Stew Dapple

Me too, your intro's alone are worth the price of admission, and would be even if the price of admission wasn't free Cheers, Stew

Hannants are showing them on their 'New Arrivals' page Cheers, Stew

Nice choice Roger, I built a couple of the ICM Gladiators and I don't recall any problems building them at all, so hopefully you'll find it the same Cheers, Stew

Thanks very much gents Indeed Rich, but I failed at it, and it currently sits, around 95% complete, on top of it's box, half-primed and going nowhere, mutely reproaching me every time I go into the modelling room, so in more than one way it could be argued that I would have been better off not buying it in the first place Anyway let's hope I'm not just reinforcing that mistake As I hoped I did get the fuselage halves together, a little manipulation and persuasion was required but with a series of little clicks, it all fell in place: I had a little seamwork to do along the rear spine, mostly directly aft of the gunner's position, and the rear underside but easily enough dealt with with a little Mr,Surfacer and a quick work-over with the Infini 1000, then 2500 sanding sponge-stick things, with a final polish with the 4000-grit polisher stick. I hope that will be the last I see of the seams but we'll see when the paint goes on. I did remember to fit the gunner's parachute shelf with the spare ammo drum for the 20mm and the radio set underneath before I closed the fuselage, but I forgot to photograph it, you can just about see it in situ here: Also I used the kit's transfers for the props; it would have been easy enough to paint the props yellow and mask off the tip-stripes before applying the brown, but cutting out six identical 1mm x 2mm rectangles for the prop-balance(?) markings near the hub just seemed too much like hard work, and with a couple of applications of Ultimate Decal Setting stuff and a coat of Xtracolor satin varnish they turned out adequately: In between all that I've been getting the undercarriage bits together so should make some progress today. First however I must gird my loins and suck in my stomach for a trip with the dog to The Tinsmith on the Old Hawkhill for a massive Full Scottish Breakfast (for me, the dog only gets to watch and wait for whatever morsels my magnanimity allows). There are a lot of nice places to eat in Dundee but The Tinsmith is the only dog-friendly one I know of that also does an enormous fry-up with all the trimmings so it has become one of our Saturday traditions to head off there when they open... agh, I've just realised that's nearly six hours away and I'm starving already. So, anyway, back later if I haven't drowned in my own drool by then Cheers, Stew

Aw that's looking dead good mate, nice work and a lovely primer coat Overall dark green? Should be a nice easy painting job then, best of luck Cheers, Stew

They both look good mate I know for me it's practically mandatory to sag at the end of a build and remember the vision of modelling perfection you had at the start of the build, and maybe you are feeling that too, but you did a really good job on both and you got them both finished: that's a bankable win. I dislike fiddly landing gear too I'll take a big square peg that you can't go wrong with over a 'to-scale' fitting point any day of the week Cheers, Stew

Deep back-up, I like your style Dennis Cheers, Stew

Thank you gents So, farewell lovely interior details, I shall not see you again. Hasegawa do get some negative mentions for the interiors of some of their 1/72 kits, some of which are, in fairness, a bit basic. I've been very impressed with the detail in this kit and if this is the standard for their 1/48 kits, I can see the attraction: Even better (at the risk of jinxing mysefl) test-fitting indicates that it all fits inside the fuselage halves Before joining the two halves, I drilled out the hole for the upper-fuselage anti-collision warning light. That's not me showboating, the instructions note that you should do it at this stage if you want to use the clear part provided for this; you could probably get almost as good an effect by painting the moulded circle silver and dabbing a blob of clear red on it, but you know, since Hasegawa made the effort I felt I ought to as well: I backed the hole with some self-adhesive aluminium tape, which should provide a nice shiny backing for the light as well as preventing the clear part dropping into the fuselage cavity once it is installed ... and that's where we are at the moment. Hopefully I'll get the fuselage halves together today, if not, the weekend beckons seductively... Cheers, Stew

I like it. And that paint chipping on the port wing leading edge... *kisses fingertips like an Italian chef* Cheers, Stew

The A-Model kit recommends a Humbrol colour which is their US Interior Green so there's that... personally as it's an Army machine and not a Navy one I would go with a darkish grey-blue but I think you're pretty much free to use anything you think feasible without anyone being able to say you're definitely wrong Cheers, Stew

Thanks Pete, it's good to know that the brown props are viable The Airscale instrument dial transfers arrived on Tuesday and they are beautiful I applied them over the moulded detail on the instrument panel and with a drop of Ultimate Decal Setting Solution they just plastered themselves onto it. I used the Zoukei Mura Concept Notes book of the Ki-45 as a reference and added the instrument transfers accordingly though I confess I deviated from Airscale's list of what the decals actually represented - or whether they were IJA or IJN instruments - and used those that most resembled the pictures in the ZM book. With most of the detail painting now done I'm almost ready to install the interior parts: Apart from the instrument transfers and a couple of sets of Eduard IJA etched seatbelts this is what you get in the box. The ejector-pin marks you can see are plentiful, but will be covered by shelves or side consoles, or completely hidden in some other way. There were 5 or 6 small 'positive' ejector-pin marks on the sidewall inserts for the gunner's position and I did take the time to remove those. I don't think I'll get a lot done today, it's my 'long' day of the working week, but hopefully tomorrow, if not the weekend, I'll make some progress Cheers, Stew

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