A riveting project, by George!

[Dazey]

Hello all,

 

This is only my second build of the year. It is Hasegawa’s 1/72 Kawanishi Shiden-Kai (George). The moulds are from the 1980s and there was a lot of flash, but the fit was OK and the engraved detail quite fine. I like these older Hasegawa and Fujimi kits. This was my first attempt at adding “rivets”.

 

Here are some images I used for reference:

 

 

As I was about to add the decals, I read somewhere (probably on Nick Millman's excellent Aviation of Japan site), that the identifying stripes on the fuselage were actually white, so these were hand-painted after masking rather than using the decals. Not the neatest, granted, but I couldn't live with the yellow or red stripes once I knew. Please don’t tell me that the lettering should also be white rather than yellow!

 

Pilot figure (actually a chimaera of two figures): The Red Box IJN pilot and groundcrew set (fantastic detail and poses, but the plastic was a pain to work with).

Paints: mostly Tamiya, Lifecolor and Vallejo IJN set.

Decals: kit’s with MicroSet and MicroSol. I had problems getting them to conform (and have the hinomaru stay in one piece).

Weathering: silver pencil before clear coating, then oil washes.

Base: blue-tinted resin with metal weights, cotton wool (for clouds or white caps – whatever), acrylic rod and rare-earth magnets.

Modifications: scratch-built cockpit details, mostly from stretched sprue and offcuts; kit canopy came as one piece, so that was cut in thirds; “invisible thread” for the aerial. I also used strips of painted decal for the framing of the canopy (after clear-coating them). It was fiddly, but better than masking or hand-painting. Exhaust pipes and cannons were drilled out with a pin vice.

 

Here is a photo of the George kit from a post on another forum to give you an idea of the amount of cockpit detail (not much):

 

The finished model:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And some in the wind tunnel :

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I may try some outdoor shots and update the photos in a couple of days.

 

Feedback and constructive criticism welcome. Thanks for looking!

Regards,

David

Edited August 28, 2017 by Dazey

[Lowbrow]

Nice! I built that when it was new...need to do it again. Your rivet detail enhances it a lot IMHO.

[ArmouredSprue]

Nice

[Dazey]

On 8/29/2017 at 5:23 AM, Lowbrow said:

Nice! I built that when it was new...need to do it again. Your rivet detail enhances it a lot IMHO.

Hi ArmouredSprue and Lowbrow,

 

Thanks for the kind words. 

 

Regards,

David 

[Cookenbacher]

I missed this first time around, great build David!

[jrlx]

Hi David,

 

Excellent work! I like the weathering and the worn out paint. Very well done. My only suggestion would be to apply a coat of matt varnish as it seems to be a bit glossy.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

[Dazey]

On 12/30/2017 at 3:25 AM, Cookenbacher said:

I missed this first time around, great build David!

thanks Cookie!

 

7 hours ago, jrlx said:

Hi David,

 

Excellent work! I like the weathering and the worn out paint. Very well done. My only suggestion would be to apply a coat of matt varnish as it seems to be a bit glossy.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

Thanks Jaime,

 

I agree with what you say about the gloss level. I haven't yet found an acrylic matt varnish that I'm happy with (haven't tried many, and none on the George!). Do you have suggestions for good brands? I prefer Vallejo ModelAir at the moment.

 

Incidentally, the clear coat on the George was made worse by me brush painting it on (thickly, too). That also had the effect of dispersing a lot of the silver pencil marks I had used for the weathering, giving the gloss sheen a metallic look to it too! Which was a pity, because I was happy with the Vallejo green finish and weathering before that.

 

Regards,

David

[jrlx]

17 minutes ago, Dazey said:

Do you have suggestions for good brands?

David,

 

I've tried a few brands and the one I'm sticking with is Alclad's Flat Kote. It is designed to be used with an airbrush without the need for a thinner. It must be very well shaken before use but this is the same for all flat coats. It's not an acrylic varnish and the airbrush must be cleaned with cellulose thinner.

 

I've used micro flat initially but it is very "hit or miss". I've also tried Winston & Newton Galleria Matt but the finish was grainy with white specks. This was probably due to operator error, as many BMers use it without complaints. I airbrushed it and used IPA as thinner IIRC.

 

Hope this helps

 

Jaime