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Infamous ship-killer


Torbjorn

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Started with the cockpit, it is slow going. The PE fret contains almost a hundred pieces. :o Bought it blind, since I could not find details about it, but I was positively surprised. It has fine details, and contains cockpit and exterior detail. Including torpedo flippers and propellers (doh). It also has the ASV radar - antennas and equipment -  that was in use late in the war. It’s almost a shame I won’t be using it.

 

Here’s one of the finer pieces, the radio, compared with the kit styrene:

 

cgxWWCQ.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

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wow they are small and nicely done.

 

That PE set sound very much like the Voyager one I have for a 1/35th Duster, 7 odd sheets of PE plus other bits, 700 or 800 bits in total!!! way over the top.

 

At least with the "green house" canopy you'll be able to see a lot of it. Just leave out the non-essentual bits to help save time and your eyesight!

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On 4/4/2019 at 2:11 AM, trickyrich said:

wow they are small and nicely done.

 

That PE set sound very much like the Voyager one I have for a 1/35th Duster, 7 odd sheets of PE plus other bits, 700 or 800 bits in total!!! way over the top.

 

At least with the "green house" canopy you'll be able to see a lot of it. Just leave out the non-essentual bits to help save time and your eyesight!

Yeah, I’m cross-eyes already :o Will probably leave the canopy open. 

 

 

I’m almost finished building the interiors. The kit has the floor and lower half of the sidewalls as one piece. This solution has both good and bad sides. Like this (the bulkhead is only dryfitted, with some sinkmarks being filled.

 

iSh3eYJ.jpg

 

 

 

This is the pilot’s office. That chair doesn’t look very comfy, but I don’t want to hide those details with a cushion anyway. I’m trying something new with the seatbelts: glue them on before painting to make glueing easier and leave less trave. Some cables are hanging around, a result of the walls being split in two. Among other things I drilled out the holes in yhe floor and rebuilt the parking-brake-thingie. 

 

VG8EYt7.jpg

 

Below the cockpit of the bombardier/observer. Like the pilot’s seat his chair is attached to a pulley system so the he can raise or lower it. In front of him he has handles for bomb release. The hole in the floor is awindow.

D661dN3.jpg

 

As you can see the chairs get less and less comfy the further back you get:

 the radioman/gunner had a rickety camping folding chair. When using the gun, the chair was folded and attached to the wall. I used tamiya tape on the PE frame. I will add some more stuff in this compartment.

 

rBaBaTf.jpg

 

 

This might be of interest for some. See the part number 5 below: this is the observer’s instrument panel attached to the bombsight. As I am building a plane armed with torpedo this will be removed. The bombsight was stowed to the starboard side otherwise. My bombsight went into orbit when I cut it off from the IP so I will have to make a new one.

 

1dMgbVp.jpg

 

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On 4/7/2019 at 8:51 PM, Hewy said:

Excellent pe work, 

 Thank you :)

 

 

Today I took a pair of perfectly functioning UC legs:

 

n0HKvvi.jpg

 

...and cut them in four pieces each:

N2zoC6p.jpg

 

To the left and in front are the replacement piston and PE scissor links. I never get a satisfactory sheen on the piston and now I found some metal rod of unknown pedigree which had just the right diameter, so I thought why not? I hollowed out the legs ever so gently - one of four cracked but was repairable.

 

With added brake lines, the result is below. As a bonus, the piston was not glued on the upper side, so it can slide inside the drilled out cylinder. The scissors are a bit flexible so I can now simulate change in load. Not that I will use this functionality much (in reality it just so happened I simply didn’t dare to glue both ends - to avoid the piston getting stuck in the wrong position).

 

sD13iFs.jpg

 

 Also, take a peek on the PE replacement UC doors:

 

i1i6MfN.jpg

 

——

 

Started painting the interior, Vallejo model air colors. For the record, for the green I used a mix of mainly 71.126 “IDF green”, with some .006 “Cam. light green” and .132 “Aged white”. Two coats with the last mixed with more white. I have started painting cockpits lighter than the real stuff since it is usually too dark to see much once the fuselage is closed otherwise.

 

. I also had a test run of that half-transparent blue-green primer that will cover the wheel wells (correct me if I’m wrong!). I used leftover cockpit color and French blue, thinned, sprayed on aluminium base. Although I think the shade is ok, it didn’t get the metallic shine I hoped for. Maybe I should have thinned the blue more.

 

PDc0FGb.jpg

 

Edited by Torbjorn
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Thanks, Rich, though a bit hasty - under the masking tapes hide 4 four wires and a receiving unit, which upon some contemplation must be those connecting the side fuselage ASV radar antennas... Which were only on the drawing table in 1941 (or not even that?). Ah, well, now I at least have all antennas and their wiring as well the display unit, in case the future will need them. Will just have to do some surgery to this one first. 

Edited by Torbjorn
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Cockpit is finally finished. 

vLpb4TY.jpg

 

Instrument panel is of the film-and-etched-cover kind:

O7xx5Kt.jpg

 

I will put some varnish to simulate the glass (ok, *almost* finished the cockpit. 

 

In front of the radio the stowed-away bomb-sight can be seen:

 

O1HQAg5.jpg

 

 

I also had another shot at the blue primer. This time I kept it simple and just mixed blue, a liitle bit green with metallic aluminium paint and sprayed directly on the bare plastic (because I forgot to prime), and I like it better:

 

osPfRyC.jpg

 

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gosh you rarely see 1/48th (or even 1/32nd) cockpits as nice as this one is and it's in 1/72nd!

 

Brilliant job, I just love the attention to detail!! Awesome job!  :worthy:

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Thanks guys. I can warmly recommend the PE set. Great details and everything fits. It’s this one:

 

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/marabu-design-m72033-nakajima-b5n2-kate--1160058

 

It doesn’t say anywhere but it contains details for the cockpit, as you’ve seen (I used all except radar equipment and some levers for which I prefer to use wire), torpedo (torpedo and torpedo sight), bombs and bomb racks, Uc doors and scissor links and radar antennas (4 of them, as on the Kate captured on Saipan) with drilling jig for antennas and torpedo sight.

Edited by Torbjorn
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  • 2 weeks later...

Easter is over; back to work :(

 

 I have gotten a little modelling time in between at least. 

 

Before fusing the major pieces together I made some last changes. On the upper wings there are 4 tear-drop shaped objects which were running lights. The kit has them protruding, which I find unlikely. I have seen similar on other Japanese planes, where they have been flush. I therefore:

1. cut them away

2. drilled one large and obe small hole with diameters corresponding to the fore and aft radii

3. nibbled away with knife/mini chisel (ie a sharpened broken-off knife tip) to form an indentation the shape of the teardrop

4. started painting (red on port and blue stb) and preparing to fill with clear-drying glue before I realised it is much easier to do this AFTER the final paint job is done (no masking requied)

 

Original:

Co8umLv.jpg

 

After point 3:

zlQC4k2.jpg

 

After 4, to be finished later:

pwyRdfP.jpg

 

 

 

 

I also made rivets on wings and fuselage, which you may or may not see on the pics.

 

 

 

 

 

I have started glueing together wings and fuselage, and it is getting time to decide which particular aircraft to depict. The kit contains decals for one plane which took part in the PH raid: EI-311 of Shokaku. All or most planes carried the code on the fin and the last two digits on the underside of each wing (ie ”11” in this case). The mottled camoflage of the Shokaku B5N2s made them the most interesting-looking, but no Shokaku plane carried a torpedo - their aircrews were not considered trained enough for the task. 

 

My preference is an plane that actually hit something. The easiest would be either AI-311 of Akagi (torpedo hit the West Virginia), AII-311 of Kaga (also hit West Virginia), since I can use the underwing ”11” decals and reuse most of the fin markings. They are a tad boring with the common all-green paintjob though. The Hiryu and Soryu planes had more attractive paintjobs: less-than-perfect overpaint of green on the base grey making them look mottled. Unfortunately that will require some really annoying masking and painting: - alternatives are BII-302 (West Virginia again) BII-320, BII-325, BII-327 (all Oklahoma).

 

See here what I mean (Hiryu/Soryu torpedo bombers, other threads for other carriers):

http://japanese-aviation.forumotion.com/t44-18-pearl-harbor-raid-soryu-s-and-hiryu-s-torpedo-bombers

Edited by Torbjorn
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Getting closer. I cut away the wing tip light and replaced with clear sprue. The incision is larger than the light (the light is just 1/3 of thr clear piece) for two reasons: easier to make nice seams and more area for the superglue which has to hold for some serious sanding:

uD4869Y.jpg

 

 

Airfix has molded handsome fabric effect on the control surfaces. Too bad that includes the flaps, which were metal in real life. Putty to the rescue! By the way, Airfix has included two sets, I will show it flaps down.

 

ReKUuyD.jpg

 

Assembled all the major components. It really does have big wings:

 

riBs1y0.jpg

 

 

I will likely go for a Hiryu or Soryu bomber. They are often depicted as mottled in green and brown, but I feel the other narrative is more likely: that the “brown mottles” seen in images are in fact the lower coat of amber grey shining through an incomplete cover of green paint. I have no Japanese colours in my collection so I started experimenting to mix a convincing Nakajima amber grey. I use Vallejo, tried first with a mix of Aged white and the  green grey I use for RLM02. I tested it on the subject itself, to check seams:

 It appears darker here than in real life. I’m not totally convinced.

xMWa1gY.jpg

 

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Sprayed the whole thing with the gray-green that will cover the underside and be seen through the mottled green oversprayed green on the upperside. Since I tend to forget (which is annoying when repainting something), the mix was

1 part 71.119 grey white

1 part 71.023 Hemp

2 parts 71.044 RLM02

 

d9PjnhN.jpg

  

 

 

...and I’ve misplaced the tail wheel :(

Edited by Torbjorn
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Kate camo over PH was an olive green applied over a grey-green undercoat. The undercoat was apparently quite glossy while the green was flat. Therefore I dosed the entire airframe with a satin coat (cause gloss makes it too shiny) over which a flat green will be applied. This means the decals will not go on top of a gloss coat, but there aren’t awfully many of them anyway. Weathering will be light so I’ll try to apply that directly on the paint. A bit experimental, might have to abandon the plan if it doesn’t work out.

 

Coat drying; on makeshift tricarriage to allow a coat all over at once:

 

2zZMFP6.jpg

Edited by Torbjorn
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Glad to see you've been making good progress with this one. I'm also learning a lot on the subject from reading through your thread :thumbsup:

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On 5/4/2019 at 4:05 PM, trickyrich said:

gee she's looking nice and just so much bigger than the 1/72nd scale she is....awesome work!

She *is* big. The Fokker D.VII I’m toying with can fit on one wing.

 

Got the green coat on. I’m contemplating whether I made a too thick cover and if I should make some mottling with the under coat. Otherwise it’s on to painting the black cowl and ID and command bands.

The photo reveals two things: I’ve located the tail wheel but knocked off the torpedo sight in the process. It’s written off, which is maybe a postiviw thing since the PE piece looked quite flat. Will make one out of wire instead.

 

7ZScMqq.jpg

 

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I don't think it looks too bad/thick, you could always mist over some lighter green just give it that extra patchy/faded look?

 

I think the colour will "change" a bit once you have the rest of the painting and markings done.

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