Stew Dapple

She's a little beauty Richard, regarding the rigging, did you drill holes or was it a dab of superglue then hold and hope? Cheers, Stew

That's good progress, she's looking very nice Beaz Cheers, Stew

It would, but I think all the Hasegawa 1/48 ground vehicles were released around 2008 and as far as I know there's been nothing since... it's hard to tell with Hasegawa but after such a long gap I'm inclined to think that it's probably no longer one of their priorities I'm reasonably well along with the interior detail painting, but I sent off for a set of Airscale's Japanese instrument transfers rather than try to use the kit-supplied versions - especially as the kit instructions advise that you remove all the lovely moulded details on the panels and apply the rather disappointing transfers to the flattened slab of plastic. I do like the Airscale transfers a lot, I've used them in 1/32 but never in 1/48 but they are Guaranteed To Be Lovely* So while I was waiting for the transfer set to arrive, I found work for idle hands - the engines. The engine cylinders were sprayed with Alclad Steel and the annular(?) radiators with Alclad Engine Manifold: The push-rods were painted in black with silver tips, and the radiators dry-brushed with Citadel Copper and the silver mounting clamps(?) painted: The reduction gear covers were painted a neutral grey and given a Nuln Oil wash: The poly-caps were fitted and the engine parts assembled: ,,, and the engines fitted into the cowlings: At this point it might be questionable if all that work was really worth it (spoiler alert: no it wasn't) but it kept me occupied for a little while, and as 'all that work' was really only a couple of hour's work I'm still glad I did it Finally, I assembled the props, these have since been sprayed with the N0 'Tea Colour': I'm not 100% sure the props and spinners should be brown for early- to mid-1942 but the Rising Decals illustration shows it so and I don't have any contradictory evidence unless you count a vague feeling as evidence, so I went with the instructions. That's where I'm up to anyway, hopefully I'll get some more done after work Cheers, Stew * They do not come with an actual printed guarantee to be lovely, but they are

Thanks Pat No, the Isuzu bowser is a (compararively) new-tooling, I think the 1/72 kit of that and the starter truck date back to the 70's (ah, 1974 according to Scalemates) and the 1/48 dates from 2008. There's also a standard truck version in 1/48 but no starter truck (and no standard truck in 1/72 as far as I am aware). I got the fuselage internals sprayed: I also sprayed the wheelbays and cowling interiors while I was there, but I'll deal with those as I get to them. Next will be detail-painting and applying instrument decals in the cockpit... Cheers, Stew

She's a beauty Libor, lovely job Cheers, Stew

"Needs moar dakka!"

You should be happy with it, it's looking brutal Though I can't help but feel it has an element of "What you get when you let a Warhammer-obsessed 10-year old design your tank" look about it Should look great with the camo on Cheers, Stew

I did all the pre-painting assembly work that I could, and it was actually rather a lot: Some cockpit parts such as the pilot and gunner's seats, pilot's side consoles and joystick were left off for later detail painting, but a lot of the interior has been assembled so I won't have the hassle of sticking painted parts to painted parts. The engine parts fit into the cowlings via the back, so the cowlings can be assembled and their interiors sprayed. The undercarriage housings are only clicked in place on the wings for spraying and will be properly attached later. Incidentally the instructions advise that you should remove the moulded-on wingtip and tail-tip lights if you wish to use the supplied clear parts (and of course you probably will wish to use them as they will look better than a painted light) - remove them before you join the wing-halves and you will have a much easier job of it: For the interior Hasegawa recommend a mix of two Mr.Color paints to represent the #7 Ohryoku nana go shoku (sort of an olive/khaki drab colour) which was the officially prescribed* colour for Army aircraft interiors from mid-1943, so it may well be correct for the markings provided for the kit, but the aircraft that I will be modelling was operational in mid-1942 so would pre-date the introduction of this colour. From February 1936 until mid-1943 the official** colour for interiors was #3 Hairanshoku (Ash-Indigo colour). It can be seen on a surviving Ki-46 artifact on the Aviation of Japan blog here. Elsewhere on his blog Nick has mentioned RAL7016 Anthracitgrau as a good match for this colour which is handy for me as while Colourcoats does not have #3 Hairanshoku in the range it does have RAL7016 in the German armour range Here are the two colours: The RAL7016 looks pretty black, but compared to the blue-black cowling colour it is lighter and bluer: For the exterior colours, I'll be using #1 Hairyokushoku (Ash-green) and #21 Midori Iro (Leaf green) for the mottle: Early Ki-45's were delivered in overall #1, later they were factory-painted in the 'reticulated' green over grey scheme and even overall #7 (both the OD and Dark Green variants) and also apparently overall dark brown in some cases. I'm not sure what the reason for these variations was, but it is possible to see pictures of Ki-45's where some are painted one way and some another in the same line-up of aircraft. The aircraft I will be representing would have been delivered in overall grey and camouflaged at unit level with the green (or possibly brown as noted in the Rising Decals instructions) mottling. TL;DR - I've got paint and I'm about ready to use it Cheers, Stew * There is evidence of variations in production aircraft to the 'official' painting specifications both before and after the requirement to use #7 for Army aircraft interiors ** Disclaimer as above

She's looking good Roberto Cheers, Stew

Thanks Roberto, hopefully I can make a reasonable-looking model out of it I got the parts for the forward cockpit floor area de-sprued and cleaned up: There are quite a few, plus more for the rear cockpit and the sidewalls. I plan to get as much assembly done as possible prior to painting the interior so I can do it all in one fell swoop, but some parts will have to be left unglued for ease of later detail painting and/or applying instrument-dial transfers (of which there are also quite a few). Cheers, Stew

Looking very nice mate The kit has options for a version with the radar dipoles on the nose and a couple without, is that right? Have you decided on a markings scheme yet? Cheers, Stew

Pree-cisely Or to be exact, "are you going to attempt building an entire airplane just so you can build some highly-flammable truck with a clear conscience?" Cheers, Stew

I've completed four builds for this Group Build and have definitely fulfilled my contractual obligations, so I thought I'd risk something a bit more complex: the Hasegawa 1/48 Kawasaki Ki-45 Kai Koh Toryu. First to unburden myself with a couple of confessions. First, I have this kit because I really wanted to build the Isuzu TX fuel bowser that is rarer than hen's teeth and getting it in this dual-kit set was the only way I was able to do it. Don't judge. Second... I have, unfortunately, what they refer to as 'form' with regards to the Ki-45. It's a lovely looking aircraft and I really wanted to build one, but so far I have failed with both the 1/72 Hasegawa version and the Zoukei Mura 1/32 kit. So this could either be third time lucky or otherwise I should just take a hint. Anyway here's the box: ... and here's what's in it, apart from the aforementioned fuel truck: I don't know if you can see it from this photo, but the carrier film for the kit's decals has taken on a brownish-yellow tinge. It's most apparent here between the thin red stripes and in fact looks worse in real life than it does here: So I shelled out on a couple of extras: The Rising Decals transfers look really nice: It only includes markings for one Koh variant, but it's an interesting scheme for a very early model from the Dokuritsu Hiko 84th Chutai who carried out combat trials with the Ki-45 in China in May-June 1942: I'll have to approximate that mottle as best as I can; I haven't been able to find any photo's online of the actual unit's aircraft. I've made a start and swallowed the first frog: Cheers, Stew

Beautiful work there mate Cheers, Stew

... and the fourth, the Hasegawa 1/48 Type 95 Kurogane 4WD Small Sedan Car (Navy Version): Build thread is here (again, it's the same one as for the Army car above). Cheers, Stew