ProfSparks Posted June 24, 2020 Share Posted June 24, 2020 Hi All I recently acquired a set of Hataka Royal Air Force paints, and have been looking for something to try them on. Enter the venerable Revell (nee ICM) P-51 mustang Mk.III Dark Green and Ocean Grey over Medium Sea Grey. Classic. The size of the box is perhaps making up for a personal shortfall? Over twenty paints to memorize! One of the schemes is 315sqn FB145, but as the 'Sky' looks a little greenish to me, I'm going to us a sheet from Xtradecal that has FB166 It's also on the back of the Hataka packet, so it must be right Alas, I have read through threads discussing the application of the Invasion Stripes or not to this aircraft, and mixing it up with Horbaczewski other Mustangs coded PK*G (FB382 and FB387), and am unconvinced on the time, the stripes, and their position. So, to sidestep the stripe calamity, I'm going to do her as the only photo shows of her (May 4th 1944) without stripes (except for the single white wing ones shown here). https://www.super-hobby.com/products/North-American-P-51-Mustang-III-606365.html#gallery_start And https://www.super-hobby.com/products/North-American-P-51-Mustang-III-606172.html#gallery_start Would this be a plausible finish? Anyhoo, on to the parts! The 'clear' parts include the standard and 'Malcolm' canopies, and, oddly, a couple of IP (more of which later...) Some nice surface detail (and thankfully no sprue gates on the fuselage upper seam line, gets my vote every time) A single piece nose cowling and decent UC bay A choice of loaded and unloaded tyres (pity about the flash on the tread) Shrouded or unshrouded exhausts, two styles of prop, etc etc. First up, there are a couple of filler pieces that are sides to the radiator exit, no definite locating in general A touch of filler , but not much will be seen once the door is on Inside, the seat bulkhead fits under the Port sidewall detail But needs to be trimmed round the details on the Stbd sidewall to get it to sit straight You can just make out in those photos the braces I added to stop the rear of the cockpit floor (acting as the roof of the rear radiator vent) from falling in. Back to the clear IP, it's too tall to fit And is not the same as the decal (it's quite close, though) I'll paint it black and stick the decal on top. Bingo bongo. Thso, OOB with some assumed licence. Comments and suggestions welcome Cheers Steve 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sturmovik Posted June 24, 2020 Share Posted June 24, 2020 When I tried to build mine, both fuselage halves were warped, so the kit went into the shelf of doom. It's the only kit I've shelved so far. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GREG DESTEC Posted June 25, 2020 Share Posted June 25, 2020 Out of the box it looks very like the Tamiya kit and has good details. my only word of warning would be dry fit the wings to fuselage assemblies before going anywhere near the glue! the wings try to invert themselves! Other than that it was good. cheers Greg 🍺 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProfSparks Posted June 28, 2020 Author Share Posted June 28, 2020 Hi All This Hataka could be good stuff! Shook ATK-A025 Interior Green (there's something in the bottle that rattles to shake it from the inside too) and sprayed with my usual 0,4mm 18psi, smooth, no problem As a colour match it's right in the ballpark of my other usual Vallejo Model Air. Slightly darker than VA71.305 Int Grey Green, and slightly greyer than VA71.126 IDF/IAF Green. A quick wash with watery black picks out the detail nicely Cockpit walls, seatbelts supplied as decals And buttoned up On 6/25/2020 at 12:01 AM, Sturmovik said: When I tried to build mine, both fuselage halves were warped, so the kit went into the shelf of doom. It's the only kit I've shelved so far. Hi Sturmovik, I guess I was lucky as mine had no major warps. There are 4 or 5 short runs of fuselage seam that I did one by one to try to get them as close as possible Good wheel well details (although I've already lost one of the door actuators ) Scoops and upper nose cowling are supplied as full parts And all in all it's going together without hassle On 6/25/2020 at 7:11 AM, GREG DESTEC said: Out of the box it looks very like the Tamiya kit and has good details. my only word of warning would be dry fit the wings to fuselage assemblies before going anywhere near the glue! the wings try to invert themselves! Other than that it was good. cheers Greg 🍺 Hi Greg, duly noted and acted upon, thanks! Looking forward to having it mostly together ready for paint Comments and suggestions welcome Cheers Steve 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GREG DESTEC Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 Looking good Steve 👍 Excellent progress too. I really prefer the P-51B/C to the D model. Cheers Greg 😁 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProfSparks Posted July 14, 2020 Author Share Posted July 14, 2020 Hi All Canopy masked and fitted And the undersides given a coat of Ataka A034 Medium Sea Grey A couple of important points to note at this juncture. Firstly, this MSG seems to be slightly thicker than the Cockpit Green, and has dried slightly textured. A stickie on the bottle will remind me of this in future. And secondly, I have neglected to pre-paint the white areas for masking 🤦♂️ Anyhoo, back to square one and on with some white. I still seem to have difficulties with white, as neither Vallejo nor Stynylrez White Primer took with any conviction. Not to worry, onward. Ataka A026 Sky"Type S" fuselage band went on smooth and was masked Vallejo VA71.078 Yellow RLM04 on the leading edges All masked again and a second covering of A034 Still slightly lumpy, but that's just the previous layer 🤥. I'll give it a covering of Pledge before I mask for the upper colours. Comments and suggestions welcome Cheers Steve 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyOD Posted July 14, 2020 Share Posted July 14, 2020 I'm following this, because it looks like a great build, and your use of the expression "bingo bongo" is commendable. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProfSparks Posted July 24, 2020 Author Share Posted July 24, 2020 Hi All Top surfaces done in Hataka A016 Dark Green. Still slightly slimy to my eye, not smooth like the Sky or Interior Grey Green Anyhoo, on with the worms And Hataka A032 Ocean Grey Off with their heads... I like the colour match, but not convinced about the finish. Perhaps experimenting with the pressure/nozzle is on the cards? I'm going to use the supplied Revell decals for the main insignia, and the Xtradecal sheet X038-48 for the aircraft specifics Those Xtradecal are a delight, wafer thin, opaque, and conform beautifully. The Revell ones, well, they're on And after a dowsing with Micro Sol seem to be getting there Some Pledge, Flory and a Matt topping to come. Comments and suggestions welcome Cheers Steve 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProfSparks Posted July 31, 2020 Author Share Posted July 31, 2020 Hi All Mud, glorious mud! And off again. It's going to be at the scruffy, well used stage A matt coat, then clear Tamiya paints dropped in over a silver base for the wingtip lights Drop tanks and legs on And there she is I'll get some photos for RFI Comments and suggestions welcome Cheers Steve 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GREG DESTEC Posted July 31, 2020 Share Posted July 31, 2020 Excellent results 👍 Well done 🍺 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Headroom Posted July 31, 2020 Share Posted July 31, 2020 That’s nice! Trevor 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shark444 Posted July 31, 2020 Share Posted July 31, 2020 Looks great! Never used Hataka paints, but they look like they flow out quite nicely. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAT69 Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 You trained the worms well. They aided magnificently in the camouflage painting. The cockpit is excellent and the total build looks very good to me. Display with pride! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shalako Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 (edited) On 6/25/2020 at 1:53 AM, ProfSparks said: The size of the box is perhaps making up for a personal shortfall? That's a trick Revell knows it works well!!! Especially, on kids! I remember as a kid I used to be allured by the size of the box Revell was using for its kits, but after a couple of them and the disappointment they had generated I never bought again a Revell kit. It was only a few decades ago and the reviews in scale models magazines that made me change my mind and started to buy again Revell's kits. BTW, beautiful work! Edited August 1, 2020 by Shalako 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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