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Fujimi 1/72 Douglas TA-4J Advanced Trainer


hsr

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This is the Fujimi 1/72 Douglas TA-4J advanced trainer. Considering its age the Fujimi kit is very decent requiring a minimum for filler. The only trouble area was the engine intakes which did require a bit of sanding and filler. The only issues I had where with the painting and the decals.  I used Aires seats, Eduard painted brass interior, and and a combination of the kit and Microscale, and Fantasy Print Shop decals. I dropped the front slats, and rear flaps, but left the air breaks closed.

 

For the white I used Tamiya's lacquer Liquid Surface Primer-W (87096) I like this because; it doesn't yellow like enamels will. it is a hard surface that can be sanded, it dries very quickly, and I have to use a primer anyway. Its negatives are that being a super fast drying lacquer it can not be touched up with a brush, and some enamels don't stick to it very well and can peal off when removing masking. This is not a problem I have had with the gray primer. I used Humbrol 60 for the red and I probably should have used 19 since the 60 was a little too dark and the 19 matches the decals better. I also had a problem with the 60 not wanting to dry. It stayed tacky, so if I touched it and then the white I would leave a red fingerprint. Also painting the edges of all the doors drove me crazy :mental:

 

I generally don't like Fujimi decals, mainly because their whites are more of an off white or cream. Also the kit decals were for VC rather then VT squadron and I wanted a VT squadron. So I hunted for some after market ones and found the Microscale 72-211 sheet which does have marking for VT squadrons.  I remember, in the old days, when Microscale decals where the ultimate decals you could buy, but now a days I will only use them as a last resort. Mostly because they tend to disintegrate when dipped in the water. Before using I gave them a coat of of decal film and 2 of them still gave me trouble. The sheet did not come with the stars and bars so I use a Fantasy Print Shop set, and the stencils on the Fujimi sheet looked better so I used them.  

 

All in all I am mostly happy with how it turned out.

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Next up the the recently released Declari T-52A primary trainer for, hopeully, a quick build.

 

Enjoy.

 

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