Antoine
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Thanks Mike, Are there any differences between the kit of the FR.XIV and this one?
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And... off the masks! Looks like the result is acceptable! At least, on the upper side! Because on the lower side, well... I goofed when I applied the masks, as I didn't pay enough attention. The left hinomaru on the picture is completely off center, don't know how I did this... Lesson learned, next time I'll try to mark clearly the white band before applying the hinomaru's masks.
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Here comes the -44! After a coat of primer and a bit of polish, another coat, TS30 this time, decanted in the airbrush as usual. And let it dry about one day.
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I took a deep breath, then put another coat of IJA grey on the moving surfaces, then masked everything (I keep the fuselage as it is) Another coat of TS30, then a second try... Well, that's a bit better, but there's still room for improvement... That said, I'll try to be happy with that for the moment, as I don't believe I can do better for now. Otherwise, all the masks are off, and on this side the results suits me well!
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This is how it should look. Should have started with this...
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to make a long story short... I've tried to hilight some panels., but contrasts is sometime barely perceptible. Stainless steel on the flaps is about the only one noticeable. Off the masks. Grösse katastrophe! The result is quite ok on the fuselage, but it's a complete failure on the wings... Much toot thick, and not straigh enough. The kit nearly had its first flight out of the window earlier than expected, but I took off the masks on the fuselage and underside, and seeing it was ok, I then decided to continue.
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For the moment, focus is on the -61, as it is the biggest paint challenge of the trio. Here we go! A coat of polyurethan acrylic primer, left to dry for 24h, before polishing it with cotton or microfiber cloth. After a last check, I use the good old TS30 sllver leaf spray, decanted straight in the airbrush
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Back to -44 and -61! Anti-glare panel is painted in black, X-18 satin black in fact. Fuselage and upper hinomaru are painted on a white band. It's quite hard to find a white which covers well, my preferences going to skull white from citadel, available in spray (but decanted in an airbrush), or better, GX1 cool white from Mr Color.
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Masking time! I start with hinomaru. I don't have the good size of tamiya tape, so I use a double band. Never had any problems doing that. Hinomaru are cut with a compass, and I use a blob of maskol once the masks are in place to hide the compass hole, so that you don't have a metal point in the middle of the red. And here comes the Ki-27! He will be kind of a stand-alone, as he will be the only one not to have a metal finish. As I've said already, the kit is from 1977! I started this one about ten years ago, and stopped at the cockpit. I choose to let it exactly as I painted it at the time, considering that very few things would be visible inside. FIne with me, as you'll notice that I've lost some parts (the wall behind the seat), and forgot to make others... (See, there's no belt...). IIRC, it was painted blue RLM 25, as the color is a close match to the originaL.
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War has begun! I picked up an old jar of Aeromaster's enamel, of more than 30 years (!), to paint the identifications bands on the wings leading edges. Despite his age, the paint is like an old Scottish Whisky, and keep an incredible finesse! I took the opportunity to prepare the place where the hinomaru will be, so that I'll be able to get a reddish red. The paint's drying time is short, but I leave it for 24 hours before applying the red. I took this one in the Aeromaster acrylic range. On a previous paint session, I "saved" this jar that was nearly dry, but I had a heavy hand on the dilution. Not a big deal, I simply use the lower pressure possible, doing as much passes as needed, taking time between them to let the paint dry. Masks are coming!
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Forgot to add that I did experience some problems with the engine, all due to my fault. There are to ring of cylinders, both with the same part number. I must have goofed somewhere (I suspect I assembled them the wrong way around), cause I ended up having to fit a tube of plastic to act as a guide when driving the engine in place. More of this later.
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Time to close the fuselages and build the wings. So far, everything's ok. Fit is so tight for -44 that I tought for a moment to delay it till after the paint work. A bit more tricky for the Hien, due to the big air scoop under the fuselage, but nothing really serious. I've also started to assemble the small sub-elements of the two aircrafts, gear, prop, but also the engine for the Shoki. I even started to drill the cylinder's heads to figure the spark plugs and some sort of "spider" ignition harness, till I noticed the presence of the frontal temperature xchanger, that will mask nearly the entire engine frontal aera... Engine is painted black, gearbox in True metal aluminium, also used to drybrush the whole thing. Temp Xchanger is in copper, and I've added in the end some Tamiya black panel line. Paint is coming!
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Hi Mike, thanks for the kind words! You're spot on, I'm only having a look at BM (and other forums as well) from time to time those last months/years, as I've great difficulties to get back to modelling due to... well, life (That is, many changes in life, no need to go into details). In the end, I've managed to finish something very late last year (An Ed Yak-3 that you might find over here), and I've great hopes for 2022, starting with this trio. At least I post my stuff, but I've still to find time to browse BM. I'll try to find your A6M straightaway, to start with.
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All those kits are from Hasegawa. The Ki-27 come straight from the 70's, from Mania, then taken up by Hasegawa. I can't tell much about the shape and dimensions, but it looks like a very nice little kit for its time, you have to see the details of rivets on the wings from close up to believe it. No wonder it's still released as it is by Hasegawa nowadays without any corrections! The -44 and -61 are also beautiful kits, but much younger, 1993 and 1995 respectively Lets start with the pits. The -44 one is one degree below the -61 in term of finesse, but it's still good enough to me. Only add is the harness, that I've tried to make from stretched sprues with Tamiya tape... There's clearly room for improvement for me here! It's only thereafter that I remembered I had a set of IJN/IJA belts from Eduard somewhere... For the paint, no questions here, Nakajima cockpit green from Ammo, with a few touch-up of colours, drybrush with acrylics and True Metal. Same for the dashboard, as the decals selfdestructed after a dip in water... Nearly the same for -61, save the paint. No ref. in my Ammo set, so I'd have a look in my ModelArt reference book, and saw that XF-59 was a close match, at least close enough for me. And also, the same happened for the dashboard...
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Hi there, Please let me show you my current occupation. With a sudden interest in building something with an all metal finish, I investigated the shelf of doom and it didn't took long to find this: - A Ki-61 that was barely started. In fact, I did nothing else that cutting a few parts off the sprues before putting the box back on the shelfes - I added a Ki-44, brand new this one, for good measure, telling myself that I could probably save time building them together as they must have a few colours in common. How wrong I was... - Latter, I added a Ki-27 found down in the stash in a plastic bag. Didn't had the heart to put it back there.
