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So, now there is something new from me again. It is a Hasegawa F-117A. In addition, etched parts and masks from Eduard and an ejection seat from Quickboost. The paintwork is again from the Idolm@ster series with decals, some of which are glued on in up to five layers. As gray I used MRP136. I hope the model pleases.

Now there is another new model from me. It's an F-15E, but it's not a real E. Hasegawa didn't take it that seriously. The kit is from the IdolMaster-series and is the 5th that I have built of it. For more details, I used Eduard etched parts, Quickboost ejection seats and Aires thrust nozzles. The decals were again very bad to stick on and required a lot of work. The colors are from MRP. I hope you like it.

I would like to present my version of the IdolM@ster F-117A belonging to Yukiho Hagiwara. IdolM@ster started as a simulation and rhythm video game from Bandai. Essentially, a record producer gathers a group of rising pop stars and you would follow them as they rose to fame. When it went to an anime series, the pop idols were put inside different “mecha” jets and did battle. Since the anime series, the “mecha” jets have worked their way into the Air Combat games and some other computer games. Since the French Group Build will not recognize a Mirage from the IdolM@ster Air Force, I thought an IdolM@ster build might be better accepted here. I am trying to get out of my modeling funk with this aircraft and a P-38 in that group build. I have been woefully inadequate in both building kits, not even bought any (Now I know there is something seriously wrong), and haven’t been participating on this fine forum for about 3 months. These two builds will, I hope, keep me on track and back in the game. The kit is from Hasegawa and is 1/48. However, after I opened up the box and began looking at the sprues, this was on the inside of the bottom fuselage halve. Apparently, this is a Revell-Monogram tool from 2005 that Hasegawa has chosen to rebox for its IdolM@ster series of planes. And since there is very little time left in this group build, I need to get cracking. First the box art and sprues. Then the decals for the scheme I will be doing. Two very large sheets with a little over 100 decals The cockpit is the place to start as it is built up and then put inside of the top fuselage halve. For this kit, rather than a right and left fuselage half, there is a top and bottom. It is a basic cockpit with just 4 parts. The detail on the parts is adequate. Since I am more after the decal and paint scheme and most of the cockpit will be hidden from view, it should be adequate. I put it together and did some painting and it doesn’t look too bad. Prior to putting the fuselage parts together, the cockpit is inserted in the top half and some sort of maybe FLIR thing is put in just ahead of the cockpit. The bottom half receives its own FLIR and the nose wheel well. The wings are put together. And then one of the wings is redone as I was a bit sloppy in my alignment and needed to open it back up and reglue it. The tail planes are also glued together. The rudders are designed to be moveable. Right now, I will let that feature go, but if it causes some stability problems they will probably be glued in place. The wings have to be installed in the bottom half of the fuselage prior to the top half being put on. I started with the port wing. Then both the starboard wing was attached and the top fuselage half was put on. It is going to be a big boy for a 1/48 plane. I have put the P-38 I am building for that group build next to it. The P-38 wasn’t a small craft on its own, but it is dwarfed by the 117. There are seams to be filled at along the fuselage join. The nose section was really warped and fit poorly. I guess I could leave it and then say the plane speaks to the pilot and that is its mouth, but that would just be wrong. All the seams are fixed and the base paint is put on. I went with a deeper blue than the kit plastic as some of the anime shows an aqua color and some of the anime shows a dusty blue. Since the kit scheme is a bit showy and off the wall and is supposed to be feminine looking I went with the aqua color. Once the base paint dried, I painted the intake screens metallic and then weathered with a dark wash. Now, the decal scheme would have the intake screens covered with black decals. I will try my version first to see how it looks. If it turns out piggy, then I will use the kit decals. Now, the fun part of the build; the decals. Here are the top side decal instructions. Did I mention the entire instructions are in Japanese? Having built a couple of these already, I know the decals go on in layers. (Did you notice all of the decal numbers that have to go on?) There are some exclamation points on the scheme and some numbers are in red versus the rest in black. There are some instructions that roughly translated, I believe is: “Foolish American, put these on first!” So, the base decals are started. First up, the long swoopy wing stripes. And I run into my first problem. I am a creature of habit and there is a particular plastic tub I use to soak my decals. My problem, it is way too small for these decals. I rummage through all of the plastic ware and find a suitably large bowl. The port swoopy decal goes on along with a single swoop along the backbone of the plane from the canopy to the exhaust. And in doing so, I break off a piece of the inner swoop and then carefully reattach it. Next, the starboard swoop. And, this time rather than breaking off a whole line, I just break off a piece. I put that back together After I get both top single swoops that go along the fuselage spine aligned, I cut the pieces that attach to the canopy as I plan to have it in the open position. And here it is with the initial bottom layer decals Now, having done these kits before, the decals being so large and thick, have to be persuaded to go into place and behave as initially, they look like this I know I will be using about ¾ of a bottle of Micro Sol on this kit if it is like its brethren. Now, I have to beat the decals into the surface of the kit. So while I torture them into place (or me, don’t know which!) I will stop here. As always, all comments are welcome.

I know I have professed publically my goal to not do anything but get rid of my shelf of doom (oh the shame of it all), but I needed a break from forced kit construction to constructing a kit I wanted to build. (Although, at one point in time all of the kits on the shelf of doom were also ones I wanted to build. Very complicated and disturbing how my mind works sometimes.) So, while I while away the hours sanding and filling the seams on my 1/24 Airfix Typhoon, in between when I need a break I am going to work on this Typhoon. It is Hasegawa’s reboxing of the Revell 1/72 Typhoon with the IdolM@ster decals. (I know, I am in danger of losing my mancard again, but at least this one isn’t pink!!) I have built a few of the kits in the IdolM@ster range so I know what I am getting into. The crazy decal scheme just appeals to me. Here is the box art. And here is the decal sheet which is just as big as the box. Finally, here are the instructions showing the decal scheme from all sides. Even the bottom of the aircraft has its own decorative scheme. I have not decided what to do about the ordinance though. The kit comes with many options. I do not know if the anime version carried any ordinance. Oh well, time to sort that out. Let the construction begin.

A couple of years ago I picked up a 1/48 IdolMaster F-2A by Hasegawa to do for my niece. The WIP is here http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234943817-how-to-build-an-f-2a-and-lose-your-mancard/and the RFI is here http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234944706-how-to-build-an-f2-a-and-lose-your-mancard-is-finished/. It was quite enjoyable although very detailed regarding the decal scheme. I was following a link on Britmodeller the other day that took me to HLJ website. Since I was there, might as well cruise it (addicted people will take any excuse to use!) Lo and behold, HLJ had all of the IdolMaster kits on sale. I was weak, I was not strong; I was very bad. I got this kit, the Hasegawa 1/48 F-22 Raptor in the IdolMaster scheme. I also somehow ordered all of these: So, my purchases of Micro Sol and Set will be going up exponentially due to these kits. The main appeal for me is the decal schemes; they are very decal intense. Here are the instructions. As you can see in the instructions, there are quite a few decals that have to be applied and in a certain order (that is never described in the instructions mind you) as some overlap others. The decal sheets are quite large, about 14 inches long. The parameters of the build are to get it done reasonably well, but the main focus is the end scheme of the plane. Obviously, I am not trying to get as accurate as I can F-22 Raptor. This is an anime portrayal of an actual aircraft, not the aircraft itself. With that said, upon opening the box, I am greeted with some lovely shades of plastic. I have standard Hasegawa grey sprues, a very dark black/grey sprue, and multiple sprues with a fetching shade of hot pink. (I can’t wait to go to the LHS to try and match this color. They are used to me getting the drab WWII camo colors. Guess I will tell them I am doing a flaming PR spitfire!) Since this is Hasegawa’s regular F-22 kit, the build starts with the cockpit. After freeing the parts I have a wonderful hue of plastic colors to work with. And all the parts are assembled to dry and await a very dull black base color. As the main cockpit dries, I begin work on the instrument panel and the six decals it gets. After a few doses of setting solution, the decals snuggle into place. Next up a base application of NATO black over the entire cockpit. When the base coat dries, a drybrushing of metallic silver helps to bring out detail and give a little life back to the cockpit. I have not decided if the canopy will be open or closed. If it is closed, not a whole lot will be visible in the cockpit. With such a dark base color, even with the canopy open, not a lot will be visible. Next up the main weapons bay. There are 3 bays, the main, the port and the starboard. I have already decided I will not have the side bays open. I am still debating about the main bay, so I will build that up. The main bay is put together All that is left is the six weapon racks that have to be made up. One down, five to go. And all of the weapon racks installed. The nose wheel bay is next to be built up. Here is where I am at a loss. If you look at the detail molded into the weapon bay pictures above and the main wheel bay to come, there is some fairly nice detail to the parts. For the nose bay, nothing except the one part that is attached at the end of the bay. Now maybe the actual aircraft has nothing in the bay, but I kinda doubt it. I just am at a loss as to why Hasegawa would put such effort into making the detail in the weapon bays and main wheel bay, but nothing for the nose wheel. The two side bays are removed from the sprues (great detail). And the main weapon bay, side bays and nose wheel bay are inserted into the bottom fuselage section. Finally, a rubber gasket is held in place by this round plastic cap allowing the nose wheel to be removed. A very nice touch when it will get down to painting and decaling. (In fact, after looking ahead in the instructions, all of the wheels are designed to be removable. That will be very helpful. Next up is the main wheel bay. There are four different sub-assemblies that are inserted into the fuselage. I have built those up. These are off to get a coat of white before I install them. On a side note, being the ham fisted builder I am, I frequently send small parts sailing far away from where I want them to go. I may not be too thrilled about the hot pink plastic, but it is great when having to search for lost parts!! I haven’t lost a single little small part even though I have dropped several very tiny parts. Apparently, the carpet monster does not like pink. And this is where I stop today. As always comment welcome.

Nothing screams raw, pure, outlandish masculinity like a bright, pink, aircraft covered in multi-colored flowers with Japanese Anime cartoon figures on it. (I promise after this post, I am putting on my boots, riding my horse, punching a few cows, eating very raw steak and telling SWMBO that I really don’t care what she thinks about my purchase of 3 1/24 Airfix Typhoons!! And then, I will take a blanket and find refuge outside with the dogs where I will be sleeping for a few nights.) This fine kit is Hasegawa’s 1/48 F-22 all doled out in the IdolM@ster markings. IdolM@ster started out as a video game and then expanded into books, magazines, TV shows and a movie. The F-22 IdolM@ster centers on Haruka Amami. And, that, folks is about all the knowledge I have regarding its background. If you need more, that’s what the internet is about. While feeding my slight obsession for Tiger Meet Aircraft, I came across one of these kits (there are several aircraft in the IdolM@ster series) and got hooked. This is my second with 5 more to go. The kits are somewhat decal intensive to say the least. It is the standard Hasegawa F-22 Raptor kit, albeit molded in bright pink and dark grey sprues. The trick to these kits is a very careful study of how to put on the 200 plus decals and then using a shockingly huge amount of decal setting solution to make the decals behave. With patience, the decals will settle into the kit decal as if they were painted on. To me it is an enjoyable build, different looking, and just an escape. The build thread is here. http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234964072-the-idolmster-f-22-raptor/ I am going to finish a few more conventional builds before I tackle the next kit in this series. The last picture is the kit in its new home next to the other IdolM@ster kit and some of its Tiger Meet cousins. As always, all comments welcome. Must make mental note; really, really need to fix that wheel!!