Double Japanese build! Ki-44 and Ki-84 -- 1/72

[opus999]

I realized that I put the wrong color in my post yesterday.  I meant to say Olive Drab 12.  I tried to edit the post, but it disappeared entirely, and now reappeared without the edit.  Hmm...

[Bob C.]

Opus, 

I was just about to address that question, but you beat me to it.  I guess most, if they are pursuing this and catch the discrepancy,  will check the Mr. Color paint list and find that #112 is a Flesh, so doubt that there will be great confusion.   

Your further instruction on your technique is greatly appreciated. 

Bob C

 

http://www.mech9.com/2010/01/mr-color-solvent-based-paint-color-chart.html       Mr. Color Paint Chart.  No idea if this is current or definitive.

[opus999]

2 hours ago, Bob C. said:

Your further instruction on your technique is greatly appreciated.

You're welcome!  

 

2 hours ago, Bob C. said:

Mr. Color Paint Chart. 

Thanks for this link, it is tremendously helpful!  It seems to be fairly current based on the paints I have here at home.  At least its a good starting point.

[opus999]

Not too much to report.  Yesterday I painted spinners and the Frank's prop:

 

 

Monday night as I was showering I realized I still needed to paint these red lines on the wings, so I masked and painted them last night.  I'm glad they turned out OK!

 

 

 

 

Tonight I had a couple of touch ups.  There's some overspray on the bottom right of this:

 

 

and there was a little "nubbin" on the right side of this Hinamaru -- very small I know, but it was noticeable...

 

 

Those repairs turned out well, so it will be gloss coating tomorrow!

 

I took a couple of minutes and used the decanted TS-30 Silver Leaf on the Tojo and took the masks off.  Turned out pretty well -- there is some ridging, but I think it will be OK.

 

 

 

 

[2996 Victor]

Both looking rather splendid, Opus; that silver leaf really does give a stunning finish. Excellent!

 

Cheers,

Mark

[opus999]

Yesterday I was able to gloss coat -- 3 coats of Alclad Aqua Gloss, hand brushed -- so by about 11 PM I was ready to decal.  Since I painted most of the markings on, I only had 4 markings and 4 stencils to do, which was pretty quick.

 

 

I always love this stage because it can be hard to imagine exactly what the markings are going to look like together with the paint and it turned out pretty neat!  

 

The next task was one that I was dreading because I wasn't sure if I could pull it off.  The decal sheet had 5 red filler cap decals, but they were used on my previous Frank build.  Usually those filler caps are round, but on the Frank they're oblong. My plan was to use the dot painting technique my wife taught me, and make two dots next to each other and connect them using a hand brush.  The trouble with this plan is its very difficult to get the dot exactly where you want it.  And by exactly, I mean within a millimeter.  So when doing single dots it works well, but putting one next to the other would be a bit of a challenge.  Usually what I do is use an enamel and put it on an acrylic gloss coat, so I get several tries to get it right because I can use a mild paint thinner to clean it off and start over.  So, nothing for it, but to get it done and It worked!  I pulled it off!  I only guffed up one pretty badly, but I was able to fix it fine.

 

 

The one on the top right in the white is the one I messed up

 

 

I also got part of the drop tanks painted.  It takes time for the Mr. Color yellow-orange to dry for some reason, so I set them aside to dry over night.

 

 

...and painted the prop.  I used FS34102 for the green.

 

 

The plan is to do the oil staining now and let that dry overnight, so I'll turn my attention to the Tojo in the meantime.

Edited September 10, 2021 by opus999

[2996 Victor]

Sheer artistry in three dimensions. Quite simply: absolutely superb! 

 

Looking forward to seeing the weathering stage.

 

Cheers,

Mark

[Andwil]

Beautiful.  We don’t see enough a Japanese subjects on here.

 

AW

[opus999]

9 hours ago, 2996 Victor said:

Looking forward to seeing the weathering stage.

Gave the Frank the oil paint treatment yesterday, I'll post photos today.  For some reason I am especially excited about the Frank.  I don't know if it's because I've had the bare metal version on the shelf for years and this just something different or what.

 

7 hours ago, Andwil said:

Beautiful.  We don’t see enough a Japanese subjects on here.

 

AW

Thank you!  Well, there's going to be at least one more in the near future because I have a Fine Molds Ki-100 on deck.  

 

7 hours ago, Andwil said:

Beautiful.  We don’t see enough a Japanese subjects on here.

 

AW

 

Quote

“Toon” kits are a waste of good plastic!

I love this.  I believe the same!  

[opus999]

As I'd mentioned, I did the oil paint treatment yesterday, giving the Frank various oil streaks and dirt streaks.  Last night I coated it with Mr. Color GX dull coat.  This morning after the dull coat had cured and hardened, I set out to re-draw the panel lines.  Here's what I used:

 

 

The pencil, a strip of Tamiya tape stacked 4 deep, and a brush to remove all the little eraser bits from when I erase. 

 

I put the lines on pretty dark because the tape guide will pull some of the graphite off making it lighter.  Also through handling the lines get lighter too.

 

 

 

 

You can see in the above pictures the small oil and dirt streaks I added yesterday.

 

When I am done with the bottom, I go over the line very, very lightly with an eraser to tone the lines down.  The graphite can be completely removed very easily so it takes a very light touch.  I also need to keep in mind that the lines will appear darker when dull coated, so there is a bit of a balancing act there.  Basically, the lines are very very faint when I am done with the eraser.  Then I dull coat the bottom and repeat the process on the top.

 

After that I got out the Tamiya weathering pastels and put in exhaust streaks and cordite streaks and junk from the wheels on the bottom.  Here's what it looks like when the panel lines and pastels are finished.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The panel lines are hard to see on top with this camera exposure, but they are faintly visible in real life.  I'm a little disappointed because the underwing stains from the wheels came out a little darker than I wanted.  oh well.  It's seen lots of service.   

 

I also put exhaust streaks on the gear doors and panel lines on the drop tanks.

 

 

I'd hoped to finish today, but was busy with other things, so maybe tomorrow.  There really isn't much left to do on the Frank.  The canopy, a watercolor wash on the gears and wheel bays, a few odds and ends for detail painting.  Then I'll look at finishing the Tojo...

[Hook]

Just stumbled on this thread - great stuff! It makes me want to build something Japanese all of a sudden...

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[2996 Victor]

Without wishing to sound like a scratched (vinyl!) record, this is a masterpiece my friend!

 

It's impossible to pick out a single aspect and say, "that's brilliant", because the whole model is brilliantly observed and beautifully crafted. Wonderful work!

 

Cheers,

Mark

 

PS I'm ever more eager to try the pencil technique!!! I'm going to have to find a kit especially

 

[opus999]

8 hours ago, 2996 Victor said:

Without wishing to sound like a scratched (vinyl!) record, this is a masterpiece my friend!

 

It's impossible to pick out a single aspect and say, "that's brilliant", because the whole model is brilliantly observed and beautifully crafted. Wonderful work!

 

Cheers,

Mark

 

PS I'm ever more eager to try the pencil technique!!! I'm going to have to find a kit especially

 

 

Aw thanks Mark... that's ever so kind!

 

As for the pencil technique: I've had several people mention they'd like to try it so I made sure to be pretty detailed about my technique.  I was thinking about it yesterday and I believe the hardest aspect of the whole procedure is erasing the lines to make them fainter.  It is so easy to wipe them out completely.  I've learned how to be incredibly gentle with the eraser.  I'm almost not touching the surface.

 

Knowing where to draw the lines can be a challenge.  Having charcoal rubbings of the lines at hand makes it fairly easy as you can measure from a datum (like an aileron hinge or bottom of the canopy).  I found on the Frank and the P-51 that, even though I thought I had sanded that puppy smooth, I could still see faint traces of the panel lines in a bright light with some magnifiers on.  That made it super-easy!    Turns out I didn't use the charcoal rubbing at all.

 

I've decided in the not-to-distant future I'm going to do the reverse and fill the panel lines on my Airfix Spitfire Mk. I and Airfix A6M2 Zero and draw the panel lines in at the end.

[2996 Victor]

9 minutes ago, opus999 said:

 

Aw thanks Mark... that's ever so kind!

 

As for the pencil technique: I've had several people mention they'd like to try it so I made sure to be pretty detailed about my technique.  I was thinking about it yesterday and I believe the hardest aspect of the whole procedure is erasing the lines to make them fainter.  It is so easy to wipe them out completely.  I've learned how to be incredibly gentle with the eraser.  I'm almost not touching the surface.

 

Knowing where to draw the lines can be a challenge.  Having charcoal rubbings of the lines at hand makes it fairly easy as you can measure from a datum (like an aileron hinge or bottom of the canopy).  I found on the Frank and the P-51 that, even though I thought I had sanded that puppy smooth, I could still see faint traces of the panel lines in a bright light with some magnifiers on.  That made it super-easy!    Turns out I didn't use the charcoal rubbing at all.

 

I've decided in the not-to-distant future I'm going to do the reverse and fill the panel lines on my Airfix Spitfire Mk. I and Airfix A6M2 Zero and draw the panel lines in at the end.

Credit where credit is due!

 

Thanks also for going into the pencil technique in depth. You've mentioned the pre-sanding rubbing before, but it's interesting that the raised panel lines can sometimes still be visible after sanding, and primer and colour coats.

 

I think it'll work really well on the Airfix Spitfire and A6M, their panel lines are trenches! I've tried spraying on a thick primer coat and sanding it back, the intention being to leave paint in the panel lines and thus reduce their prominence, but it was at best only partially successful.

 

Cheers,

Mark

[opus999]

I got through this tedium....

 

 

Sprayed it with Mr. Surfacer 1500 black, Mr. Color Olive Drab and Mr. Color dull coat.  It turned out pretty good.

 

 

 

Then it was down to the 1000 little details. I painted Mr. color Dark Earth on the exhaust:

 

 

Then I added some shading around the control surface hinges.  What I do is put masking along the hinge, then take a short bristled brush and use it to apply Tamiya black weathering pastel along the hinge from in a front to back motion, but only applying it to the 2 or 3 mm on the trailing edge of the hinge.

 

 

 

I discovered a neat trick while doing this.  I found that I put it on too dark on one aileron.  The weathering pastel will wash off with water, but it can make a real mess.  I had an inspiration and took some fresh Tamiya tape and pressed it along the dark area and when I removed it, it pulled up some of the pastel, making it lighter.  I experimented with this a bit and found I could just about totally remove the pastel by applying and reapplying the tape and burnishing it.  Nice trick!  It allowed me to back off the darkness on the aileron I'd been a little too aggressive with.

 

I sealed the pastel with dull coat and then used a water color wash on the landing gears and in the gear bays.  I sealed those in with Testors metallizer sealer.  I also painted the tail wheel bay.  So after all of that, here's what I had:

 

 

There were a bunch of other little details that I painted, but nothing I thought to take pictures of.  They would probably be boring anyway!  

 

I realized today that I still need to mask and paint the leading edge landing light. 😕 That will be my biggest task tomorrow.  The rest will be final assembly and paint chipping.

 

[opus999]

I'm calling the Frank "done"!

 

 

I got through the paint chipping and a couple minor painting tasks last night, but wasn't able to post pictures since my camera battery was dead.  Here's a couple more pictures until the RFI, which will probably be when the Tojo is done.

 

 

 

 

Kind of hard to imagine it started out as a natural metal finish made by a 20-year-old me!  Not quite a restoration on the scale of some of @Brigbeale's builds (which are a lot of fun to watch)... but I'm happy nonetheless.

 

Tonight I started masking the Tojo's control surfaces.  I got as far as the bottom before the kids appeared looking to play a card game, so I wasn't able to get the control surfaces painted.   But that's OK!

 

 

I'm not sure how the weekend is going to turn out since we have some in-laws visiting us from Wisconsin until next Tuesday.  So the WIP may get a little lean for a couple of days...

 

Edited September 16, 2021 by opus999

[Hook]

Just stumbled on this thread - great stuff! It makes me want to build something Japanese all of a sudden...

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[Brigbeale]

Cracking work there. They’re jaw-droppingly good.

Thanks for the mention as well.

[opus999]

On 9/15/2021 at 11:27 PM, Hook said:

Just stumbled on this thread - great stuff! It makes me want to build something Japanese all of a sudden...

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

Thanks!  You should join me.... you know you want to!  

 

On 9/16/2021 at 12:07 AM, Brigbeale said:

Cracking work there. They’re jaw-droppingly good.

Thanks for the mention as well.

Thank you sir!  

[opus999]

Thursday night I painted the control surfaces.  I used Alclad's dull aluminum, mainly because I couldn't see much of a color contrast in all the photos I looked at to support the idea of using the light gray green.  It was hard to tell, but it just seemed right.

 

 

 

 

After that was all the tedious masking for the Mr. Color Super Stainless Steel.  I decided to use the same color combination on the Tojo as I did the Frank I built last November.  Looking at historical photos, the contrast between panels seemed about the same between the Frank and the Tojo, and they were the same manufacturer, so I figured it was a good bet.  Notice just behind where the cowl flaps will be, there are 6 rectangles.  I don't know what these are from, but they were on most of the Tojos I looked at in historical photos and on some they were quite prominent.  If anyone knows the story behind that, I'd love to know!

 

 

 

After the Super Stainless was applied I toned it down with a misting of Alclad's white aluminum.  On my natural metal Frank build last November, I discovered that the Super Stainless by itself was too much contrast (too dark).  All the masking was taken off and new masking applied for the panels I wanted to highlight with Alclad White Aluminum.

 

 

 

 

A quick blast of that (applied carefully so it doesn't go on too thick and repeat my mishap from last November!) and I removed the masking.  I was very happy with the result.  The contrast between panels is very subtle and varies depending upon which way you look at it, which is just like a real airplane.  Now the tough part is trying to photograph it!  I made the exposure darker to play up the contrast between panels.  Keep in mind that the contrast is not this strong in real life!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I sure like how shiny it is, but I'm afraid that most of that shine will go away when I apply the Metallizer sealer to it.  The Frank from last November is not nearly as reflective.  

 

Next up are decals -- there are only a few -- and then the really difficult task of figuring out how to weather it.  I was able to weather my natural metal Frank to my liking (which was a first), so I'll try to remember exactly what I did!

[Hook]

3 hours ago, opus999 said:

I was very happy with the result.

And justifiedly so!   - looking great from here.

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[2996 Victor]

Beautiful work as always! The Frank looks fabulous in its camouflage, while the Tojo's NMF is absolutely stunning: you've definitely captured the subtleties of shade and the contrast in tone and intensity of the fabric-covered surfaces, which really sets off the alu' skinning! 

 

Cheers,

Mark

[opus999]

On 9/19/2021 at 3:20 AM, Hook said:

And justifiedly so!   - looking great from here.

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

 

15 hours ago, 2996 Victor said:

Beautiful work as always! The Frank looks fabulous in its camouflage, while the Tojo's NMF is absolutely stunning: you've definitely captured the subtleties of shade and the contrast in tone and intensity of the fabric-covered surfaces, which really sets off the alu' skinning! 

 

Cheers,

Mark

 

Thanks!  I find I've got some angst today about weathering and wear.  While the NMF Frank turned out the way I wanted, I kind of feel like I don't want this one to be as dull (finish-wise  ).  I'm not sure how to do that. So I think some experimenting is in order.  

[Bob C.]

Opus, 

This has rally been a phenomenal tutorial from start to finish!  The Frank turned out great, but the Tojo's NMF might be about the best I've seen on modelling web sites.  

I am reluctant to try the decanting of a spray can.  I can imagine the mess i would make!  So, does not Tamiya make a bottle equivalent?

In exchange for your tutorial, let me offer a tip.  I noticed the shallowness of the Tojo's wheel wells (the Frank looks good), a common Hasegawa issue.  One solution is this, and yes, I know it's way too late for your current masterpiece.  You'll need to obtain a copy of Eduard's PE set 72-255.   If you cut straight  down (inside) the sidewall of the wheel well (you might destroy the poor representation of the "roof" of the wheel well), but by gluing the PE piece to the "top" pf the wing, you are deepening the wheel well.  On the other hand, the Eduard PE set has a rather complete wheel well that builds into a nicely boxed-in area --  assuming that there is room in the wing to set it up.   It may only increase the depth by about a millimeter, but it does look much better than not doing that bit of deconstruction.     .

 

Edited September 21, 2021 by Bob C.

[opus999]

Finally an update!  Had in-laws visiting until Tuesday.  Wednesday I was able to put on the dozen decals I had (mostly stencils)

 

 

Apologies for the fuzzy picture. I also painted the prop in preparation for the stripes

 

 

 

Last night I worked with watercolors and oil paints for weathering.  I did a watercolor wash in all of the control surface hinges.  The oil paint was used to make dirt and oil streaks.

 

 

 

 

I also masked the propeller and gave it a coat of propeller brown:

 

 

After that I coated the entire a/c with Testors metallizer sealer.   The sealer will make the metal a little less reflective, but not too much, so it still looks shiny.

 

This morning I put the last 4 stencils on:

 

 

Then I did something which terrified me.  Tamiya weathering pastels do not work on the smooth surface of the metal paint.  I've struggled with this in the past and have used various means of making exhaust stains, but none completely satisfactory.  I suppose that this mimics real life because paint is porous and rough and accumulates dirt and soot, while metal, being smoother, generally does not.  I mean, it does, but not to the degree that paint does.  So, I wanted very subtle stains.  I had some pictures to match the exhaust to, which was helpful.

 

Anyway, about the terror -- I've seen folks actually airbrush on the exhaust stains.  So, I made a thin mixture (6 drops of thinner to 3 drops of paint) of RLM black gray (I figured black would be too stark) and practiced for 10 minutes on some scrap.  Once I figured i could do it without totally screwing it up, I painted for real.  It turned out OK.  I'm not crazy about how dark it turned out.  It was terrorizing because if I messed up, there was no fixing it (not without a major re-do anyway).  I don't think I'll do that again. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After that, it was canopy time!  I just about lost my mind trying to mask that canopy.  The trouble is that all the window corners are rounded.  So after an hour of cutting and re-cutting and I only had one panel done I jumped on to the computer to see if there were pre-cut masks available.  There are and even though the shipping cost was highway robbery I bought them anyway.  What price sanity, eh?  Unfortunately they say that the masks won't arrive until October 4th!  For that price I expect the delivery guy to bring it right to my bench on a silk pillow and a couple of chocolates!  So, it looks like the Tojo will be all done except for the canopy for a couple of weeks.

 

After that I had a bunch of little details, but here's where I'm at as of now:

 

 

 

 

I got out my other Hasegawa Tojo kit that I got a couple months ago to look at something and I noticed that the decals (copyright 2012) were pretty close to what I'd painted on!

 

 

Big difference between the copyright 1989 and 2012 decals!

 

 

So, I just need to finish the tires and mount them, paint the nav lights and mount the gun sight and then it's set aside to wait a couple of weeks!

 

 

Edited September 25, 2021 by opus999
wasn't done yet!