A5M4 Claude 1/48th Finemolds

[Fatboydim]

Mitsubishi A5M4 Claude, 
Imperial Japanese Navy, 
I N J Kaga, 
Finemolds 1/48th scale

 

Click on WIP to see the build thread.

 

The kit contained 67 parts, and apart from the seat harness, was built straight out of the box including decals. It was painted with Aclad II, Aeromaster & Tamiya Acrylics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking, Joe. 

[fewr9fkr9595]

Gorgeous mate. Nice touch with the angled tail wheel 👍🏿

 

Ps where did/do you get the plate from/done? Another nice touch  

[polo1112]

Great model !!!

Beautiful work !

Fantastic finish.

[mcdonnell]

Hello,Joe - Great to see you back 'On Radar'! What a superb start with this splendid looking 'Claude'. I love the quality and detail of the painting and finishing work. The NMF and most subtle weathering are also spot on in my opinion. 

😉👍 All the very best,Paul.

 

[Ian]

Very nice indeed.

 

Ian.

[PattheCat]

I never built any Finemolds kit. Looking at your WIP it looks like a fine one.

Great work with the NMF, showing really subtle differences at catching the light. Right amount of weathering (IMHO) that  enhances the result.

A pleasure to look at such a nice little bug.

[Fatboydim]

5 hours ago, Tony Oliver said:

Gorgeous mate. Nice touch with the angled tail wheel 👍🏿

 

Ps where did/do you get the plate from/done? Another nice touch  

Thank you Tony. I'm pleased you noticed the tail wheel.

Engraving the plates is one of my jobs at work. They are part mark plates used to identify and record other information on aircraft components. The rivets are just super glued in place. 

 

5 hours ago, polo1112 said:

Great model !!!

Beautiful work !

Fantastic finish.

Many thanks polo1112, I'm glad you like it. 

 

3 hours ago, mcdonnell said:

Hello,Joe - Great to see you back 'On Radar'! What a superb start with this splendid looking 'Claude'. I love the quality and detail of the painting and finishing work. The NMF and most subtle weathering are also spot on in my opinion. 

😉👍 All the very best,Paul.

 

Hello Paul, nice to hear from you. Thank you for your kind words. 

 

3 hours ago, Ian said:

Very nice indeed.

 

Ian.

Thank you Ian. It's a great little kit and a pleasure to build. 

 

16 minutes ago, PattheCat said:

I never built any Finemolds kit. Looking at your WIP it looks like a fine one.

Great work with the NMF, showing really subtle differences at catching the light. Right amount of weathering (IMHO) that  enhances the result.

A pleasure to look at such a nice little bug.

Thank you PattheCat, it's only the second Finemolds kit I've made, the other being Porco Rosso's Seaplane (there is a link to it on the WIP thread for the Claude). Both were a joy to build. The fit of both kits was excellent, with some nice detail.

Thanks again, Joe. 

[BerndM]

Beautiful build, the metal finish as the whole aircraft looks very convincing !

The plate is a very nice touch.

[Blitz23]

Wow Joe that is a fantastic build, making me want to buy one, great job!

[Roberto]

Beautiful Japanese machine, great build and painting, I love it.

[Fatboydim]

9 hours ago, BerndM said:

Beautiful build, the metal finish as the whole aircraft looks very convincing !

The plate is a very nice touch.

Hello Bernd, and thank you. The plate was meant to be placed next to the model on a wooden base I have, but I can't find it.

 

8 hours ago, Blitz23 said:

Wow Joe that is a fantastic build, making me want to buy one, great job!

Hi Blitz23, thank you. I think you would be very happy with it if you did buy one. 

 

8 hours ago, Roberto said:

Beautiful Japanese machine, great build and painting, I love it.

Thank you Roberto, I agree, it is a beautiful Japanese machine. I think it's a very graceful aircraft. 

[Dave N]

Oh my- that's rather special!  Good to see you back on here Joe with your usual top quality building and paintwork.     Cheers, Dave

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

Fantastic build and finish Joe!

Im just about to start the Wingsy kit, and I hope mine turns out as good as your Fine Molds one. 

 

Bravo!!!

 

Jonners

[NickR]

Woah! That's lovely Joe. You've really done this beautiful aircraft justice.

 

Love the NMF you've achieved. Can I ask which colour Alclad did you use and which, I am assuming satin, finish did you use?

[FIGHTS ON]

Great build and finish. I would have paid a higher compliment, but felt that the finished model could do with a few more hours of polishing with MicroMesh........(I'll get my coat)

let me guess, Tamiya build next?

[Fatboydim]

7 hours ago, Dave N said:

Oh my- that's rather special!  Good to see you back on here Joe with your usual top quality building and paintwork.     Cheers, Dave

Thank you Dave. That's very good of you. 

 

7 hours ago, Jon Kunac-Tabinor said:

Fantastic build and finish Joe!

Im just about to start the Wingsy kit, and I hope mine turns out as good as your Fine Molds one. 

 

Bravo!!!

 

Jonners

Thank you Jonners, I've seen the Wingsy kit. It will be interesting to see how they compare to each other. I'll keep an eye out for your build. 

 

5 hours ago, NickR said:

Woah! That's lovely Joe. You've really done this beautiful aircraft justice.

 

Love the NMF you've achieved. Can I ask which colour Alclad did you use and which, I am assuming satin, finish did you use?

Thanks a lot Nick, glad you like it. I used Alclad II Polished Aluminium ALC 105. After spraying, I just polished the surface with very fine micro-mesh before applying the decals. 

 

5 hours ago, FIGHTS ON said:

Great build and finish. I would have paid a higher compliment, but felt that the finished model could do with a few more hours of polishing with MicroMesh........(I'll get my coat)

let me guess, Tamiya build next?

Your right FIGHTS ON, I did skimp a bit with the polishing. The reason being, I kept rubbing back to bare plastic, I only had one bottle of Alclad to play with, and was running out fast.

And yes, I might well do a Tamiya kit next 

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

5 hours ago, FIGHTS ON said:

Great build and finish. I would have paid a higher compliment, but felt that the finished model could do with a few more hours of polishing with MicroMesh........(I'll get my coat)

let me guess, Tamiya build next?

Well as the actual machines were finished with an overall protective varnish coat ( which may or may not have had a slight yellow tint - current thought seems to favour a slight, if any tint - but you used to see very "translucent gold" finishes on models). I would politely suggest that a "very" highly polished metallic finish would look incorrect - so I say the finish looks spot on.

 

So there.

 

Jonners

[NickR]

10 minutes ago, Jon Kunac-Tabinor said:

Well as the actual machines were finished with an overall protective varnish coat ( which may or may not have had a slight yellow tint - current thought seems to favour a slight, if any tint - but you used to see very "translucent gold" finishes on models). I would politely suggest that a "very" highly polished metallic finish would look incorrect - so I say the finish looks spot on.

 

So there.

 

Jonners

 

[WildeSau75]

Very nice build - like the painting.

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Fatboydim]

38 minutes ago, Jon Kunac-Tabinor said:

Well as the actual machines were finished with an overall protective varnish coat ( which may or may not have had a slight yellow tint - current thought seems to favour a slight, if any tint - but you used to see very "translucent gold" finishes on models). I would politely suggest that a "very" highly polished metallic finish would look incorrect - so I say the finish looks spot on.

 

So there.

 

Jonners

Hello Jonners, FIGHTS ON was only was joking about the finish. I've known him personally for a few years now. He often pulls my leg about my micro-mesh habit. It was good of you to stand up for me, but I assure you, it was only meant tongue in cheek. Joe. 

 

23 minutes ago, WildeSau75 said:

Very nice build - like the painting.

 

Cheers,

Michael

Thank you Michael. 

[FIGHTS ON]

1 hour ago, Jon Kunac-Tabinor said:

Well as the actual machines were finished with an overall protective varnish coat ( which may or may not have had a slight yellow tint - current thought seems to favour a slight, if any tint - but you used to see very "translucent gold" finishes on models). I would politely suggest that a "very" highly polished metallic finish would look incorrect - so I say the finish looks spot on.

 

So there.

 

Jonners

Whilst your answer is probably factually correct, our mutual modelling friend suffers from a very bad case of "Compulsive Micro-Mesh Polishing" or CMMP as it is often diagnosed. I thought we might be seeing Joe on the road to recovery, but alas, your answer is now only going to encourage him more. 

 

on a more serious note, your point has me thinking, was this varnish you talk of added just to Naval aircraft to counter Salt Water corrosion, or generally to ALL early bare metal planes?

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

48 minutes ago, FIGHTS ON said:

Whilst your answer is probably factually correct, our mutual modelling friend suffers from a very bad case of "Compulsive Micro-Mesh Polishing" or CMMP as it is often diagnosed. I thought we might be seeing Joe on the road to recovery, but alas, your answer is now only going to encourage him more. 

 

on a more serious note, your point has me thinking, was this varnish you talk of added just to Naval aircraft to counter Salt Water corrosion, or generally to ALL early bare metal planes?

CMMP, sounds painful!  Lol

 

as far as I know, the varnishing was on naval aircraft in the IJN.  But I must stress my knowledge is slim ( unlike my waist!)

 

Jonners

[Fatboydim]

 

16 hours ago, FIGHTS ON said:

Whilst your answer is probably factually correct, our mutual modelling friend suffers from a very bad case of "Compulsive Micro-Mesh Polishing" or CMMP as it is often diagnosed. I thought we might be seeing Joe on the road to recovery, but alas, your answer is now only going to encourage him more. 

 

on a more serious note, your point has me thinking, was this varnish you talk of added just to Naval aircraft to counter Salt Water corrosion, or generally to ALL early bare metal planes?

 

 

14 hours ago, Jon Kunac-Tabinor said:

CMMP, sounds painful!  Lol

 

as far as I know, the varnishing was on naval aircraft in the IJN.  But I must stress my knowledge is slim ( unlike my waist!)

 

Jonners

 

I can't help it, CMMD is no joke. I tried going cold turkey, trying my hardest to kick the habit. I was doing really well, I stuck to armour and Lego. My family noticed the difference in me, I could sleep at nights. I could even use public transport without people looking at me like some sort of short fat idiot. 

Then it happened, our engineer at work come to see me with a new grade of micro-mesh. We want you to try this new grade I was told. I looked at the roll, it was really smooth. I could feel myself getting hot under the collar. Slowly I started to unroll it, then I saw it! On the back, instead of 8000 grade (my normal fix), I could see the numbers 120000. 

Swallowing hard, I said ok, leave it with me. Scurrying away, I disappeared into my bunker. I put the roll down on my bench. For an hour I just looked at it (well it was my tea break and I wasn't going to cut that short for anything).

When I did try it, I found it Ok for the job I was working on, but it was even better for my polishing fetish. Before I knew it, I was doing lines again. Sometimes as much as a foot a day. On the Claude, I even found myself polishing the decals. So please try and understand, I've just gotta polish something or I will go mad. 

[woody37]

It isn't an aircraft I would normally look twice at, but your WIP caught my eye, lovely paintwork and it looks fantastic now finished

[Fatboydim]

 

2 hours ago, woody37 said:

It isn't an aircraft I would normally look twice at, but your WIP caught my eye, lovely paintwork and it looks fantastic now finished

Thank you Woody. I think it's a graceful little aircraft with it's fixed undercarriage. The Finemolds model is a lovely little kit.