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1/72 Fujimi KV-107II-4 JGSDF


Whirly

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Finished the cockpit with cyclic and collective lever, then my cheap simulation of seat belts with grey painted paper tape.

 

P_20190328_230127

 

P_20190328_230434

 

P_20190328_230120

 

Finally the fuselage is closed. Hoped for better fit, all the joints needing attention and remarkably big gaps near the transmission cover (apologies for the dark images).

Will need several applications of Tamiya liquid putty.

 

 

P_20190402_071644

 

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P_20190402_071638

 

Thanks for looking!

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thank you all for the positive comments!

 

On 4/4/2019 at 9:37 PM, wimbledon99 said:

Nice job in joining the two halves! Can I ask, why the tape along the window line?

 

Simply to avoid scratching/smearing the windows before applying proper masking, no secret techniques here 😉

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On 4/15/2019 at 10:41 AM, Whirly said:

Thank you all for the positive comments!

 

 

Simply to avoid scratching/smearing the windows before applying proper masking, no secret techniques here 😉

Nice tip!! Never come across that before. Cheers :smile:

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Been quite busy in the last few days and did also small progress in the build due to the poor fit of the components.

First a view on the rear pilon details: I used a sprue as support for the scratchbuilt pieces

 

P_20190403_230233

 

which created a problem with the cargo bay roof...  ok, just a minute work with a file.

 

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then I had to scratchbuild the ventral winch panel: somehow it was missing from my box.

Look how much filler, dissolved putty and plasticard I used.

 

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very poor fit of the tail components. As I said elsewhere it's better to glue each part to the respective fuselage and then join all together.

 

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more filler needed also for the interchangeable engine panels.

 

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that's it for now. I will be away for a few days, Happy Easter to everyone!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Time for an update! I had little time lately and tried to use it on the bench as much as possible.

 

Canopy masking was fun but with a little bit of patience didn't take more than a hour. Notice how I managed to place a nice Tamiya glue drop on the right window 😩: I tried with every canopy treatment I knew but there was no way to remove the milky dot...

 

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This side is still good thank's God! Please note the vents just behind the canopy were filled since they are not present on V-107 and CH-113s, only H-46s have them.

 

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Here I had a bit of luck while masking the side portholes since they are exactly the same diameter as a paper punch I had on my desk!

 

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Now finally ready for the paintshop: first the side sponsons were covered with white, yellow and Mr Color Fluorescent Orange.

 

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Masked and ready for the olive greeen with the side tanks.

 

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Overall Olive green applied and lastly semi-gloss black for the nose and exhaust areas plus underside of rotor blades.

 

2019-04-28_03-53-00

 

Thanks for looking!

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Wow! You have been busy haven't you Fabio!

Good job on the masking, shame about the glue blob on the side window.

The orange on the sponsons looks very nice and the olive green really makes it stand out.

This is excellent work Fabio and I have every confidence that it will make it to the gallery in time and look fantastic too.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks both for the appreciation!

Now I've somewhat recovered from my illness I'm trying to catch up on what is left to finish this model.

I entered the decals phase and it has highs and lows.... the Fujimi decals are very stiff and prone to silvering so I often had to use very strong solvent to get an acceptable result, but this slows down the process because you can't touch the model after application, risking to ruin everything.

Another drawback of this sheet I found when I came to apply the front serials: a frantic search and re-checking of the instructions followed but the truth is that they were erroneously printed in black instead of white, as if they were for the later camouflaged scheme 🤬

 

2019-05-03_02-40-34

 

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Now that is strange.

Why on Earth would they print the numbers in black when they should clearly be white like the rest of the markings? That makes no sense at all.

I hope you manage to find some suitable replacements in your stash Fabio.

Talking of decals, did you manage to sort something out with Mike from Belcher?

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Oh, sorry Craig: I wrote in a hurry and didn't remind that the decals cater for both versions, the early one I'm building and the later camouflaged one as depicted on the box cover. The decal designer had really good intentions, providing all you need to do every serial of the JGSDF in both colour schemes, probably something got mixed up when he gave directions on the colour to use for each numbers block.

Anyway, here is the continuation. My luck is that covering all four squadrons the sheet gives four COMPLETE sets of individual markings besides the single numbers series, comprising the front serials in the right white colour. A thorough search of all the known serials, possible combinations with the available decals numbers and compatibility with the double yellow stripes I had already applied on the model ( 😱😱 ) came to locate just one possible serial; JG-1718!

Before going on, let me only add that I remembered to paint the bubble windows just a moment before starting with the decals. You know that decals and masking tape aren't good companions...

 

P_20190503_214323

 

Edited by Whirly
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Oh yes I know only too well that decals and masking tape do not make for a happy combination.

That has to be the largest mask for painting a small area that I have ever seen! Looks like it has worked well.

Very glad to hear that you have the decals you need to complete her as JG-1718, there's a couple of nice pics oh her here;

 

http://dansa.minim.ne.jp/His-Mil-KV107-04-000-ARMY.htm#718

 

Decals on soon then! :) 

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Hi Craig, thank you for pointing me to these images, they are really helpful!

The green bubbles came out ok and finally could start decalling, here you can see it mostly done.

 

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I also "wasted" some time in adding this tiny yellow stripes on the mainwheels, they are very visible in most images.

 

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P.S. I got in contact with Mike Belcher and we sorted any problems with the decals, he promised to send another updated sheet.

 

Thanks for looking!

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That looks fantastic Fabio!

The over all green looks really smart and the yellow stripes and white letters and numbers really stand out well on it. I really like the extra marks you have made on the wheels, you are right that they are visible on all the pictures of KV-107s and are a detail that I meant to add to mine but completely forgot about in the rush to get her finished.

 

Glad that you have managed to sort things out with Mike Belcher, you cannot fault a manufacturer who is willing to send free replacements, something that a few other manufacturers could learn from. Having met him at Telford a couple of times he was always helpful and polite.

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Certainly a different colour scheme with the black contrasting with the Orange. As a side remark all aircraft tyres that I have worked on had those Yellow creep marks which are nearly always missed by modeller (me included), so well done for adding them.

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