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I wanted to do something less well known or covered for this GB and thanks to @Corsairfoxfouruncle I can. He pointed me at the Hobby 2000 re-release of the Hasegawa Dewoitine D.520. They do two versions, one of them containing three schemes used by French forces in Africa. I was so enamoured I bought two!! This is the box: Oddly, that is the one scheme I won't be doing as it required masking and painting all those stripes yourself and I'm way too slow a builder for that. I will be doing the other two options shown below: Option two looks at first like a standard French air force early war scheme, but check the rudder - that's a French naval aircraft. The other scheme is odd enough that it was just crying out to be built. You can start arguing now whether the Crosses of Lorraine should be red or blue Sprue shots and anything else I think is relevant when the posties have been - each kit, plus a paint set is coming from a different supplier. Allez!! Andy

Kit - Hasegawa PT6 Paint - All acrylics & AK Xtreme Metal lacquers Decals - Furball 48-045 & kit Extras - Aires resin seats, Eduard & Airwaves kit specific etch sets, cockpit & IP wiring, wheel bay plumbing using various gauged of wire and plastic card etc. F-4J Phantom II VF-102 'Diamondbacks' USS Independence 1973 / 74 One of the kits I brought out to NZ with me over eight years ago... I bought the 'extras' over the course of a few years and as soon as the Furball decal sheet came-out in 2015 leaped on it ! - The VF-102 scheme is my absolute favourite on any Phantom, inspired by the box art on the Revell 1:72 kit from 1965. So the kit is the re-issue of the F-4S from 2004, but with the 'J' wings and all engraved panel lines - because the fuselage is the 'S' version, the 'slime lights' had to be carved-off, so whilst I was doing that, I decided to cut & re-profile the inner flaps, scratchbuild the rear of the back-seater's IP with scrap sprue and short lengths of fuse wire etc and detail-out the nosewheel bay with larger gauges of wire. I also added all of the Eduard kit-specific etch set and Airwaves canopy set. The seats are Aires resin replacements which come with separate etch frets for the seat harnesses. The rest of the kit was built straight from the box. I mixed the Light Gull Grey from Tamiya acrylics using the (in)famous Mk.I eyeball method, but before laying down the paint I decided to test my new Uschi Van Der Rosen 'splatter masks' which was risky but very worthwhile - I would recommend giving them a go, but be careful, practice to get the best results - I just got lucky. This was my first time using Furball decals, they are bl**dy superb - amongst the very best decals I have used in fifty years of modelling. For final weathering I went to my tried and trusted 'oil dot & blending' method using Windsor & Newton products - been doing this technique for thirty years, so I'm sticking to it. Not too much else to say - I love how it's turned-out, certainly the best F-4 model I've completed - but then the last 1:48 kit I actually finished was sometime in the 1990's so it's not much of a claim. Please feel free to comment, question and criticise. Best from NZ. Ian.

This is my take on Bf109K-4 '334265' - discovered un-serviceable at Amberg in April 1945 after being either damaged in combat or strafed on the ground - I guess we'll never know. The aircraft carried no unit markings and the only identifiers on it were the last three digits of the WNr spray-painted freehand onto the rear of the fuselage. Typical 'mix n match' late-war colour scheme, which made it a lot of fun to paint. There seems to be some dispute over the wing camo colours, but I went with a best guess. The Hasegawa kit, despite being fairly old, went together well. I used the kit swastika decals, but the rest of the markings (there aren't that many anyway) are Montex masks. Anyway, hope you like - comments and criticism positively encouraged

Even though I have a huge backlog of models to be finished (around a dozen or so - the KUTAs cannot come early enough this year) @modelling minion tickled my ego and here I am with (hopefully first) entry to this GB. The kit is a venerable Hasegawa Vigilante which I got as a gift after purchasing a stock of other kits on a classified advertisments website: As one can see the wings are glued together and the cockpit has been glued in place (which I pryed out for painting anyway) - i consider this to be under 25% build. Should the hosts object, then there will be one less Vigilante in this GB The first task was to establish the eligibility of the aircraft for the use in ths GB. This required some research spanning several websites (mainly http://www.joebaugher.com/ it's search engine: http://users.rcn.com/jeremy.k/serialSearch.html and http://www.forgottenjets.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/ for airframe identification, www.gonavy.jp for squadron deployment). In turns out all the aircraft which can be depicted by the decals used to serve in Vietnam at that particular time. I was tempted to use the second scheme from the Trumpeter kit I build last year (pre-britmodeller), but opted againts It as it is a post-war shore deployment scheme. After assessing the kit I noticed the WSO figure missing, which is not a dealbreaker for me since a) I build my planes usually without the crew and b) he would go in the rear cockpit which is not visible with the canopy closed - which is the only way to build this kit BTW. THe bigger issue was the lack of instructions. Although most of the parts are fairly self explanatory there are some small bits and bobs on the spruce in the foreground left, which have me some head scratching. Fortunately a good soul uploaded a PDF.instruction for another incarnation of this kit an Scalmates (thank you stranger). Unfortunately I didn't have any information on the decal placement so more online research was needed. Google image search to the rescure! It turn out that pleople actualy draw (all?) these aircraft. After browing through several sites in the ilk of https://www.aviationillustration.com/ I found the necessary references. As for smaller decals, not shown in the above mentioned illustrations I hope that my Trumpeter build will provide me with ample reference. I am not 100% sure for which aircraft I will go with. the BuNo.: 151626, 156625 or 156609 can be build. The finisherd Trumpeter kit (boy does this get mentioned a lot) is the 156609 in a later scheme but some decals for this aircraft are slightly damaged on the Hasegawa sheet. I am currently leaning to the 156625 with those big red arrows on the vertical stabilizer, but the blue lettering of the 151626 has also its' own appeal. But let's get cracking. I started with prying the cockpit lose from the kit, which thankfully went of easily. This gave me the opportunity to airbrush it as well as the interior. The tanks - a feature missing from the Trumpeter kit have been glued together. Afterwards the fusealage was joined with cockpit and WSO cockpit windows where glued in place. I painted the camera bays of the recon-pylon (which is slightly different than the Trumpeter one - I wonder which one is more accurate) and placed their transparencies. Also I placed the engine baffles in the intakes which has been a nightmare. I added plenty of weight (20g) behind the cockpit. This is a) due to the less than perfect location of the weight and b) because I like the models to have some gravitas Finally I glued the fuselage, wings, and nose together. A days work. There is some putting & filing to be done. Final thoughts: compared to the Trumpeter kit, this one really shows it's age. The only thing speaking for it are the external fuel tanks and slightly better researched details (the engine intakes have the right curvature for example). The moulding technology (recessed vs raised panels) , fit, flash and ejection pins (or absence thereof), the build options, decals and instruction of the Trumpeter kit are clearly superior. This is hardly surprising, as there is a gap of 36 years between the tools and 34 years between the decals. The Hasegawa kit is still an enjoyable build and I am sure will look spledind side by side with it's newer colleague.

Since my last build became so involved, I thought I'd work on something a little easier. So, I am pulling out the Hasegawa Mk. VIII (Same kit as my Mk. VIII build from last month) along with the aftermarket Quickboost resin Mk.VII conversion kit consisting of pointed wing tips and pressurization intake. I was able to get decals from fleabay and will be doing James J. O'Meara's Mk. VII, MD120 (NX-O) from March 1944. There are some good pictures of the aircraft and the simple light sea gray over PRU blue is appealing after my last build. I was looking for straightforward, but right out of the gate I have problems. The Quickboost wing tips fall short in the direction of chord: Plus it's a butt-join which makes it hard to line up. I had a thought to check out the Eduard wing tips from the spares box, and looking from above it looks like they were made for the Hasegawa kit! But, they are much thinner and have a significant step on top and bottom where they meet the rest of the wing: So, I hatched a plan to make spacers using the "regular" wingtips found in the Hasegawa kit. I used my razor saw for an initial rough cut, and then sanded the spacers to size. Lots of CA was used to get the right contour. I must be doing something right, because after the spacers were put on, they matched the Eduard wingtips. A little too much it turns out... When I glued them onto the main wing assembly, there was a step on the bottom of the wing where they met. So I used some of my epoxy putty to make them a hair thicker and will sand them smooth tomorrow. The cockpit isn't my greatest work, but that was intentional. On my Mk. VIII build I added detail to the cockpit only to find I can't see it now it's all buttoned up. So in this case, I just painted the correct colors on, added some Eduard steel seat belts and called it good. Tonight I buttoned up the fuselage and added the pressurizer intake

#17/2020 The Imperial Japanes theme continues. After two navy subjects now one from the army. Hasegawa kit oob, only added Eduard seatbelts, EZ line for the antenna wires and plastic rod pieces for the landing gear indicators on the upper wings. Painted with MRP White Aluminium. Build thread here https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235074607-banzai148-nakajima-ki-44-ii-otsu-shoki-”tojo”-40mm-cannon-imperial-japanese-army/ In order to achieve better results against the B-29s it was decided to equip the Ki-44 air defence fighter with Ho301 40mm cannons. It used caseless ammunition and had a low muzzle velocity. Due to that the pilots had to get very close to the bombers to score a good hit. The system wasn´t very successful so most of the 40mm guns were replaced with 20mm or 12,7mm ones. The model shows an aircraft of 2nd Chutai 47th Hiko Sentai. DSC_0001 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0002 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0003 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0004 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0005 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0006 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0007 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0008 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0009 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0010 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0011 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0012 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0013 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0014 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0015 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0016 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0017 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0018 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0002 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0001 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0003 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr

My First Chopper! - Hasegawa UH-1H Iroquois 1:72 Never built a chopper before - time to change that! I acquired a second hand Hasegawa UH and noticed this GB, thought it would be perfect place to do some helicopter modelling for the fist time. This is the kit. Contents of the box - some of the parts had been cut off... ... and there was some paint - but I think we can safely assure it's still under the 25% rule Details are looking bit rough-ish. Decals seem past their prime - let's see if we can whiten them up with the help of the sun. Small metal rods were included within the box - I can't find any mention about them in the instructions? Are they perhaps something that the previous owner has added to the box or are they original contents of the box? They kinda look that they could be used for the antennas for the Japanese version. Speaking of versions- the japanese one is looking pretty cool with the interesting camo job. But then again, the US one is looking quite sharp too with the white sides. What do you reckon - which one should I build?

looking forward to this GB, hopefully I can finish this one, my track record is getting worse. This little lady is winging its way to me Perhaps the phantom will be a popular choice in this GB? I think it will be an exciting chance to try some tricky metallic work at the rear and I love the Phantom in SEA schemes. I’ll enliven it with just a touch of AM mainly this.... and a montex canopy mask Hope it fits in my display cabinet The phantom is a big beast in 1/48!

Hello all, Here is my recently completed 1/72 Hasegawa Lancaster B.1 Special. On the 19th March 1945, PB996, YZ-C, was piloted by Flying Officer Phil Martin, DFC and bar, on an operation to destroy the Arnsberg Viaduct in Germany. Dropped from 12,000 feet, the 22000lb Grand Slam bomb impacted the Western end of the viaduct, along with four Tallboys, causing it to collapse. Extras used included Eduard interior etch, Eduard canopy mask and AML camouflage masks. Paints are a mixture of MRP for the upper surfaces and Tamiya 'Nato Black' for the undersides. The build thread is here A picture of the real thing to start: My effort: Beside my other two 617 Squadron 'Specials': Thanks for looking. Dave

More than 20 years after finishing my last model I felt I wanted to try out some modelling again! Last time I was "active" was in 1999-2000 or so, when I moved out from my parents house. Out of my old builds nothing is left except for some photos, but I recall some fun builds like the revell F101-B Voodoo in 1:72 and the Airfix S A Bulldog in the same scale, and of course also the Airfix Bf109 in 1:24. So, after many years I want to get off where I left and as a start I will try out with something rather easy where I can focus on trying out some new techniques. This turned out to be the Hasegawa P-47D in 1:48, so here we go! I started this build already in january 2020 but it was first now I decided to publish a build log of it - for this reason not all steps have been documented. The pace has not been the most rapid one, but I will drop some posts on the current progress and hopefully things will move faster now when I have the tools etc in place. The first thing I did was to replace the exhausts in the front with new ones that I made from beer can aluminium. The parts provided in the kit (seen on top of the exhausts in the photo) were not too convincing. The new ones were somewhat better even if the openings in the end felt a little too large. The rear (intercooler?) openings were good in shape but of course too thick as they are moulded parts. I considered removing them and replace them with brass, aluminium or crash moulded / vac formed plastic sheet, but in the end it turned out I could just carve them out and still get a decent result.

It seems appropriate for this to be the third in a series as my first 'Stash Clearance' was the Kawanishi N1K1,‘George’, the landbased fighter developed from this aircraft and the second 'Stash Clearance' the Nakajima A6M2-N, 'Rufe’, a float plane. From Scalemates, this is the original boxing from 1996. There were 3 boxings of the type. The 'Early' and 'Late' models distinguished by their engines and the prototype with 2, 2-blade contra rotating propellers. This is the 'Late' version. Typical Hasegawa fare of the time, accurate, easy to build, good fit and not many parts. Interior detail is basic as are the decals. The model is OOB with only the addition of Tamiya tape harness and Uschi thread for aerial wire. Colours are from the White Ensign range (now Colourcoats, by Jamie@Sovereign Hobbies, although having checked yesterday some of these colours don’t appear in the current range) Those used were ACJ-10 Kawanishi Green, ACJ-04 Nakajima Interior Grey-Green and ACJ-12 Undersurface Grey Green. The carriage was gunmetal Hu27004+drybrushed Hu.11. I would have tried clear wood grain decal if I had had any but I remembered that I had a tin of Hu.110 'Wood' so used that. Wheels had Revell 83 Rust drybrushed and Revell Anthracite for tyres. Finally, Tamiya Weathering Powders were rubbed on and Matt Aluminium drybrushed with a cut down brush to show wear on the paintwork. Hu.33/21/60/27002 were used for details as well as Humbrol Clear Red and Tamiya Clear Blue Decals are from the kit, which has just one option, for an aircraft from the ‘Sasebo Naval Flying Group’. I did the canopy frames by hand as my attempts at using decal strip before had not been v successful. I figured the inevitable shakiness was worth putting up with to save the time and hassle for a not very much better result. (Note to self: next time ordering from the Lowestoft emporium get clear decal sheet as well as the wood grain decal referred to earlier.) Like the ‘George’ and ‘Rufe’ its USP was badly done. In this case, the float assembly did not fit at all well and because of its position it was not easy to fill or sand the join. Further, its pegs into the underside were barbed so once pushed home it couldn't be withdrawn. Other observations: 1. I solved the ill fitting canopy problems I’d had in other builds by cementing with ultra thin polystyrene cement using capillary action early in the process rather than adding it at the end with Kristal Kleer when it would be fragile and prone to popping off. In that way I could sand and file it like the rest of the plastic. 2. Ladder colours are too garish and I should have used v dark grey and v light grey. The ladder itself is crude and overscale as it is in plastic, etch would have been better. 3. Prop blades had only 1 coat of aluminium when they should have had two. Also, I’m not convinced they’re at 120 degrees to each other despite Hasegawa’s efforts to make fixing them at the right angle foolproof. 4. Had to use pencil lines for underside panels as sanding had made a lot too shallow for washes. 5. Float has a weight of solid plastic included in the kit. It works surprisingly well. 6. Tailplanes are handed. 7. I didn’t work out what the float stripes were for until the very end so, eg, didn’t line them up with the trolley posts. They’re not too bad as is but even so.... 8. Navigation lights are not delineated on the wings and so were positioned on a ‘best guess’ basis as I couldn’t work it out from period reference photos either. Furthermore, fuselage lights other than the tail light were not mentioned in the Instructions nor shown on the box picture nor could I see them on photos so they were left out. 9. Cockpit is poorly detailed to such a degree that what there is, is entirely fictional save for the instrument panel. 10. The weathering isn't great. The maxim 'less is more' should read in this case 'less is less'. To my eye the exhaust staining is barely noticeable and the stippled matt aluminium on the fuselage sides and wing tops looks very artificial. It would have looked much better if I had put more on. Still, delicate balance and all that... Anyhoo, enough of my ramblings I’ll now attempt to post some pictures. This is the Wikipedia photo of the type and it's the aircraft the decals represent. It's for you to decide how close I got. The box and instructions are shown below. 1/4

SBS cockpit and Eduard undercarriage bay. MRP paint. Mix of decals from various sheets.

It is straight out of the box with only SBS seat. Hasegawa has made a Frankenstein out of the molds. Many panels need to be filled. What I have found online and in various books is that the early series, especially I and II, have the same panels on the wings as the Macchi 200, without machine guns and no access hatches for them. I filled all the access hatches and removed the machine guns. Painted with MRP Paint and decals from the Eduard kit.

Hi all, Thought that I would share some pics with you all of one of my latest completed models. Built as part of the ongoing (and excellent) Corsair STGB it is Hasegawa's 1/48 F4U-5NL built as an aircraft operated by the Argentine Navy during their 1963 (unsuccessful) revolt against their government. Still a nice kit to build despite getting on a bit it does have a few issues but nothing drastic. I used an old set of FCM decals and they performed very well indeed and certainly seem to be accurate to the pictures I have seen. Enough waffle here are the pictures; Thanks for looking and as usual all comments and criticisms are gratefully received, and for those of you wanting to see any more here is a link to the WIP. Craig.

Hello Gents And Ladies, This is my 1st contrubition to Britmodeller. This is Revell boxed, hasegawa mould 1:48 F4U-7 kit finished as AU-1 (F4U-6)Korean war veteran. I used a pair of Kont Eduard's seatbelts, Printscale decals. Process still goes on, I hope you like it.

Evening all, Here is my finished F-22 Raptor in 1/48 from Hasegawa. This was my first experience with Hasegawa and I am very impressed! That said, I did add a few details, mostly to the cockpit - all of this is in my WIP thread: Here is the finished build: Some detail photos of the cockpit: Thanks for looking!

Spitfire Mk. VIII | 1/72 | Hasegawa No. 155 Squadron, Royal Air Force, Burma, 1945 I finished this on 7/18/2020. A straightforward build, however I used some spare parts from my Eduard Mk.IX builds to improve the cockpit (which may have been a waste of time with a closed canopy), and provide better looking landing gears and gear doors. In general the Hasegawa kit has nice external detail and went together fairly easily (although I had to put a little more work than usual into getting the nose seams to look good). My only gripe with the kit is this: I was warned by someone that the Hasagawa Mk. VIII, was "too small" in the back, which I mis-interpreted as "too short". Matching it to an un-built Eduard Mk. IX, I found that, if the fuselages are lined up at the back of the canopy, then both the tail and nose are about 1 mm too short. Not very noticeable. However, I think "too small" meant that the area just forward of the empennage is too thin (from bottom to top). It looks more spindly just forward of the tail than the Eduard kits on my shelf. I tried to mimic the dusty conditions I saw in some photos of 155 sqn. aircraft by using white oil paint rubbed into the gloss coat (post decals). My experience is that this oil paint will become very light when dry, but will darken again with the application of dull coat. Unfortunately, it darkened too much so it was not very noticeable, so I misted the surface in spots with a Mr. Color tan. It actually looks better in the pictures than in real life! This kit is actually a replacement for the terrible Starfix Mk. XIV I made a few years ago. I really like the SEAC scheme, so I chose this kit, to replace the Starfix one. I will be re-doing Ginger Lacey's Mk. XIV mount (Correctly) using the Sword 1/72 kit. Paint: Mr. Surfacer 1500 black decanted into airbrush > Hataka RAF Dark Earth / Ocean Gray / medium Sea Gray > Testor's "Deep Yellow" > Mr. Color 311 (FS36622) for spinner and theater stripes > Alclad Aqua Gloss (pre-decal) > Mr. Color GX113 dullcoat (post-decal) Decals: Kit decals plus leftover Eduard stencils Aftermarket: Eduard steel seatbelts No WIP for this one. Here's a comparison of the instrument panels: Hasagawa in the center, un-altered Eduard on the right, and the Eduard one I modified to use on the left: Eduard's part behind seat looked better than Hasegawa's so I modified it and used it (Hasegawa on the right): Here's the cockpit all finished: And I scratch built the rod that extends from the back of the seat: Thanks for looking! Questions, comments and constructive criticism always welcomed.

This is the Hasegawa P-3C Orion converted to a P-3B of the Argentinian Navy. I modified it to a B model by removing the sonbuoy tubes and updating the antenna config consistent with the prototype. The HF wire antenna lines are EziLIne. I also rescribed the model. It is painted mainly in Gunze acrylics and SMS metallics and decalled with the DekLs sheet (the reverse type).

Hi, my latest build of old Hasegawa kit in 1/72, S-3A Viking. Kit is OOB with addition of some scratchbuilt details (full cockipit, rear cockpit as well but I forgot to take pictures, ejection seats, main entrance, electronic bay, engine covers and bombs covers). The reference was a picture I found on Airliners.net of ground crew working on maintenance:). All in all lovely kit and realy enjoyable build. Kit: 1/72 Hasegawa S-3A Viking Decals: OOB, VS-38 ''Griffins'', CV-61 USS Ranger Paint: Tamiya primer and Model Master enamels Weathering: Ammo Mig washes and pigments, AK weathering pencils Extra's: Hasegawa weapons set (6 x Mk-20 Rockeye)

Well not really! It’s actually Eastern Airlines 5th TriStar that was used for the 1972 summer world tour by the Lockheed Aircraft Company of California. The aircraft came to the U.K. to be demonstrated to the two British customers for the TriStar- Courtline Aviation, and BEA. Arriving at Luton airport the headquarters of Courtline, 305 was adorned with Court titles and logos in preparation for promo flights around various U.K. airports, ending with a flight to Palma, on the island of Mallorca-a typical destination for the airline. The next stop for 305 would be a short hop down to London Heathrow, where BEA titles and tail markings were hastily applied in preparation for further publicity flights and a residency at the ‘Farnborough 72’ trade show. Onto the model, this is the venerable but still very accurate Hasegawa example first rolled around 1980! Sadly these models are becoming rarer all the time and commanding extortionate prices on auction sites. The only mods I made were to add the early type thrust reverser jacks to the RB-211’s made out of plastic Rod, and the extendable tail skid (courtesy of a pin!) Paints used were Halfords appliance white, Xtracolour light aircraft grey, and Humbrol chrome silver from a rattle can. The only problem I encountered with the build was with the Classic Airlines decals. Although beautifully printed they did not seem to match the Hasegawa model, and required some trimming and touching up. One place where this is really noticeable is the Courtline titles on the aircrafts belly which do not represent how they appeared on the actual aircraft-and after referencing and re-referencing numerous photos of 305, it is not my painting skills at fault(!) Overall though I’m pleased with the finished result in this unusual hybrid livery. Any comments or feedback is much appreciated-Thanks for looking.

So with two helicopters finished today I was inspired by @Bell209 (Rob) to try and finished off yet another P-3 that had been sitting next to the bench for some time (so I could start another down the track ), I started it back in October 2016. Its the one on the left in this shot (yes I have more than one P-3 variant waiting to be finished!). AS you can see it was well advance, I even went tot eh trouble of rescribing it. I stalled on the masking as I usually do. And here it is tonight after some attention, the clear parts masked (yeah!) Gear doors fitted and pitot probes and weapon bay vent mast also added. I need to check refs to see if any other protrusions need to be added prior to a trip to the paint shop. These are the decals I am using.

After years of staring at the model in my cabinet, I decided last week after seeing yet another P-3 kit started that it was time to crack on with the restoration of this: I built this back in 1981, I think. Considering it was all brush-painted and the walkways painted, it wasn't a bad job but the seams were terrible, it needed nose weight (which I'd left out) and the decals were all faded (no clear coats on my models in those days!). I want to rebuild it as a flying desktop model of the EW version of the AP-3C, two of which will continue in service with 10SQN, RAAF for a few more years. I have the Hawkeye Models decal set I'll use for this and I managed to get a copy of the Hamilton Hobbies ELINT conversion set, too. It's suffering from the moulds becoming worn, so I'll need to do a fair bit of work on the castings for it to pass muster. I'll also be using the Quickboost prop set as I want to model it with #1 engine loitered (propeller feathered in flight). First step - strip with oven cleaner: It took a few goes and some resorting to the more-toxic-but-more-effective caustic stuff but it all came off eventually! The Lincoln at the bottom is not being stripped - it was in the hangar for a tailwheel repair! Some bits broke off but I'm not concerned as they're being replaced anyway. The sonobouy launcher section and all the pylons were then removed and the small galley/rest area windows, which had clouded over, popped out. I've made a plastic sleeve like the one I made for the USS Enterprise from plastic stock on Ray Seppala's suggestion. It'll go inside the fuselage to take the brass stand before I fit the replacement belly section. Lots of surgery required on the #2 and #3 engine fairings for the EWPS resin bits, the nose for the IRDS bits and wingtip replacements. Then it'll be time for some seam sealing...

From Scalemates, this is the original boxing from 1994. Typical Hasegawa fare of the time. Accurate, easy to build, good fit and not many parts. Interior detail is basic as are the decals. The model is OOB with only the addition of Tamiya tape harness and Uschi thread for aerial wire. Colours are from the White Ensign range (now sold by Jamie@Sovereigh Hobbies I believe) ACJ17 Nakajima Amber Grey(Ame-iro), ACJ08 Mitsubishi Cowl Blue-Black, ACJ04 Nakajima Interior Grey-Green + Hu27002 Bright Aluminium and Humbrol Metal-Cote Matt Aluminium. The carriage was gunmetal Hu27004 drybrushed Hu11. The wooden supports were Tamiya NATO Black to try to show the different material from the lower framework. I would have tried clear wood grain decal if I had had any. Wheels had Revell 83 Rust drybrushed and Revell Anthracite for tyres. Finally, Tamiya Weathering Powders were rubbed on and Matt Aluminium drybrushed with a cut down brush to show wear on the paintwork. Decals are from the kit (Lt Yamasaki, 802 FG) but were severely impacted by time with the usually fatal striations evident which would normally mean their exploding on contact with water. I used Microscale Liquid Decal Film on them and the effect was miraculous as I hope the pics show. Decal strip was used, only partially successfully, for vertical canopy frames. ( It wouldn't stick probably because I'd used coloured decal as a base + 2 coats of paint + decal film so it resisted curves) I added ignition wires to the engine but not very well. Fortunately they can't really be seen thru the cowling. Like the first stash clearance model I did last month, the N1K1 George, it's USP was badly done; in this case the float assembly did not fit at all well and because of its position it was not easy to fill or sand the join. I would also matt the spinner as it's too bright. I have learnt that Metal cote does not respond well to varnish so it was left as is. The photos also show I have a problem with fitting canopies! Anyhoo, enough of my ramblings I'll now attempt to post the photos. The box and instructions.

Here's my second build for the Group Build. I'm doing a 1/48 Hasegawa Ki-84 Hayate. This is one of the finest Hasegawa kits I've ever done. A nicely detailed cockpit, very fine surface details, excellent fit so far. Even the kit decals look nice, although I won't be using them. I got two aftermarket sheets for it, one from Berna and one from Rising Decals, both with some options that fit the time period of this GB. I am taking some guess work with the cockpit color, as it turns out they had probably three different colours, depending on when they were built. Aotake (that metallic blue-ish stuff) on early ones, a dark green on middle ones, and natural metal on late ones. As I have no idea when mine was built, I decided to go with the green colour, and pretend it is correct. Nobody will notice it anyway. I used Tamiya's Japanese Army Green for it. The seat (not fitted yet) comes with a comfy looking cushion, which isn't correct, but I'll just leave it on. This thing must have been an ergonomic nightmare, as there are levers and controls everywhere, even the guns stick out the firewall in front of the instrument panel, just like the A6M.

Well time to let the glue follow the posts and start with my entry for this GB. I will be building the AH-1 Cobra Kisarazu Special 2012/2013 double kit with a flamboyant livery depicting two of the four Kisarazu sisters (anime girl mascots of the 4th ATHS). So without further ado: the obligatory box shot: Here are some more shots of the sprues (of course there are two sets of those in the kit): A close-up of the decals - the highlight of the kit: While the artwork was originally placed only on one side of the choppers, I intend to decal the right hand side of the cobras as well - because I can And now for the extras: Cockpit masks and the cannon which I may or may not replace: I also got the right colors! This is my first brush (excuse the pun) with Tamyia colors, so I hope all goes well with the thinning (I probably will airbrush the models, but then again looking at the camouflage pattern I am not sure the hairy sit wouldn't be faster & easier. The kit itself seems to be fairly straight-forward (famous last words!). At least there won't be many issues with the landing gear Wish me luck and watch this space.