Search the Community

Greetings from Santiago, Just finished ´BI-310´, the plane flew by Lt Joichi Tomonaga during the first day of the battle of Midway. He led two strikes on June 4th, 1942 - the first against the atoll's two islands in the morning and then an ill-fated attack on USS Yorktown in the afternoon. Bearing command stripes on the tail, ´Bi-310´ had its right main wing tank punctured when Tomonaga's force was bounced by US Marine Corps F2A-3s from VMF-221 during the strike on Midway. Upon his return to Hiryu, Tomonaga refused to switch aircraft for the attack on Yorktown despite knowing he had insufficient fuel in ´BI-310´ to make it back to the carrier after he had dropped his Type 91 torpedo. The aeroplane was subsequently shot down by ace Lt Cdr ´Jimmy´ Thach, commanding officer of F4F-equipped VF-3, as Tomonaga made his run in on Yorktown. Although the latter got his torpedo away before crashing to his death, the weapon missed its intended target (excerpt from Osprey's Combat Aircraft 119, 2017). The kit is fantastic. Excellent fit and lot of details, specially in the cockpit. I always try to add figures to my builds, and this ocassion was not the exception. I really love how figures add some emotion and realism to the kit. After some iteration and thanks to Nick Millman' studies about IJN Dark Green I chose the Tamiya XF-11, and it really match the few color photos I have found about IJN carrier planes. I used Chipping Medium fluid from Vallejo after the black primer and silver, to obtain that battered look on the fuselage and wings. National Japanese insignias ('Hinomarus') were painted on. Rivets added with special tool. The underside received a mix of excellent AK Real Colors 302 and 303 to obtain that elusive IJN Grey Green, Aotake (Mr. Color 57) was used for the landing gear parts and interior. Really enjoyed this one! Cris.

This B5N2 Kate is part of a 3 model kit that Hasegawa released a few years ago. The other two planes are an A6M2 Zero and an D3A1 Val. The 3 planes all took part in the initial attack on Pearl Harbor, and were launched off Imperial Japanese Carriers. To stay with the theme; I decided to build a 1:48 replica of the IJN carrier Hiryu. I chose to build a 1/4th section of the carrier as it should be ample room (24”x36”) to get some photographs of all 3 planes together once they're all finished. This was the first time I utilized photoshops function to replace the background in favor of some real images and really enjoy how the photos turned out. I also just started using a 105mm macro lens. Overall, I am satisfied with the kit and am excited to start the next two planes.

1/48 HASEGAWA B5N2 KATE MODEL 3 One of my favorite aircraft, with the Val and the Grace, those wing span shapes are just amazing. I bought this model 2 years ago and now its finally finished Enjoy my friend

Hello forum, About to start on my next 1/72 Airfix Dogfight Double Midway F4F-4 following my Fw-190/Hawker Typhoon build linked below. Given Johnny's @The Spadgent's build of the same kit, along with Detail and Scale's review, I am looking forward to a straight forward where effort will be spent on the engine, wheel well intercoolers, Photo etch cockpit & working on getting the colors correct. @giemme's builds always inspire me to push on some of the overlooked details on excellent kits like Airfix's F4F-4. Unlike Johnny, I am going to do this with the wing's extended. For reference, I am using @Dana Bell's F4F Wildcat, Aircraft Pictorial #4 book, Detail and Scale's F4F Wildcat (E-Book), Detail and Scale's US Navy Carrier Based Aircraft of WW2 (e-book), WW2 In Review No 30 Wildcat (e-book), F4F Wildcat vs Zero Sen (Edward M Young-e-book) and this website I found useful https://www.angelfire.com/dc/jinxx1/Wildcat/F4F_pt1.html . Given the overall quality of Airfix's decals and research on previous Dogfight Double's I have built, I decided to build LCDR Thatch's aircraft with their markings. Additionally, I noted in Airfix's instructions that Starfighter decals assisted with developing the markings so I feel good about their accuracy--I have always been impressed with their products. About the only error I can find, and it seems to be common with all Airfix Wildcats, is most F4F-4's carried Curtiss Electric propellors and not Hamilton Standards, so the propellor stencils will need to be modified. In this scale I have decided to just use the technical stencils on the cuff & cut off the red Hamilton Standard oval--I purchased Yellow Wing's 1/72 manufacturer propellor logos so I might use the Curtiss Electric Seal--that said, I think photographic evidence in @Dana Bell's book points to no manufacturer seals on Midway Wildcat propellors. I have read that Thatch's aircraft is pictured below prior to the Battle of Midway--a great resource that I will use on the build. My 1st order of business is to figure out what colors to use for the project. I initially purchased Colorcoates as I trust their research and have heard nothing but good things about them. However, since I plan on thinning the paints I like to use the manufacturer's proprietary so I can save unused paints/avoid complications--it has been next to impossible for me to get their thinner, so I decided to use the lids as paint chips to compare other manufactures against. (I am very impressed with the research put into Colorcoates and will use them in the future when I get thinner--I also understand they paint the lids with the actual color in the tin). I decided to give AK Real Colors a try based off one of @billn53's builds, Gunze, AK Acrylic (Bronze Green) and Tamiya (experiment with XF-5 for cockpit bronze green only) and Vallejo (cockpit bronze green). A quick eyeball check against Colorcoats and @Dana Bell's book convinced me to use AK Real Colors Bronze green for the cockpit. I am thinking that AK's Blue Grey and Light Grey will work for the exterior, but I am still going back and forth with Gunze's near matches--I know this is very unscientific eyeballing, but I think it will hit the mark. For the elusive Grumman Grey Primer, I am going to trust at Eduard's Hellcat instructions juxtaposed with Detail and Scale's Hellcat book and go with Mission Model's Light Gull Grey. Paint swatches I created against light grey are pictured below: All comments are welcome--including those that think my color interpretation needs improvement. Also, please do not hesitate to add to my Wildcat knowledge if my research is off--I am always amazed at the bench of historical and craftsman knowledge on this site. Best to all, Erwin