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Showing results for tags 'Courier'.
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After the excesses and debauchery of scratchbuilding, conversions, modifying or detailing models, it´s good to take a break and build something simpler and with a tranquil color scheme (hey, just one color!). Some time ago I bought some kits from the ARII brand of the Mitsubishi Ki-15 (I and II) in order to build the civil versions used as couriers by Japanese newspapers. Now I just started work on the Ki-15 II kit, in order to render one of the newspaper couriers: J-BACL (Domei Press), J-BACK (Osaka Mainichi Shimbun), J-BACR (also Domei Press), or J-BAAO (Asahi Shimbun). All had variations on the side windows, antennas and small marks. Here a Wikipedia photo of J-BACL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Mitsubishi_Karigane_II_J-BACL_owned_by_Domei_Press_%28burnt_1938%29.jpg Rising Decals issued some time ago the J-BIRDS II sheet which has the J-BACL registration (and other civil planes) but is now OOP and unavailable. So if you have to make your own decals anyway, you can go for either of the above. The "new" (not) ARII kit (that seems to be a re-pop of older brands) is very pleasant, with features you wish much modern kits would have. The engraved panel lines are restrained, the surface detail is nice, the breakdown practical. The parts are thin, and not the heavy duty chunks you get even today from certain manufacturers. The transparencies are ok, and the instructions clear enough. The interior is there, although it isn't outstanding, but as usual not much will be seen of it anyway. One issue: an unrealistic "flattened" engine (although in two rows). And two nit-picks: so-so wheels (not much will be seen of them anyway inside the wheel pants), and a not very good rendition of the fabric on the rudder (very easily corrected with just a few passes of fine sanding sponge). The fit seems good, but we'll be checking that as the build progresses. The parts: Nice surface detail: Some detail, just a tad chunky for the Pitot: Again nice surface detail and very good thin parts: ok transparencies: ok instructions: Engine pancake (why did they do that?) and a tad too simple wheels: Fabric detail could be lightly treated to some passes with fine grain sanding sponge: The two additional windows on the fuselage side are slightly blanked, to cater for multiple versions: For this version, one more window, ahead and up, needs to be opened: The idea is to keep this build nice and simple, contrary to what I always do. Some parts glued together. In general good fit, but I removed the locating pins for the nose parts: The interior color is applied: Inst. panel and engine painted: Third window opened: Once the interior is painted, the parts are glued to the fuselage sides: Then the halves are glued together and one of the nose parts is also attached to keep a better grip on the whole. I will also recommend to remove the locating pins here. They are tiny, and don't produce major misalignments, but may be a hair off: Once the fuselage glue had set, wing and horizontal tail were added. Good fit overall with minimal cleanup:
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