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1/72 Fujimi KV-107II-4 JGSDF


Whirly

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Thank you all for the words of appreciation and my apologies for disappearing again for a few days :(

I was distracted by various family and job affairs, on top of that there was the Flickr downtime which didn't help at all...

Anyway I made a bit of progress in the meantime and I trust I will finish my model before the deadline.

I completed application of the decals with no big accidents, opacity of the white and yellow is not optimal but there is no alternative to the kit sheet.

U/C and wheels are also on, all correctly aligned.

 

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I added on the nose this half ring antenna with some streched sprue pushed into tiny holes drilled through the nose.

 

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I replaced the fuel lines from the external tanks to the fuselage with copper wire to make something more similar to the real ones.

 

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Then I noticed  a glaring omission from the kit decal sheet: the grey surrounds for the emergency exits are missing! It's quite a visible detail and after a long and fruitless research for something useful in my used decal bank, I had an inspiration and found what I needed in an airliner set: this is another of my interests and sometimes there are more subjects than needed in the detail section. In this case the door surrounds for the Airbus A321 where surplus to my needs and could be sacrificed. It was not easy bacause of the different proportions and I had to do much cut and paste but in the end I think the result was worth the effort.

 

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And finally I installed the rear view mirrors replacing the chuncky struts with steel wire. Perhaps a bit too thin but much better, in my eyes, than the original plastic parts.

 

2019-05-21_11-09-04

 

Thanks for looking!

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Those mirrors look great, I think technically they are rear view mirrors rather than "wing" mirrors @wimbledon99 should know better 😜 . Great work on adapting the door surround decals.

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1 minute ago, Nigel Heath said:

Those mirrors look great, I think technically they are rear view mirrors rather than "wing" mirrors @wimbledon99 should know better 😜 . Great work on adapting the door surround decals.

🙌

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That's lovely attention to detail Whirly, which is adding a lot to the model.

As an aside, I'm just back from a fabulous trip to Sorrento where I discovered that Italian rain is just as wet as the British variety :winkgrin:

 

Caio

Cliff

 

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On 5/29/2019 at 5:53 PM, modelling minion said:

I think your replacement fuel lines look much better than the kit offerings and your supports for the mirrors are truly superb, work that our @Nigel Heath would be proud of.

I wouldn't even think of reaching those heights, at least not without soldered mirror supports! 😜

On 5/30/2019 at 10:24 PM, modelling minion said:

You will be pleased to know that you now have an extra week to get your build completed Fabio so you don't have to rush/compromise the final bits of your excellent build.

This is excellent news!! I was starting to loose my confidence after last few days of little or no progress... yesterday I had to repair one rotor blade which snapped off at the blink of an eye. It's already the second one and I feel the Fujimi plastic is really very brittle. Then I spent the whole evening trying to mask the cockpit windows preparing for the final satin coat: every time I went over the semi dry Maskol it stuck to the pin I was using and it peeled off... finally I came to the conclusion that this bottle must have deteriorated and I threw in the towel. A fresh new bottle was procured today and tomorrow I will try again.

So, with this new time reserve I hope to finally complete my model without any disaster: must really say thank you to you, @wimbledon99, @Nigel Heath and @CliffB for keeping high the attention and my commitment in the build!

Edited by Whirly
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On 5/30/2019 at 6:22 AM, CliffB said:

As an aside, I'm just back from a fabulous trip to Sorrento where I discovered that Italian rain is just as wet as the British variety :winkgrin:

Cliff, you were really unlucky visiting those wonderful places just in this crazy season: we never had such a cold and rainy May for ages!

Hope you compensated at least with the delicious food 🍰 

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Very pleased to hear that you are still in the game Fabio.

Please do keep going as your build really is very good and we are all enjoying watching it's progress.

Make good use of the extra time, don't rush things as you will regret it and your build deserves to be finished well.

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Ok, I'm pleased to report that I have finally crossed the finish line! 🥂

 

First a pair of images of the patchwork windows surrounds I omitted from my last post:

 

P_20190529_235041 P_20190529_235008

 

Then my restrained attempt at decalling the blade roots. Nigel's comments confirm my suspect that the three colours should be mirrored on the front and rear rotors, though I had already applied the decals and now I'm not in the right mood to redo them!

 

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The new Maskol bottle made the difference and I could finally lay down a good satin coat of the lovely Modelmaster sealer.

Here is the completed model, just need one more effort to take some decent images for the gallery!

A note about the antenna fit: some of the very early JGSDF KV-107 didn't have the masts and wires on the port side and they apparently they were never retrofitted during their service life, 51718 is one of them, so I was spared the work done by Craig and Nigel to complete their models!

Thanks for loooking

 

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Excellent work Fabio!

Really pleased that you have managed to get her across the line, especially as she looks so good.

Your window surrounds look really good, you would never have guessed that they are not ones designed for the kit.

I really like the over all green scheme and those yellow stripes stand out a treat against it.

Very well done on an excellent model, and a worthy addition to the gallery when you get some pictures in it!

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Just posted the images in the gallery so all is done now. They are not as good as I wanted but this is life, just too many other things to do for the family in this weekend.

 

I wanted to say again a big thank you to all the members who sent appreciations and encouraged me to complete the build, a special 'award' goes to MM for hosting the GB being always timely and attentive to all the active members. The number of completed builds, despite the limited appeal of the theme, is a testament to that!

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