Jump to content

Hasegawa 1/72 Kawanishi H8K2 'Emily' (new tool)


Recommended Posts

Thanks very much gents, it's been going sweet as you like so far :)

 

I have what might be termed an abusive relationship with Eduard but in the end they know I will always come crawling back. I spent a sum of money on a set of masks for the various little windows on the wings and fuselage that are not provided in the Hasegawa set included with the kit (which only covers the main canopy, turrets and fuselage blisters on the presumption, I imagine, that no-one is so lazy as to need masks for some little windows that are mostly square and could probably be hand-masked in a matter of minutes  - well in your face, Hasegawa!)

 

DSCN6496.jpg

 

So anyway I hate myself for it but on the other hand it's like I paid someone seven quid to mask the little windows for me, which I totally would have done if I could have found someone prepared to do it for that price.

 

The inside of the lower wings have some flashed-over holes that need clearing to allow the fitment of either the bomb-rack or the torpedo-rack - I went for the latter, partly because more dakka and partly because I will fit bombs to the H8K1 kit (which is now on its way from Japan) if I ever get round to actually building it.

 

DSCN6492.jpg

 

DSCN6494.jpg

 

There is a landing light to be fitted into the interior of each wing and this is angled downward at about 45 degrees; not the easiest parts to install but if you note the position and orientation of the light on the instructions it can be done without too much hair-pulling. The instructions again suggest that the interior of the wing should be the same green as the cockpit and I again ignored this and painted them Aluminium, because that's how I roll. I also added 'lenses' to the lightbulb with Micro Kristal Klear as it is the sort of thing that makes me feel like a slightly better modeller, albeit at the price of perhaps feeling a slightly worse human being:

 

DSCN6500.jpg

 

Once they had dried, I assembled the wings, bringing me to the end of stage 2 of the instructions, plus a little bit further as the tailplanes were the only remaining parts on those sprues, so I assembled those as well in order to throw the sprues and feel like I was making extra progress :D 

 

DSCN6504.jpg

 

Next stage involves fitting the engine mounts and exhausts, then the engines.

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

  • Like 11
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

he inside of the lower wings have some flashed-over holes that need clearing to allow the fitment of either the bomb-rack or the torpedo-rack - I went for the latter, partly because more dakka

 

Torpedoes always look cool.

 

2 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

[...] also added 'lenses' to the lightbulb with Micro Kristal Klear as it is the sort of thing that makes me feel like a slightly better modeller, albeit at the price of perhaps feeling a slightly worse human being:

 

I must be a terrible human, I sometimes add the lever that adjusts the height of a Spitfire seat... at least the lenses will be seen.

  • Like 1
  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Made me smile Stew, as always :D

I'm with you both on adding small details. It no doubt adds something to the kit but also gives me that 'craftsman' feeling, if only for a short time.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great work on the wings and tail plane. I completely subscribe to your addition of the lenses. I'm also prone to do such wicked things, so now I feel less lonely and guilty :P

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

  • Like 1
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

The instructions again suggest that the interior of the wing should be the same green as the cockpit and I again ignored this and painted them Aluminium, because that's how I roll.

 

  • Like 1
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/11/2017 at 6:17 PM, Stew Dapple said:

Thanks very much gents, it's been going sweet as you like so far :)

I also added 'lenses' to the lightbulb with Micro Kristal Klear as it is the sort of thing that makes me feel like a slightly better modeller, albeit at the price of perhaps feeling a slightly worse human being:

Stew

They're not mutually exclusive you know Stew, you can be a good human & have lights with Kristal Klear. :D Its looking fantastic, its the sort of model I'd love to indulge myself in but am becoming increasingly aware I probably possibly couldn't afford it & almost certainly wouldn't have space for it. Things might change though. :)

Steve.

Edited by stevehnz
fripping Kapitals. :(
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/11/2017 at 9:17 AM, Beard said:

Torpedoes always look cool.

Yes - phallic too. Intimidates the enemy you know; makes them feel inadequate :D 

 

On 10/11/2017 at 9:17 AM, Beard said:

... at least the lenses will be seen.

Only if you view the model from beneath...

 

On 10/11/2017 at 5:34 PM, CedB said:

It no doubt adds something to the kit but also gives me that 'craftsman' feeling, if only for a short time

Thanks Ced, it must be that fleeting hit that we are addicted to... :)

 

On 10/11/2017 at 10:17 PM, jrlx said:

I'm also prone to do such wicked things, so now I feel less lonely and guilty

Happy to help Jaime, although I'm not sure either of us should feel less guilty just because the other does it :lol: 

 

Thanks for the vid PC, I don't think we ever had that programme in the UK, very much the sort of thing my father would watch on a Saturday afternoon every week for years and every week when it had finished would declare it "a load of squit"*. It raised the reflection that I didn't notice when I was living through it but god, weren't the 90's so much nicer than now?

 

23 hours ago, stevehnz said:

its the sort of model I'd love to indulge myself in but am becoming increasingly aware I probably possibly couldn't afford it & almost certainly wouldn't have space for it

The kit itself was less than £50 so at the upper limits of what I would happily pay, it was the shipping and customs charges that made it particularly expensive... but the other option was not buying it, which I just couldn't bear. As for where I can put it when it is done, I have deliberately not considered that as there is no space for it - however the wings seem to be removable after completion so perhaps there is hope there.

 

Onwards then; I made up the engine mounts - the oil cooler intakes are separate parts so there is a finly-moulded mesh on the grilles and no ugly and hard-to-reach seam to clean up:

 

DSCN6509.jpg

 

Hasegawa are one of the older model kit companies, dating back to 1961 I think, so several years older even than me, and they clearly have used their years of experience wisely here. There are a few other nice touches like that I have discovered; the wing-tip navigation lights are moulded into one half of the wing so you don't need to sand them off when you are cleaning up the joins:

 

DSCN6513.jpg

 

The fit has been exemplary so far:

 

DSCN6511.jpg

 

Now I make no apology for it, I am a very lazy man and I always have been; my natural state is one of repose but I have had the mixed fortune be be born and raised in a world where such behaviour (or at least the excessive practice of it) is frowned upon. Nonetheless I am always looking for an easier way of doing things and I am prepared to share the benefits of my years of training in this to enlighten my more active brethren. Hasegawa indicate on the intstructions that you should fit the exhausts at this point, then the engines:

 

DSCN6517.jpg

 

See those exhausts? Like a giant model of a nanotech spider. Bit of a pain to paint all those once the painting is done, no? So I am not going to do that, having tried it out and finding that it worked, what I am going to do to simply press the engines in place - they click on like LegoTM - then when all the painting is done, click them off again and attach the painted exhausts before finally gluing the engines on. 

 

DSCN6519.jpg

 

See?

 

That's about it for the wings for now apart from the landing-light covers and a couple of little observation windows to fit. Next stage of the instructions is the beginnings of the interior, just in time for the weekend so I should get some done as long as I can stay out of the pub... 

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

* Despite the rather scatalogically onomatopoeic feel of the word, it is an East Anglian colloquialism simply meaning "rubbish" :D

  • Like 12
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree with Ced: very precise and clean work. And your idea for painting the wings and nacelles without the exhausts is very clever :)

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 hours ago, CedB said:

Very nice work Stew - neat! Looking forward to more at the weekend although I know how tempting the pub can be :D

Thank you Ced :) - yes, my pub is especially tempting as they let you take your dog in with you so I don't have to feel guilty about leaving him at home - he's quite a favourite there and always gets a lot of attention, which is what he lives for. I like to think of it as a socialisation experience for him, with alcohol for me thrown in as a bonus :D

 

13 hours ago, jrlx said:

... your idea for painting the wings and nacelles without the exhausts is very clever :)

 Thanks Jaime, if not really clever, the idea is possessed of a certain low animal cunning :D

 

Some reference material arrived yesterday:

 

DSCN6523.jpg

 

Thought I might as well, no point in painting up those lovely little crew figures and having my future appreciation of the model ruined by finding out later that I had painted their life-jackets the wrong colour or something... 

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/13/2017 at 12:18 AM, Stew Dapple said:

Thanks for the vid PC, I don't think we ever had that programme in the UK, very much the sort of thing my father would watch on a Saturday afternoon every week for years and every week when it had finished would declare it "a load of squit"*. It raised the reflection that I didn't notice when I was living through it but god, weren't the 90's so much nicer than now?

 

In truth I didn't enjoy the 1990s a great deal, as they contained most of my (exceptionally awkward) teenage years, but there was a certain splendid desperate wretchedness to much of what was produced then, sort of like they'd run out of ideas before the end of the century and were scrambling to keep it going a little longer.

  • Like 3
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll see your 90s & raise them with my 70s, at least you didn't have to endure trying to grow sideburns  & wear bell bottoms & tie dyed t-shirts. :)

Steve.

Edited by stevehnz
Silly old gits that can't spell.
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, stevehnz said:

I'll see your 90s & raise them with my 70s, at least you didn't have to endure trying to grow sideburns  & wear bell bottoms & tie dyed t-shirts. :)

Steve.

The 1970s remind me a great deal of now, in fact: the transition from a generation that had dominated the last thirty years of politics, a confused and angry electorate alarmed by a rapidly changing world that was erasing old livelihoods and certainties, and of course, here in the USA, racial unrest that even a modicum of goodwill could have prevented. On the other hand Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker as Dr Who, The Sweeney, The Professionals, Phantoms, Lightnings, Vulcans...

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There're quite a few things I'm not proud of what my generation has/ is leaving as a legacy for yours & my kids generations. Let's hope the next lot are better at the goodwill than mine have been. Though we hear a lot of today's young being members of the "me" generation, full of a feeling of entitlement. My lot, the baby boomers are the ones that spawned neo liberal economics & are going to be the generation that leaves subsequent generations with less than they had. :(

Sorry Stew, better leave it there, or I'll get your thread locked. He started it. :D

Steve.

  • Like 5
  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 9/4/2017 at 5:31 AM, Stew Dapple said:

This will be my entry for this Group Build: the new-tool Hasegawa Kawanishi H8K2 'Emily':

Dear Stew,

 

This must be the definition of kit envy for this GB! The new-tool Emily looks fantastic, and I can't wait to see what you manage to achieve with it.

 

I will probably be able to resist buying this kit, at least for a while (the size and cost help a lot there), but if Hasegawa come out with a new-tool Mavis, I'll have no willpower.

 

Best of luck with your build.


Regards,

David

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks PC, Steve. I myself came of age in the 1980s, the decade that brought forth Yuppies and untrammelled greed so am not really in a position to either poke fun at or criticise any other decade to which anyone might feel sentimentally attached. If I can say anything in defence of the 70s and 80s at least some decent music was produced and most of the social change that happened (and the ongoing repercussions of it) were neither the fault nor the intention of most of the ordinary people just getting on with their lives much as people are doing today. I'm not sure how today will look from the rearward-facing perspective of 20 years time, I hope it will be simply an amusing abnormality :lol: 

 

10 hours ago, Dazey said:

... but if Hasegawa come out with a new-tool Mavis, I'll have no willpower

Thank you David, that's pretty much how I felt about this kit, but I was also hoping if the Emily sold well enough Hasegawa might consider re-tooling the Mavis, in which case I'd be in the same boat as you :D 

 

Another one of those little ideas I mentioned before - Hasegawa have shaped one of the little moulding bobbles on each clear part so that you can tell the direction it should be fitted in:

 

DSCN6527.jpg

 

A lot of the windows would be reversable anyway but some of them are oriented so it does make a virtue of a necessity. I fitted the wing observation/inspection windows:

 

DSCN6528.jpg

 

... and made some sponge plug-masks for the engines using cut-offs from a washing-up sponge:

 

DSCN6530.jpg

 

I had planned to get some paint on the fuselage interior by the end of the weekend but there turned out to be quite a lot of interior and I wanted to get them all put together so I can paint them in one session. First was the fore-and-aft fuselage bulkhead and wing-spars:

 

DSCN6533.jpg

 

Then I started assembling the cockpit parts - this radio:

 

DSCN6536.jpg

 

... is moulded hollow at the back, and the back faces forward so could be visible through the canopy - I blocked off the back with a little plastic card:

 

DSCN6538.jpg

 

... but of course when the rest of the interior is fitted it turns out the hollow back of the radio would probably have been hidden by the Navigator's chair. Still, it only took a minute. The cockit interior has a lot of detail:

 

DSCN6540.jpg

 

DSCN6542.jpg

 

Hasegawa do provide transfers for the IP, the radio and the Flight Engineers panel; Eduard do a rather nice etched set if you really wanted to go to town on it.

 

Here's the rear fuselage section with the platform for the dorsal gunner and the walkway and waist gunner's position:

 

DSCN6544.jpg

 

... and here's how it fits in:

 

DSCN6545.jpg

 

You won't be able to see any of this once the fuselage is closed up.

 

I also assembled the interior parts of the nose section (I remembered to drill out the holes for the radar array too):

 

DSCN6547.jpg

 

... and finally here's the rear gunner's station, just tacked in so I can spray the interior colour:

 

DSCN6550.jpg

 

I can't help but think that thing on the back wall of the turret looks like a giant toilet-paper dispenser... :hmmm:

 

Anyway that's the interior parts mostly stuck, some can be popped out again for ease of painting later... hopefully I can get some paint on this week.

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

That's a nice-looking interior and some neat work.

 

4 minutes ago, Stew Dapple said:

I can't help but think that thing on the back wall of the turret looks like a giant toilet-paper dispenser... 

 

Well, it's quite a walk to the loo from there so it would make sense.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, Stew Dapple said:

 I hope it will be simply an amusing abnormality :lol: 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

Stew

Certainly the way my kids view the decades of my youth, long may that continue. :unsure:

The Emily is looking really good Stew. I'm going to enjoy watching this. :)

Steve

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice interior Stew, good job.

There's some really nice detail on the kit isn't there? Looks like value for money!

Looking forward to your usual smart paint job, especially on those crew figures.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks very much gents; apart from the section between the waist/dorsal gunners' and the tail gunner's positions there is detailing for most of the interior and it is convincing enough for me. Ced - now the interior parts are together I can start putting the crew in their relevant positions. I wanted to do as much of this as possible so that I can attach the pilots' arms when they are sitting in front of the controls and make sure it looks like they are holding the control-wheels and not just vaguely waving at them; the same goes for the gunners and the guns.

 

In the meantime I mixed up some interior green. Hasegawa themselves are a bit vague about the colour, suggesting a 50% mix of Mitsubishi Interior Green and the other 50% one of three different dark greens, so there is some room for conjecture there. I mixed up a tin comprising of about 50% Colourcoats ACRN28 RAF Interior Grey-green and 50% ARB14 Dark Olive Green and I'm happy enough with how it came out (at least in the absence of a more precise colour description of the original interior). I mixed up a whole tin partly for the remaining items to be painted - the canopy/turret framing, etc) partly for when I build the H8K1 (which has just left the ParcelForce depot in Coventry today! :D) and finally because my concoction is actually a good-enough match for Nakajima Interior Green too. 

 

The instructions are also a bit vague about which parts of the interior are painted Aluminium, but after studying for some time it seems it is the sidewalls of the waist gunners' section, but not the floor, ceiling or bulkheads. It's feasible and in any case a test-fit indicates very little will be visible in the centre section, so that's what I went for. This is where I am now, ready to start the detail painting, applying the transfers for the instrument panel, radio gear and Flight Engineer's panel and assembling and test-fitting the crew:

 

DSCN6554.jpg

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice green Stew, well mixed :)

Your post has me wondering about the reasons behind interior greens...

Perhaps 'green' because it's said to be calming (US Submarine study stuff vaguely remembered although a quick search found nothing).

Perhaps painted only in areas where there was a risk of sunlight reflections, either giving away the aircraft or blinding the crew?

 

My mind is wandering a bit this morning, apologies.

 

Looking forward to the crew painting.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great interior painting, Stew. The interior green looks good.

 

I guess the interior greens were used to avoid blinding the crew. Nowadays it's usually some kind of grey, turquoise/blue-green for some Soviet/Russian aircraft or even black in Israeli F-15Is.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm afraid I've largely ignored this GB except for Ced's Gosling ( for Spitfire flight details ) until now, but every  time I look at WIP this one seems to be near the top, so I thought I'd better take a look.

It looks a big beast and as you say, the interior detail is pretty good. As for the green, well by the time it's all joined together most of it will be in shade so it will just look  uh  green. If anyone tells you it's wrong I should invite them to bring you a piece of ' Emily '

to prove it!

 

Cheers

 

John

  • Like 3
  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...