Richard Tucker Posted November 13, 2020 Share Posted November 13, 2020 I recently bought this kit as it was a subject I had not seen before. The kit itself is actually for the drawing board version - KI87-II which was designed to prevent the turbo supercharger overheating issues present in the prototype KI87. It was never built due to the end of the war. My own rule of modelling is to try to build aircraft that actually existed so luckily, the kit comes with the fuselage and parts for the KI87 prototype which was built before the war ended. I will built that, rather than the KI87-II. Some mocked-up KI87-II colour schemes which I won't be building. Nice clear instructions and a mask that came with the kit Some sprues in the bag. You can see the 4 fuselage halves. The plastic is nicely moulded with little flash and it has a good amount of detail. Some decals I will be partially using.. I'll be building the prototype with the turbo super charger fitted in the fuselage side. What you can't see in the photos is how big this beast is. It is P47 sized! 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted November 13, 2020 Share Posted November 13, 2020 This subject is a new one to me Richard but no less worthy. Looks to be a nice kit as well. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Tucker Posted November 15, 2020 Author Share Posted November 15, 2020 Some rapid progress yesterday with the lockdown and the terrible weather. I started with reading up on cockpit colours for Nakajima. The consensus was a Cockpit grey/ green colour. I didn't have the exact Vallejo shade but had something similar so went with that. I used a spare seatbelt I had left over from an Eduard PE set. The parts were well moulded with no flash and went together no problem. I then started to build the engine. Part 15 had one fad blade that was a pyramid shape rather than a fan blade shape so this needed trimming. A little bit of trimming and it matched the rest. This was painted as per the instructions and the fuselage was closed up. It fitted together really well. The cockpit mask is 50% good, 50% useless. The mask parts on the more curved panes just don't stay down. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted November 15, 2020 Share Posted November 15, 2020 You're off to a flying start with this one 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Tucker Posted November 16, 2020 Author Share Posted November 16, 2020 On 11/15/2020 at 9:58 AM, Col. said: You're off to a flying start with this one It is a mix of the bad weather and the fact that the kit fits together well unlike the Bristol Bombay I've been building in the MTO GB. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Tucker Posted November 16, 2020 Author Share Posted November 16, 2020 More progress on Sunday as the weather was poor early on and late on. The wings fitted to the fuselage pretty well with only a small amount of filler needed in the root of both wings. Underneath needed some filling and sanding between the fuselage and the back edge of the wing assembly. I spent a while contemplating the masks and in the end, used the bad ones as templates and cut some masking tape to the same shapes. These stay down! I attached the aerial to the canopy and then roughly attached the canopy to the fuselage with a bit of clearfix ready for painting. I'm going to be using AK Extreme Metal Aluminium and so am going to be using a black gloss base coat. This worked really well on the old Hasegawa P51 I built earlier so I am going to repeat the process. I pre-masked some panels on the wings and fuselage so that the black gloss won't be covering all the panels. This should give the finish some interest. Next it was onto the black. It seems SO harsh painting the whole thing black, but having seen how the P51 turned out, I wanted to try it again. Looking at the plane and its silhouette, it is not something I could identify which is really odd for me and by geek plane identification skills I can tell you plenty of things that it isn't...... Hopefully this evening, I'll introduce it to an airbrush filled with AK Aluminium and it will take on a whole new lease of life. Mental note - take off the masking tape on the fuselage and wings first 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted November 16, 2020 Share Posted November 16, 2020 At the paint stage already? You must be working on this one almost full-time! It does look good in black but as you say will take on a whole new life in patchwork silver. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Tucker Posted November 18, 2020 Author Share Posted November 18, 2020 The aluminium paint went on a treat. The patchwork has worked well. You can see the difference in the panels in the right wing. At this point, I don't know if I should be polishing the paint or buffing it or something? It is the AK Extreme Metal Aluminium. Any thoughts? 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted November 18, 2020 Share Posted November 18, 2020 Nice work on the quality of finish I'm not sure if the surface would have been polished or allowed to dull down at this stage of the war. My personal feeling is to have it dull but it's your model and has to please you 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Tucker Posted November 19, 2020 Author Share Posted November 19, 2020 Some more gluing and sticking action was had. She now stands on her wheels. I've attached the massive supercharger. She is almost ready for some decals. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted November 19, 2020 Share Posted November 19, 2020 There's a certain Steam-punk or almost action comic look about this one when seeing it from that angle. Looks rather cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hewy Posted November 19, 2020 Share Posted November 19, 2020 the silver has gone on well , looks a nice kit 👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Tucker Posted November 19, 2020 Author Share Posted November 19, 2020 1 hour ago, Hewy said: the silver has gone on well , looks a nice kit 👍 Thank you. I'm really enjoying it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Tucker Posted November 26, 2020 Author Share Posted November 26, 2020 Some more steps completed and she is almost done. I sprayed the whole thing with Future. The decals went on ok after that. Next I did a little bit of weathering and panel liner using the AK Mig Blue/Grey panel liner. I need to stick on a few remaining small pieces like the gun barrels and do some exhaust smoke / oil from the unusual exhaust and then she's done 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted November 26, 2020 Share Posted November 26, 2020 Nice work. Almost ready for the gallery Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyOD Posted November 26, 2020 Share Posted November 26, 2020 That looks super. Great job on the silver. The box art on the kit is fantastic btw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Tucker Posted November 30, 2020 Author Share Posted November 30, 2020 I'm calling this one done. I'm really pleased on how it came out. Thank you for all the kind comments. I'll have a look in my stash and see what other interceptors I have. I'm thinking of a converting a Spitfire MK1a Airfix into a Mk ii as I bought a couple of kits from Aldi for £2 last week and the conversion kit and decals came today 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted November 30, 2020 Share Posted November 30, 2020 Tidy work and a nice result Richard, you've every right to be pleased with this one, remember to post up to 5 photos in the gallery Looking forward to your Spitfires now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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