps sit (the flap trailing edge profile is different from the wing trailing edge!!!).

 

Next up the engine area. Quite a bit of the rear of the engine will be seen from the main wheel wells so I needed to “fill” this area up. There are no photos of this area so I’ve had to do some guesswork to make it look a bit busy.

 

 

 

I’ll add some wiring and hoses to finish it off, once painted it’ll look right.

 

One question I do have though is the gun barrels? Would they have been in channels? I can’t imagine they’d have been left open like that and firing over the exposed cylinders?? Again there are no photos of this section so I’ll have to have a look to see what was done on other aircraft.

 

It’s starting to look really nice when fitted. The next hard job will be to make and fit the shrouding/ducting that sits behind the engine, this need to join the fuselage. So to do this I need to fit the firewall but not the engine, that’s not going to be an easy task!!

 

 

 

Ok how does she look, awesome!!! I have her sitting beside me as I writing this and I can't help but like her. All the work involved in test fitting has paid off. For quite a difficult model she’s turning out very nice.

 

 

 

 

I hope to have her ready for painting by the end of this break. I want to finish her in time so I’ll push my other projects to one side for a bit. I think I'm getting my Mojo back!!! 

[modelling minion]

Excellent work Rich!

Great to see you back in the saddle again and with your mojo returning. I look forward to seeing some paint on this one.

[Roberto]

What a beautiful machine it was. Great progress!

[trickyrich]

I’m a week late with this update, but it sort of matches what went on. Spent an awful lot of time on stuff which I found out to my horror was a complete waste of time!!!!   The key word here is “RESEARCH”!!! Anyway on with it.

 

I looked at the main gear and really wished I hadn’t, it was pretty rough and basic, so after lots of filing and cleaning up plus some Eduard PE it sort of now looks like the proper thing! While I was there I threw away the wheel covers, they were so over scaled in thickness, and made new one with card and detailed with PE.

 

 

Ok the next ½ dozen pictures are now really a complete waste of time but you can see what I was originally planning.

 

The engine, this really needed to go in very soon, but the area behind needed detailing……… With no proper pictures I decided to add bits and pieces to give it that busy look, everything was pre-drilled as well for wiring and pipes to be fitted once painted. I also started fitting extra bracing around the firewall for extra support and to fill in some small holes.

 

 

I wasn’t sure how the gun barrels would fit/look/go through this area so after Iooking at other similar aircraft for ideas I came up with this. Not a 100% right (probably closer to 30%) but you couldn’t really see then from below so I didn’t get too worried about it.

 

 

It sort of looks the part now, the carburetor wouldn’t be fitted as it can’t be seen.

 

 

Next the exhaust pipes, what pieces of rubbish they were!! One set fitted sort of but the other set were completely out, they had just mirrored the RHS set. This resulted in the pipe lengths from the cylinder heads being complete wrong (short when they should have been long and visa versa, plus one complete pipe at the wrong end!!). I had considered rebuilding them because they were so bad but I didn’t have the time and again you really would have seen them. So I cut off the offending extra lengths and one complete pipe, the missing one was at the top and not seen!

 

 

They still look rubbish to me but they will now at least fit, I’ll use steel pins (and CA cement) to hold them in place I hadn't removed the "extra" pipe yet in this photo..

 

So with some test fitting (lots actually), they sort of fit and look quite good.

 

 

 

 

The cowling opening I discovered was too small and not circular at all. So this required quite a bit of work, while I was at it I started cleaning up the insides ready for painting.

 

It this stage I had finished both mains gear legs and had finished filling in the gaps in the wheel wells so was ready to start painting this area. Again reference photos of this area are not really available so I starting look at photo’s of the wheel wells of her sister aircraft, the Ki-43.

 

I’m not sure what came first the swearing or crying!!! /

 

The wheel wells bays are covered inside!!! I did a quick check of all the other Japanese radial engine aircraft and they were all the same. The inside of the wheel bays were all covered in some form so you cannot see into the area behind the engine at all!! I had wasted soooo much time on this. I could have just left off the cowling completely, but I would have had to have made so much new extra stuff (and a lot of it guess work) that I would never have finished her in time……or this year for that matter.

 

So out with most of the new bits, rebuilt and shaped the wheel bays with card, and then superglue and the engine was in, finished! I still need to add a wee bit of detail to the bays, but it’s now pretty much done.

 

 

A proper test fit now with the exhausts and the engine in its correct place, now she looks like the photos.

 

 

 

Lots of extra small bits finally done as well…..

 

…some guides for the flaps were made and fitted (not supplied)…..

 

 

......... some PE vent details........

 

 

…..rudder actuator covers and PE bits (again not supplied), it’s quite unusual how far forward the elevators sit compared to the rudder! ….

 

 

……..landing light, it looks cloudy but that’s because the inside was quite dirty. It has been polished but I’ll dip it in Klear.

 

 

Finally lots of time spent one my least fav chore…..re-scribing! A lot of the wing panel lines didn’t line up at all top and bottom so I had to do a lots of work here scribing and filling and then re-scribing. She was then undercoated with Mr Surface 1200 rubbed back and the process restarted again!

 

 

 

 

The run around with the wheel bays/engine bay was not something I really needed, it’s really held up the build. Plus to make matter worse I have to take the Misses away on the weekend this GB ends so I’m just left with the coming break to finish her…..the plane that is! I’m so close to the paint stage at the moment, the only other bit of concern it the cockpit, the vacform canopy is pretty rubbish and doesn’t fit all the well either.

 

I’ve got a colour scheme planned and all marking other than a pair of decals will be painted, so that should make life a bit easier. Reckon it’s going to be 50/50 if I complete her in time……..we’ll see.   

[Whirly]

You're doing an enormous amount of work with this kit, It seems at least to have restored greatly your modelling mojo. Keep up with with the good work!

[trickyrich]

12 hours ago, Whirly said:

You're doing an enormous amount of work with this kit, It seems at least to have restored greatly your modelling mojo. Keep up with with the good work!

Thanks, I'm actually really enjoying this build, even if I'm getting carried away in areas I didn't need to!! There's still an awful lot of work to do and so little time, it's going to be very tight. That said I won't rush her just to finish, I'm enjoying the build so I don't want to ruin it!!

 

Building resin models is always a bit of a challenge but so much fun. I'm planning to build quite a few next year.

[trickyrich]

Ok a bit of update while paint is drying!! Am making good progress but it’s still 50/50 whether I’ll finish in time or not!

 

Ok now it was time for the cowling, this was the last major part of the build and something I wasn’t really looking forward.

 

The inside of the cowling was first painted aluminum before a light coat of the “Aotake” primer, sort of a clear metallic blue. It’s still a bit dark for my liking but it’ll be ok in the cowling, for the wheels bays I’ll thin it down even more.

 

 

This done it was not time for the real fun and games……fitting the cowling. To help make this process a bit easier I adding some small pins to help align and give it some strength.

 

 

Once fitted I found some serious problems with the shape of it (actually the whole model has some serious shape issues!!). The under side of the cowl had a huge bulge in it. The profile should have been a continuous smooth flowing curve from the lip of the cowling to the fuselage, with no bulging. Looking down on the fitted cowling I also noticed that it bulged on the LHS as well. After some careful grinding and sanding back I got the shapes I was after.

 

 

 

Time to fit the canopy and even more dramas here. The frames on the  canopy are not really in the right place, the from section of the canopy is the wrong profile and the whole canopy is far too find! Unfortunately they only supply one canopy and there are now AM ones available so I had to use this one. I ended up opening the canopy as well as it helps hide some of these issues. Also to help it fit I grooved the fuselage where is sits so as to help it sit properly. The one nice thing was that CA cement doesn’t make it go cloudy and holds it firmly in place….a bit to firmly!! I really needed to adjust the angle of the front section of the canopy as it wasn’t quite right, but found wasn’t going to come loose without damaging it……… oh well!

 

 

Painting time, up to now I’d been using Mr. Surface 1200 to prep and clean up the surfaces as well as finding any faults in the finish…..and there were plenty of those. So first real coat of paint, Model Master Metalizer Non-Buffing Aluminum.

 

 

This gives it a nice base for the main colours plus allows me to “chip” away the top coats. Plus it has a horrible habit of showing up faults as well….more filling and sanding was required around the flap area.

 

 

Next up masking for the Anti-glare panel and wing leading edges and painting.

 

It actually came out really well. If it had have been a plastic model I may have just left it as it is in a NMF, but there are issues that need to be hidden!

 

 

Once this has dried a bit I’ll make of these area and start the main colours, IJA Grey for the underside and IJA Green for the top. For this aircraft the top colour is not completely solid and not a pattern finish, it’s a sort of mixture. I’m not 100% sure how I’m going to do it yet, all I know is it’s very patchy.

[trickyrich]

Ok a double update today. I have finished the major painting!!

 

After masking the bottom colour went on nicely and I even tried to do a bit of post panel fading as well, a bit hard to see in this photo.

 

 

Then more masking and ready for the top colour. The painting was easy, trying to work out the pattern and how to do it was hard! The pictures I had weren’t much good. But from the description it appears to have been a Green mottle over NMF originally then later the Grey undersides were added and the upper surfaces sprayed over in green.

 

 

Interestingly the cowling was lightly mottled all over as well as the gear door. Unfortunately there are now pictures or drawings showing how far the mottle extended on the underside. Maybe the gear doors were just done for when the aircraft was on the ground??

 

 

 

There’s a wee bit of overspray here and there, some I’ll fix and some I’ll leave.

 

Once it’s had overnight to dry I’ll do the canopy and the Hinomaru’s, these will be painted. Then it’ll be time to rough her up!

[trickyrich]

Well another busy day and lots of progress, the paintings almost done and she looks awesome!

 

First off some of the other bits! The main gear appeared to be too long for the doors, the main wheel should be hidden by most of the door, which in this case it didn’t. The main gear is too long in all sections. The only proper way to fix this would be to rebuild the whole gear….not an option in this case. So I ended up cutting a section out of the lower part of the main struts, the wheel still fitted but it would now sit correctly. As the main gear is white metal I ended up drilling and fitting a steel pin into the section I cut to add strength.

 

 

While I was at it I rebuilt the main gear doors as the first attempt was pretty much crap! At this time I discovered that the smaller flap doors should have been flat at their hinge and not rounded as with the model, another error with the model. As this “squared” section is quite small I’ve built it into the door itself. Once the door is fitted most of this section will be hidden and a small bit of filler and paint will finished the job.

 

 

 

Ok the main part of the day was spent applying the markings/Hinomura’s and starting the weathering process. The marks were actually really hard to do, as they would need to be masked first, then painted on. Masking and painting a round circle sounds really easy……..but actually it’s not! They then required a coat of white first before the red, else the red would have been too dark. While I was at it I did the canopy as well.

 

Once this was complete it was time to start the weather process, I was worried the whole time that the paint would lift off when I took the masks off. But actually the opposite was the case, it took quite sometime to remove the paint I wanted, which actually allowed me to control the process a bit more, and the results….

 

 

 

Am really happy with the results! Compared to all the photo’s I can find of the different aircraft of that time I’ve managed to get it just about right! Fit this aircraft at one particular time….hard to say as there are no photos! But she looks weathered and a bit beaten up. The side marking maybe a bit much but I’ll patch that up, again something I’ve seen in photos.

 

 

 

Next up is a clear coat and the pair of decals that need to go into the tail. Then I can start the final weathering process.

 

There’s still quite a bit to do but there’s now a good possibility That I’ll finished her in time, will know more tomorrow.

[trickyrich]

Well this is the final update for this build, for a while I wasn’t at all sure I’d finish her in time!!

 

There’s still a little bit to do on her but most of which are just the final touches here and there. This is where I got to before I headed back to work.

 

Painting the prop really gave me a bit of grief! I can do spirals ok but concentric rings and getting them even!  In the end distress saved me stress!! Just some fading and stuff to do to finish it off.

 

 

 

The main gear is done and fitted, I ended up having to cut some more off the length of each leg (at the top) as they were still too long. Overall the proportions of the gear are not right, replacing with scratch built units would be the way to go if time was permitting! But they don’t look too bad.

 

  

 

Squaring off the bottom of the inner wheel well doors worked out quite nicely as well. Those Master Model gun barrels are amazing! The barrels were dipped in Uschi’s Burnishing Agent for Brass, that gives it a nice gunmetal finish.

 

 

 

I only needed to use 2 decals and both gave me grief as well! They both had the white background to the decal out of register, not an easy fix. I carefully cut as much as I could off then had to hand paint off the rest. A mask would have been easier but I probably would have pulled the decal off. I did think of masking and painting it on but I was worried about getting the shape and proportions wrong!

 

 

 

The weathering is almost complete (~95%), the “fresh” aluminum now has a nice slightly oxidized look while the paint looks nice and faded. I won’t do too much more, I mostly just have to fix up a couple of mistakes I made and paint splodges. You can see one on the tail in the above photo.

 

 

 

After all the messing around with the engine you really can’t see much of it at all which is a shame! But the bit of detailing you can see certainly helps. The prop is just sitting there at the moment so it's not quite level.

 

 

 

And the final bit left……the pitot tube will be replaced, that white metal one is horrible! The radio mast has been cleaned up and I’ve put a pin in the base to give it some strength when fitted. Apart from a couple more items as well to do that’s it.

 

 

Things going well I finish her up and post the final photos on Thursday. I’m soooo looking forward to getting her finished