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This is my completed Pegaso bust of a Kamikaze pilot during World War II, he has been expertly sculpted in his final dive, The determined but frightened (?) expression on his face has been superbly captured. the clothing detail is very sharp, overall a very enjoyable couple of months spent getting him from a few pieces of grey resin to this final point. Face was painted with Andrea flesh set and the rest with various Tamiya, Mig, AK and vallejo colours, on with the photos;

Dates: 29 July 2017 to 29 October 2017 Host: PhantomBigStu Given this great aircraft turns 45 in 2017 and celebrates 40 years I'm service next year how about a STGB in 2017? Make a nice partner for the f16 GB assuming there's room 1. PhantomBigStu 2. theplasticsurgeon 3. jrlx 4. mungo1974 5. DaveJL 6. Arniec 7. Dazzio 8. Bill Ficner 9. Julien 10. Antoine 11. Caerbannog 12. Pin 13. AndyC 14. trickyrich 15. snapper_city 16. Ale85 17. TrojanThunder 18. richj 19. Arniec 20. Jabba 21. Dermo245 22. vppelt68 23. exdraken

source: http://www.hlj.com/product/DYS50075/Air 1/72 Kawasaki T-4 Blue Impulse by Doyusha Their Blue Impulse Sabre and other 1/72 kits are reboxed from Hobby Boss but this render looks like new tool. http://www.doyusha-model.com/ http://www.doyusha-model.com/hs_new_3.html

Hello all, Here's my latest finished work. It's Meng's Kayaba Ku-4 parasite fighter carried by a Hasegawa Ki-49. Both kits were great builds, though the Mens decals and Hasegawa canopy fit were both less than ideal. The Kayaba Ku-4 was originally a glider prototype from 1940 that was resurrected to an experimental ramjet/rocket fighter airplane. It was to carry two 30 mm cannons with less than 100 rounds total. After making passes at B-29s, it was to glide back to an airstrip. Sort of an even more rudimentary Me-163. The Ku-4 is finished with Tamiya rattlecan, while the Ki-49 is a rattlecan base with Vallejo acrylics on top. Enjoy!

This is my most recent completion, Sword's Ki-84. I like the Frank a lot, it has clean lines and good looks, a true fighter aircraft. Some years ago I built Hasegawa's excellent but dated kit, and I've been looking for an opportunity to build another one. When I came across Sword's pre-production version (I believe the c variant), I had to have it. Sword's kit is a popular candidate for best short run kit in these great 'What is the best xx-scale kit?' topics. As such I was curious to see how well it built. I found it to be a typical modern short run kit - nice detail, good use of resin parts (engine and wheel bay) but also somewhat spurious fit in areas (gun cover, engine cowling, wing root). All in all it built rather well but due to general hamfistedness it did take me a bit longer to complete than it should have. I drilled through the top of the wing when widening the locating holes for the gear... not my finest hour. None of the kit's issues are difficult to resolve, the only slightly problematic area is the canopy; this seems to be a bit wider than the cockpit area it sits on, resulting in a small step. I filled this with Perfect Plastic Putty but it's still noticeable, especially when compared to Hasegawa's old but perfectly-fitting kit. Sword gives you a choice of two color schemes, an unpainted aluminium plane and a 'Medium brown' with green mottling. I visited Nick Millman's blog 'Aviation of Japan' to get a line on the shade of brown I needed, and using the color swatches I found I created my own using some RAF Dark Earth as a base, mixed with Tamiya Red Brown and Olive Drab. This was applied over a coating of Humbrol Metalcote Polished Aluminium. The mottling was sprayed using Tamiya's IJA Green. I used some IJA Grey for the control surfaces, but I feel the shade is too green when I look at it now - if someone can verify what this shade should look like I'd love to hear it. Sword's decals worked well but the set has one curious omission. It appears that the lines around the front and rear of the wings are red on an unpainted surface and yellow on camouflaged surfaces. Sword provides sufficient red decals to do to the unpainted variant, but for the camouflaged variant the yellow lines around the front of the wing are missing. I stole these from a Hasegawa sheet I have, but this created another problem, a mismatch between the yellow shades of the lines. In the end I therefore used all Hasegawa decals. After decaling I saw that the yellow on the wing leading edge had a decidedly greener tint than the rather orangey yellow of the lines. Oh well. I was going to weather the plane quite severely, to try out some new techniques, then realized it was in use with a test squadron, and thought better of it - I suppose these guys must have taken some care of their mounts and/or wouldn't have used it for long. I picked some W&N water colors to apply a wash, a toothpick to scratch the paint around some of the panels in order to allow the bare metal to show through, and a combination of pastels and washes to create some staining. I used a couple of minor after-market items on this build; canopy mask by Eduard, tubing for the pitot and gun barrels from Albion Alloys, a lens for the landing light from Little Cars and EZ-line type thread from some eBay seller. In summary, a satisfying result from what is undoubtedly a very good kit of this important and beautiful aircraft. It joins its nemesis, the F6F, in my growing collection of 'Hellcats over the Pacific' - inspired builds.

I discovered one of these in my stash hidden as a freebie inside another kit and thought it might look nice next to my Judy one day. It's all sealed and in good order minus the box so a nice addition to the 'shelf breakers'. Haswgawa Toyota Starter Truck Gb http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MjYzWDUwMA==/z/dqAAAOxy4dNS2TTG/$_35.JPG http://www.hasegawausa.com/product-images/hsgs1817bs01t-lg.jpg (I see once again it's converting pix to urls...pita!) Obviously not a popular subject (only found 1 BM build pic, although hints of at least 2 more) but I am hoping someone can point to pix, plans etc of the originals. Google bought up 2 very poor quality pix but little else. Also see there's a tanker that shows up occasionally. Perhaps a fleabay/market hunt is in order... At least it will be different to the current fad of RAF WW2 vehicles.

It went a different direction than planned so lets try again in the correct sub-forum ********************************** OK I need a break from my Wiffy Walrus (those struts nearly broke me!). Here what I picked off the shelf: Yokosuka D4Y3, model 33, Suisei The box says 1/72 but a little research suggests 1/75. I'm not a rivet counter or micrometer user and as other reviews say it's basic but otherwise fine that's good enough for me. I did come across a query on fuselage diameter but this could be related to the iffy scale. Instructions are a single double sided A4. As per the plastic it is simple but effective. Decals are Hinomarus and...err... On to the plastic. Sprues (and loose bits & 'glue') ...tbc

The Toyota G series of trucks was built in huge numbers by the Japanese with the GB alone amassing 19870 units between 1938 and 1942. Hasegawa first released this 1/72 version complete with Hucks Starter in 1978. Unfortunately it's noted as 'retired' on their site but it pops up occasionally from the usual 2nd hand suppliers. I was planning on starting it in a week or two but plans change and out it came ahead of schedule. So is it worth building?...lets find out..

Hello everybody, I just wonder why Japanese navy aircraft in the latter part of the war seem to have been painted green on the upper side. Most fighting took place over more or less tropical seas where the water appears rather blue. The camouflage schemes of the US Navy reflect that. By contrast in the North (or in higher latitudes) the colder, nutrient-rich water appears more greyish and greenish. That is where the Extra Dark Sea Grey and Dark Slate Grey of the FAA fit in well. Maybe the green on the IJN planes was due to the fact that hiding on the ground (on land) became of paramount importance once most Japanese carriers were sunk after 1942, but the planes still flew a lot of time over water. Any thoughts on this topic? Ole

I'll be using the Academy kit but using the Japanese markings from a Revell kit.

Hi everyone, We were recently commissioned to create a really unique brand video for our client Yutaka Foods- Europe's largest Japanese food importer. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJMyNJ5k8e8 I just wanted to let you know that we have now built the models and shot them all, edited and uploaded the video online. The 70 secs ad was shot in London using miniature models painstakingly created by our team of model makers. (It took them 5 weeks to build 5 different sets) The actual shoot took 5 days and the entire video was shot on 16mm film. We wanted to use traditional film cameras to give the video a sense of nostalgia that you can only achieve with a real film grain. Would love to hear any feedback from the forum about the photos!

Gundam plastic model news from Shizouka : watch full album at the HLJ facebook: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=np.1431565409330318.100002440552223&type=1 MSK-008 Dijeh new kit from new Bandai 1/100 RE/100 product line: 1/100 MASTER GRADE MSN-00100 Type 100 Hyakushiki Ver.2.0 b HG Mobile Worker: RG Gundam Astray: Bandai hi-tech molding technology - parts molded from two different plastics: (probably ABS+PS because PS+PS would mixed together)

I´ve Googled all I can and I think I found every bit of web based info there is about the SAAB 91 Safir that was used by Nihon university for STOL research. Some of the most interesting sites out there are in Japanese and the Google translate is more confusing and amusing than really helpful so now I turn to Britmodeller and Hyperscale. Is there anybody out there with detailed info and hopefully high resolution pictures of this machine? the end result might be a 1 /48 scale conversion Thanks! /L

Amazing dive sight of WWII Japanese equipment lost during Operation Hailstone, on February 16-17, 1944. Anyone wanting references photos for underwater planes, armour and vehicles etc. this is a gold mine! http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2905510/Ghostly-ocean-floor-graveyard-hundreds-ships-planes-makes-eerie-memorial-WWII-attack-Japanese-Pacific-base.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490

Model presents "SHUSUI" on the day of the first flight 07.06.1945, Oppama, Japan Some time ago I built this kit and successfully participated in competitions around the world. The model is out of the box with a few extras in scrachbuild and template colors HINOMARU. P.k By P.k

Kawasaki Ki-61 Type I-TEI, #5262, Chofu, April 1945, Pilot: 244th Senai commander Capt. Teruhiko Kobayashi (reserve a/c) Kit: Hasegawa (in the meantime clearly superseded by Fine Molds and RS Models) Photo-etched parts: Eduard Wheels with rubber tires: Equipage Decals: Life Like Decals “244th Sentai Pt.2” Built in 1997 and finished initially as that dubious "Shamrock Tony" much discussed around 2000. Partially repainted and completely re-decalled in 2004. Although the level of painting and weathering leaves something to be desired being obviously below that of my more recent models presented here and the exact colours might remain somewhat controversial, lot of corrections and extra detail (wheel wells,ventral radiator, drop tanks - just to mention a few...) were done and so I dare to present it to your attention...