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Disc to plug the fuselage opening in place (there is a recess in the mold where it can be inserted). Some of the interior being assembled, the aft deck will be discarded: Floats ready to be cut to size: Wing halves glued together:

Thanks Crossfiron New windows carved:

The bus gets its -third- color for the chassis, metal -fourth- for the radiator, and upper and lower decks floor color -fifth-:

Continuing with the saga of civil Japanese planes from the Golden Age, here is a rather stocky plane that briefly flew for a Japanese airline (Tokyo Koku K.K.) As J-BABG (not the kit's version). I immediately liked the ungainly stance and the sumo wrestler proportions. I have seen this kit time ago, at a somewhat stiff price, so I waited a bit until it became (just) more reasonable. Still, being this a short run technology kit, and for what it is, it is not a bargain. The box announces resin parts (actually one part inside) and super decals. We'll see about the decals. Contents. Short run, so thick gates, some thick parts, not a lot of refinement: An itsy-bitsy of flash: Tail feathers a bit thick: Exterior detail: A view of some of the parts: Thick exhausts. This was true for the collector, but not for the connecting bits to the cylinders, which are represented too thick: Restrained wing surface: Film for the windows and windshield, resin engine that is rather simple: The "super-decals" (did Superman make them?): Some psychedelic perspectives in the instructions: Color and decal instructions on the box back: Interior detail (remove the ejector marks): Off the sprues: For being a resin engine, and considering the products that are out there as aftermarket options, I am not particularly thrilled by this one, which by the way doesn't quite match the photos I can see on the Net -that show a lot of pushrods at the front: The window areas are recessed, quite a bit inside and a little outside. The instructions tell you to fix the film from inside, I guess to render a thinner wall appearance: The kit, although sold as the civil version, has the military parts still in it, and there is no provision to close the round opening for the top fuselage machine gun. I seriously doubt the passengers of the civil version flew with a hole on the fuselage top, as depicted in the kit instructions and color views. In any case, there was J-BABG that flew on floats, and requires other engine (Jupiter with front "Y" exhaust), had no Townend ring and needs different windows, plus didn't have the hinomaru. I will go for that one. Here it is in the Arawasi blog: http://arawasi-wildeagles.blogspot.com/2014/10/mitsubishi-ms-1.html You better sand those wing halves before gluing them together, or you will end up with blunt leading edges and thick trailing edges: Floats are cut from a very old Aeroclub generic floats vacuformed sheet: Fit tested: New windows for the airliner marked, floats need center section removed to get proper length: Kit's windows blanked: The styrene sheet needs to be thicker inside: Once the glue is dry, the new windows will be carved.

Airbrushing starts on the plane and the bus, but some masking is involved on the bus, plus a multicolor approach: The wing is given an acrylic basecoat: The fuselage is painted:

I point out that I regularly buy kits from England, France, Russia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Poland (and China and Japan!) and not once paid the amount demanded above. I was never charged 32 Euros for S&H, not even 20 Euros. May be it's a specific country? And there are so many kits, and vendor options, that you are not really host to conditions that are not agreeable with you. Time has showed me that the kit you want will ultimately show up somewhere at a convenient price and purchase conditions. I do buy, and hopefully will continue to buy, new kits from traditional vendors, and support my local hobby shops, though. But I will not settle for "if you really want it that's the deal", if I perceive -and that's subjective- that it is not fair.

Stop complaining? Let me rephrase that for you: "Perhaps you shouldn't complaint about postage, it may be the rates, not their added gain" There, I think now it sounds a lot more polite. Anyways, I hardly ever combine purchases, I just want what I want. I don't favor marketing schemes. I also buy from other vendors all over Europe (Western and Eastern), and pay reasonable postage (between $6 and $18 -dollars, to clarify) to get the goods in the US. If I buy from Amazon UK, for example, many times I pay 0 postage. Sometimes I buy things here for fellow modelers that live in Europe, and costs me about $20-$25 to send them their kits. So you see, something doesn't quite match here. 32 Euros are a long way from the numbers I am quoting. The only other possible scenario would be that they are choosing a method of delivery (faster, insured, etc) that drives the prices higher. But other hobby stores let the customer chose their own shipping method, at the customer risk, of course.

32 euros of shipping and handling to the US? Is actually someone taking a plane to deliver it? Nice kit, no doubt a good deal at 20+ Euros, but I don't think I will paying those postage rates, no sir.

Hi Neil That flying barrel will be fun! That kit would need some attention from you. Just to name only one issue: the geometry of landing gear cuts in the fuselage -for the legs to get in- is wrong. The red lines are the correct curves:

Thanks Stuart and Ian. Let's see how I tackle the varnished wood finish of the wing this time (I have tried different techniques on similar wings, oil paint on acrylic, free-hand airbrush paneling using a post-it as the edge, even home-made decal panels, to a credible effect). We'll see.

Again masking the canopy the old way, since no vendor is willing to produce a masks set for these wonderful kits. Sigh... The exhausts have locating holes in the cylinders, a courtesy many current manufacturers obviate. And to think this wonder kit is 44 years old... I carved a bit the exhaust ends, before painting them:

Thanks, Clive Priming now: And if you like Japanese, soon there will be another one that I just purchased...

First coat of primer to reveal blemishes:

And now for the primer... The canopy on this Mania/Hasegawa kit is not as good as the one on the LS/ARII kit. The side windows look wrong, too narrow, leaving a very thick edge underneath. So the sides were lightly sanded and then polished. The masks will delineated the new windows. I tried the ARII canopy on this kit, and it could fit with some slight adjustment to the turtleback (One of my ARII kits came with two canopies), but I opted to modify the kit's one:

Thanks for your help, Peter. The "flap" seen in those photos was reproduced and will be added to the model:

I better get on with the primer...

Thanks, Peter. In here one especially useful, showing some sort of flap (not a flap, though) and partially the instruments. https://www.erfgoednlr.nl/index.php/2-beeldmateriaal/42-galleryseriev3

One funny detail: I had originally blue paint on the wheels, that later changed to red. Sigh. Back to blue now. Original blue wheels (not dark blue, though) And painted red:

Hi Peter So many thanks for the timely correction! This shows the value of the forums where the whole is more than the sum of the parts (like a model, in a way ;-) Your help is truly appreciated! I found a picture of the wing hanging on an hangar, there is no white rectangle, just black regs on a typical varnished wood wing. Too late to do something about the interior, but since it will remain hidden, no damage is done. In any case I did reproduce the small opening at the bottom with a dangling gizmo, and will take care as I mentioned of the rigging on wing and stab. Thanks to your input I found in my files (originally from somewhere on the Net) actual photos of the cabin instruments you are referring to. You mentioned that you can't access your files at the moment, but do you recall from which source did you get the blue color reference? Cheers grateful modeler

Ah, no roof. Hum, easy fix, another piece of very thin styrene: And now with putty and glue set, work continues on the main subject. Landing gear on: State of the union: Now for priming and painting. Nose was metal (but not symmetrical due to a diagonal panel on the right, exhaust side), wing the usual Fokker varnished wood, and the rest my guess is red. Still needed are the windshield (that varied enormously from machine to machine, so again check your references) and some strange contraptions, perhaps radio equipment-related, that hung form the wing and stab on the right side of the plane. And of course the decals, that I commissioned again from Arctic Decals.

Hi Invidia Rareplanes are excellent vacs as you know, do have a go at it! For me they are a pleasant build with a relaxed approach producing many times a seldom seen subject. It's worth it! Cheers

Thanks, Michael, those are very nice words.

And now for something completely different.... And I know that this bit should belong to the "in progress" vehicles section, but this bus will be just a diorama prop for the Fokker, since they were contemporary, and it is in the same scale, and it is so irresistibly cute. So powers of this site, please allow this humble contributor to post these images here, as both machines will live together happily ever after in harmony when completed. Stairway to Heaven (or those bizarre British buses) Diorama accessories category (workbench digressions as the modeler is forced to wait for putty and glue to set) Keilkraft 1/72nd scale 1920 London Bus type B: Contents: Nice detail: Small bits a tad chunky: Parts off the sprues without any difficulty: Tool fabricated to erase those nasty ejector pin marks on upper deck floor: Assembly begins: Unsightly joint line in the middle: Cover in place: More "panels" attached to hide seams and interior (absent in the kit) provided: Have to thin those mudguards: Windows (absent in the kit) measured and cut: Superbly printed decals (the gold -not really visible in the photo- is impeccable) that many recent and contemporary manufacturers would envy:

The fuselage is assembled. Here work is hindered and delayed by the faults of this kit, in the sense that given the extremely uneven thickness of the plastic you have to be very careful while sanding and puttying. As we all know, excessive application of cement or putty softens and deforms thin plastic. Caution is the word, and patience to let things dry properly: Meanwhile -and as an example of a good vac- the Sierra Models Friedrichshafen F.F.49c I just purchased, which I will convert into a civil version used as a flying advertisement by a tobacco company in the 20's : Even and decent plastic thickness: Still the detail is soft, a limitation of the media, not the kit maker: But nice where it should: