Stew Dapple

Nice work Noel, the extra effort you put into that really paid off, she's a beauty Cheers, Stew

Lovely job Christer, she's a beauty It might be an odd detail to focus on, but the weathering on the insides of the mudguards - exceptional Cheers, Stew

Here's my seventh completion of the year; Hasegawa's 1/32 Nakajima Ki-44 Shoki 'Tojo' in the markings an aircraft of the Dokoritsu 47th Hiko Chutai (47th Independent Air Squadron), formed to operationally test the Ki-44, and which became unofficially known as the Kawasemi Butai (Kingfisher Force). According the the kit instructions this particular aircraft was flown by Captain Susumu Jinbo, flight leader of the second Hentai (flight), based in Saigon in Vichy French Indo-China in January 1942. The kit was built almost oob but with the wing guns replaced by Master brass barrels and the exhaust outlets replaced by Quickboost resin replacements, purely to avoid having to clean up a seam right down the middle of the inside of the kit parts. It's a very nice kit indeed, assembly was very straightforward so I don't really have much to say about that, the supplied pilot figure is excellent and painted up very nicely, transfers are included for both his aviator's chronograph (on a string around his neck) and his name-tag on the parachute harness – different name-tags are provided for all of the kit's three marking options, which is a nice touch - if you will permit me the indulgence, here he is: I used the Eduard canopy mask set which conveniently provides a complete second set for the front windscreen for the later version without a hole for the telescopic gunsight; I used this as an interior mask and sprayed the canopy inside and out – I had to mask the sliding section interior by hand, but it was worth the effort as the Eduard set gives you exterior masks for the rear part of the sliding canopy with a frame down the middle. As the Hasegawa instructions indicate that this frame is an interior one, I filled the gap in the outside Eduard masks with Tamiya tape cut to length. The rather complex aerial arrangement was made from Infini 110 denier white lycra thread, threaded through a trio of Bobs Buckles eyelets and anchored with a dab of gel superglue. The real aircraft arrived painted in overall IJA #1 Hairyokushoku (Colourcoats ACJ12), the faintly greenish-grey of the IJAAF but they were quickly given a topside coating of brown; what brown this actually was is the subject of some conjecture including the suggestion that this was paint left behind by the French Armee de l'Air and that is a possibility as Saigon had been a French air force base until it's occupation by the Japanese in 1940. If that was the case it could have been either Terre de Sienne Naturel or Ombre Calcinée, but in the end I went with Colourcoats ACJ13 IJN H2 Early War Camo Brown, only noticing afterwards that this was a Navy colour and not an Army one but anyway, it is an earth brown colour and I think I will get away with it as long as I keep my big mouth shut. The scheme in question is sometimes depicted as a heavy mottle and sometimes as a solid colour. From the few photographs available it is clear both that it was indeed a heavy mottle and that it wore quite quickly off areas such as walkways; I attempted to duplicate this by a heavy mottle over the base colour with various small areas given a dab of masking fluid beforehand and that rubbed off afterwards. Both the mottle and the paint chipping might be a bit over- or under-done but it's about as good as I could do it and I think it looks okay. I'm not terribly happy with the Aotake effect in the wheelbays but it was my third attempt at it and again, I decided that it was as good as it was going to get. The pilot figure was painted mostly with Citadel acrylic paint and washes. The kit decals were used and were a little thick but otherwise okay apart from the red-outlined white fuselage band which wasn't quite long enough to meet up, I used a small piece of another white fuselage band on the transfer sheet (noted as 'not for use' in the instructions) to patch up the gap and then repainted the red outline on the replacement part. The final coat was Xtracolor Flat Varnish and then the guns, navigation lights and aerial wire were added. While I am not in the habit of displaying my models with the canopy open, in this case it simply fitted better open than closed, so I turned a necessity into a virtue and left it open. Reference material was largely sourced from Nick Millman's “Ki-44 'Tojo' Aces of World War 2” published by Osprey which I recommend highly if you are building this, or the later versions, of the Shoki. Apologies for the vast amount of verbiage accompanying this one Cheers, Stew

Nice masking mate Nice looking dinner too Nice Blur reference as well Cheers. Stew

I might start saying that, sotto voce, any tme I walk away from anyone, ever Cheers, Stew

That really is looking impressive mate - works exceptionally well on that glossy coat Cheers, Stew

That's a beautiful kit Dennis, you'll love it Cheers, Stew

Um, cloth? I don't use one, which could explain why all my models have dog-hairs and dust particles stuck in the paintwork, but no lint Looks Like a nice business trip too, good to have you back though Cheers, Stew

A beautiful model beautifully presented on a lovely base; good work Stuart Cheers, Stew

Easy for me to say I know, since I don't have to do it (nor could, truth be told) but I think you should persevere with the brass ammo boxes, having already built up one pom-pom with them, if you don't there is the risk that every time you look at the completed model you might wish you had done it for the others... But like I say, I'm not the one who has to do it They do look rather lovely by the way, good work Cheers, Stew

Looking good Ced For what it's worth, and if it's not already too late, I don't think the walkway markings* would have been repainted over the invasion stripes either, as the stripes were only intended to be temporary anyway... Cheers, Stew * or indeed any of the stencils that happened to have been painted over by the stripes

Ooh that's looking seriously nice PC Glad to see you're making such good progress; for a while there I thought you were suffering the same mojo malaise I was, what with the new job and all. good work mate Cheers, Stew

The Works do sets of six nylon brushes very cheaply, they're actually at least as good as the ones that come with the Airfix Starter Sets. I've got three jam-jars full of brushes of varying expense and the donkey-work is almost always done with these brushes from The Works - because it really doesn't matter if I wear them out or use them to apply Micro-Plastic-Weld or whatever., Most of my expensive brushes that I was saving for 'Sunday Best' have never actually been used at all Cheers, Stew

Nice work! Those holes too big for a rat-tail file? Asking for a friend... Cheers, Stew

Lovely job mate, she's a little beauty Cheers, Stew