3 RECENT 1/48s...

[bruce bay]

Another bulk post here. A few fairly quick builds while I mentally prep for the Zvezda PE-2 - the part count of which is making me a little anxious. Looks amazing though...

 

Anyway - here are my 3 last builds. As always - brushes and rattle cans on these. All 1/48. 

 

Thanks for looking - all criticism and notes welcome! 

 

Bruce

 

1ST :  was Airfix's new tool Hurricane. I wanted to try something a little less standard, and had some decals for this left over from... I think a Hase Hurricane kit. This kit really throws itself together. Real joy to build. I had a nightmare with the yellow band on the nose - which I had to sand down twice and re-do, albeit because I was cack-handed and kept touching the thick layers of yellow spray paint too soon. 

 

Chipping on this was done after main paint with Vallejo aluminium paint on a thin brush. 

 

 

 

2ND : Eduard's lovely Trop ME109. Off the bat - this was a joy - and I buggered it up at the last moment... Last thing to do was the canopy, which I masked off then confidently hit with a lovely coat of WHITE primer... So - forgive the horrible internal white on this. Was exceptionally annoying after all the work.

 

Panels were primed both white and black before Tamiya's dark yellow went on - slightly breaking up the model.

 

I also tried weathering with undiluted oil paint on this one - the desert colours lent themselves to it. So along major panel lines, and on the flaps for example I blurred in umber and white. Was quite happy with the result, but think it would be harder on a camo aircraft, or anything not yellow for that matter... 

 

Decals were lovely. Really liked the chipping on the decals. Lovely touch I thought.. unless of course you aren't trying to build this EXACT plane. 

 

 

 

 

 

3RDLY : Hasegawa's Ki44 kit. This was actually the version including contra-rotating props. But I elected to go for a normal set. Was a very nice build. No fit issues at all... Markings were all painted on. With masking fluid sponged on before the red went down to emulate wear. The rest of the plane was painted in a combination of Tamiya bare metal silver and titanium. Then I sponged on some vallejo aluminium to try and replicate the patina I saw in some photos... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[glyn]

The finish on the KI44 is superb.Very realistic.

 

Glyn

[bruce bay]

15 minutes ago, glyn said:

The finish on the KI44 is superb.Very realistic.

 

Glyn

Thanks Glyn! Sorry - should have added - the numerals on the Ki-44 are NOT painted. Those were from the spares folder! 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Great work on all three ... one question/point is the canopy correct on the Me 109 ? I always thought they opened to the right ? 

[bruce bay]

4 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Great work on all three ... one question/point is the canopy correct on the Me 109 ? I always thought they opened to the right ? 

Well! There you go - a double fouled up canopy! Good point... There aren't locator pins for the Eduard canopy, I guess I just chucked it in. 

 

All part of my itchy feet near completion of a kit problem!

 

Thanks for the note, will take care next time! 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Its ok weve all had our share of goofs. Just got confused and thought it didnt look right.

[skyradial51]

nice work, especially the  Ki44 looks super !

[Spitfire31]

The Ki-44 is my favourite, too – the finish looks very realistic.

 

The '09 is nice too – pity about the cockpit hood… ;-)

 

The Finnish Hurricane looks great, although I think that those bright silver splotches don't look anything like scuff marks – they'd need to be much more subtle and 'organic', if you will.

 

On the whole, really good work, and especially on the Jap!

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

 

[Darby]

They all look good and the '44 chipping is well done. Another point about canopies; have you left some masking on the Hurricane windshield per chance?

[bruce bay]

2 hours ago, Spitfire31 said:

The Ki-44 is my favourite, too – the finish looks very realistic.

 

The '09 is nice too – pity about the cockpit hood… ;-)

 

The Finnish Hurricane looks great, although I think that those bright silver splotches don't look anything like scuff marks – they'd need to be much more subtle and 'organic', if you will.

 

On the whole, really good work, and especially on the Jap!

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

 

I very much agree on the silver bits. I usually put some metalic paint down first then expose it after via masking fluid... with this one I was (frankly) being a bit lazy and painted it all before painting on chipping and scuffs. Certainly a less subtle and less pleasing effect, I agree. Won't be doing it again. Or at least not in such prominant areas! 

 

Thanks for the comments! 

 

 

[bruce bay]

1 hour ago, Darby said:

They all look good and the '44 chipping is well done. Another point about canopies; have you left some masking on the Hurricane windshield per chance?

Thank you. 44 was my fave of the bunch... And - I wish you were right.... I actually forgot to put some masking ON in the first place. Seems my general rush toward the end point is holding me up. I actually hadn't noticed that until now. 

 

Funny how all the flaws jump out once you hit 'post'... 

 

Thanks for the comments though. Again - will aim to rectify these things next time round.

 

best,

 

Bruce

[Troy Smith]

7 hours ago, bruce bay said:

Thanks for looking - all criticism and notes welcome! 

 

Chipping on this was done after main paint with Vallejo aluminium paint on a thin brush. 

 

 

 

Hi Bruce

OK, a few glitches.

 

the area around the Hurricane canopy, including the escape hatch is plywood covered in fabric. 

 

You seem to have added the Rotol spinner  baseplate (the black bit) to the De Havilland spinner,  making the spinner look really odd. and the tips stayed yellow,ans the spinners stayed black, some with yellow tips.

 

The sit of the open canopy looks odd,  I'm wondering if you have used the closed section part instead of the open section part? The kit has both as Hurricane canopies flex as their canopy rails  are curved,  and their shape is slightly different when open and closed as a result

here's a warbird photo which shows this detail well, the canopy flexes down a bit as well when shut, as seen here

 

 

The colours shown are the continuation war repaint. They were originally supplied in RAF colours,  and the Finnish markings applied by the British before export,   and these were in standard  Hurricane positions,  a quick look at Finnish Fighter Colours shows they stayed in the same position when repainted

more technical details,  the planes the Finns got were N**** serial planes,  so, pole attenas, 5 spoke wheels,no rectangular access hatch on the starboard side and De Havilland Spitfire prop, (the kit DH unit is the Hurricane type  see http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234980181-hawker-hurricane-propellers-and-spinners-a-modellers-guide/& if you want all the details  of props)

THis means OOB the Airfix kit can't be built as a Finnish plane,  but it's pretty close.

this small shot shows all these details

 

this is the Hurricane preserved in Finland,still in these colours..

 

I'm posting this lot Bruce   as your building and painting skills are excellent!

 

really neat work,  no construction flaws and a really crisp and smooth paint finish on all three.

 

you just need to do a little research when building to check some details,   so I hope this is of  interest.

 

The Ki-44 is really well weathered

 

cheers

T

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Head in the clouds.]

What a great trio of builds, your weathering skills are exceptional and the build quality look superb.

As Troy mentions above research is key IF that is your want but No matter how much research I do I always end up altering something mid build or missing it altogether, as you said when you hit the "post" button. IMHO though it most certainly does not detract from the builds.

 

Great builds and look forward to more.

Gary

[bruce bay]

6 hours ago, Troy Smith said:

 

 

Hi Bruce

OK, a few glitches.

 

the area around the Hurricane canopy, including the escape hatch is plywood covered in fabric. 

 

You seem to have added the Rotol spinner  baseplate (the black bit) to the De Havilland spinner,  making the spinner look really odd. and the tips stayed yellow,ans the spinners stayed black, some with yellow tips.

 

The sit of the open canopy looks odd,  I'm wondering if you have used the closed section part instead of the open section part? The kit has both as Hurricane canopies flex as their canopy rails  are curved,  and their shape is slightly different when open and closed as a result

here's a warbird photo which shows this detail well, the canopy flexes down a bit as well when shut, as seen here

 

 

The colours shown are the continuation war repaint. They were originally supplied in RAF colours,  and the Finnish markings applied by the British before export,   and these were in standard  Hurricane positions,  a quick look at Finnish Fighter Colours shows they stayed in the same position when repainted

more technical details,  the planes the Finns got were N**** serial planes,  so, pole attenas, 5 spoke wheels,no rectangular access hatch on the starboard side and De Havilland Spitfire prop, (the kit DH unit is the Hurricane type  see http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234980181-hawker-hurricane-propellers-and-spinners-a-modellers-guide/& if you want all the details  of props)

THis means OOB the Airfix kit can't be built as a Finnish plane,  but it's pretty close.

this small shot shows all these details

 

this is the Hurricane preserved in Finland,still in these colours..

 

I'm posting this lot Bruce   as your building and painting skills are excellent!

 

really neat work,  no construction flaws and a really crisp and smooth paint finish on all three.

 

you just need to do a little research when building to check some details,   so I hope this is of  interest.

 

The Ki-44 is really well weathered

 

cheers

T

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

T, thanks so much. All of this is really really useful. 

 

I hadn't even clocked that spinner being totally the wrong size! And you are right. I need to brush up my research, that's the next step. At present I sort of build rough approximations for fun. I think I would get far more out of it with some time spent properly looking into these things though.

 

And yes - I likely did use the wrong canopy. Crikey - real catalogue of canopy errors in there. 

 

Thanks again for all of that information - extremely useful and will be employed next Hurricane-round.

 

Bruce