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Like a Tony, but better! Ki-100, 1/72 Fine Molds


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My next project will likely get some attention -- a lot of you have already told me that you're interested in seeing the Fine Molds Ki-100 come together. 

 

bSBV0lK.jpg

 

This was an adaptation of the Ki-61.  My reference books have different accounts:  one says it was prompted by a shortage of the liquid cooled engines they were using in the Ki-61, another says it was prompted by the un-reliability of the liquid cooled engine.  Whatever the reason, they had Ki-61 airframes without engines and the engineers were clever enough to graft a radial engine on the front of them, producing a fighter that was reportedly better than the Ki-61.   Ever since I discovered this plane a few years ago, I've really wanted to do a model of it.

 

So here we go!

 

There are some nice options in this kit.  I was going to do the one on the cover, but then I saw the alternate schemes:

 

ojDYlPo.jpg

 

3rjsTym.jpg

 

I decided I'm going to do that last one.  I had found pictures of the plane on the cover, but when I changed my mind about which one to do, I found I had collected pictures of the one with the blue stripes while I was researching.  That' was a nice discovery!  The subject in the picture was not terribly worn and had a semi-gloss look to it.  So that will be guiding my finishing decisions.

 

The model has very nice surface detail, and some dry fitting shows that it fits together well.  Unfortunately, there was quite a bit of flash to trim off the fuselage.

 

Started out with the cockpit, of course:

 

sVSfFL8.jpg

 

I was very pleased with the Ki-61 Tony I did a few months ago except for the cockpit color, which I found out after the fact was an old modelling trope.  @Corsairfoxfouruncle pointed me to @Stew Dapple's Ki-61 Build which had a well thought out interior color.  Since I don't have any Colourcoats paints, I mixed some up to match.  The recipe was one drop each of Hataka RLM79a (Sand), RLM02 (Yellow) and RLM82 (which is a bright green -- bleah).  It matched what was on the screen, but now I'm comparing pictures side-by-side, mine looks a tad more yellow.  Still, it is reasonable and beats the Tan color they recommend.

 

weWTESW.jpg

 

AeG1BEg.jpg

 

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ygSMVwX.jpg

 

cnLpahe.jpg

 

That cockpit and landing gear detail is terrific.  No scratchbuilding on this one!  I'll post better pictures when I do the detail painting.

 

That's all for now -- off to work!

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Great start, Opus, this will be something extra special, I'm certain! And yes, I'm already regretting selling mine! Ho hum :( IIRC, the HA-12 engine was both unreliable, largely due to metallurgy issues, as well as in short supply.

 

Looking forward to the next instalment.

 

Cheers,

Mark 

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Oh, I'll definitely follow this one.  I've got the "Fast Back" version in my stash and will be taking notes:

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/10012689

 

Mark, not to worry, FM is re-leasing them in Nov and are taking pre-orders:

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10019064

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10012689

Edited by Jackman
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9 hours ago, 2996 Victor said:

IIRC, the HA-12 engine was both unreliable, largely due to metallurgy issues, as well as in short supply.

Yeah, it seemed to me that both explanations were equally plausible given the state of the Japanese aviation industry at that point of the war!

 

8 hours ago, Jackman said:

Oh, I'll definitely follow this one.  I've got the "Fast Back" version in my stash and will be taking notes:

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/10012689

 

Mark, not to worry, FM is re-leasing them in Nov and are taking pre-orders:

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10019064

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10012689

Hmm.... a fast back... now that would be nice!  I'll have to look into that!

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I'll be keen to see this come together, I've both versions, the fast back & bubble top, of the FM kits.

It has long been my understanding that the problems with the Ha21 engine ceased when the factory got bombed out of existence, 😳 hence the pressing need to find an alternative with it's serendipitous results.

Steve.

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16 hours ago, Jackman said:

Oh, I'll definitely follow this one.  I've got the "Fast Back" version in my stash and will be taking notes:

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/10012689

 

Mark, not to worry, FM is re-leasing them in Nov and are taking pre-orders:

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10019064

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10012689

Excellent news! (Just don't tell my better half! Or my wallet, for that matter!) Are they re-issuing their whole range?

 

Cheers,

Mark

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3 hours ago, stevehnz said:

It has long been my understanding that the problems with the Ha21 engine ceased when the factory got bombed out of existence,

 

...so in a sense, the allies did the Japanese a favour? 😂

 

I'll be following this one with interest (although there ain't nothing better than a Tony!)

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I detailed the side walls and cockpit yesterday.  My operating assumption is that the Ki-100s weren't used long enough to develop appreciable wear, so I just scuffed the floors a bit and didn't do any paint chipping.

 

Qk6PYpW.jpg

 

In the above photo, the radio box (?) looks like I dry-brushed the heck out of it, but that is an illusion of the semi gloss black I was using.  it's really only the knobs and edges, and they aren't so dramatic.

 

UuOUYue.jpg

 

NNx7248.jpg

 

The above photo has the opposite problem from the radio... I drybrushed the guns so they looked distinctly different from the IP, but you can't really tell in the photo.

 

KCADYS9.jpg

 

Painted tape seat belts.

 

w4Jvhu5.jpg

 

I decided to take a couple of minutes to put the fuselage together:

 

KAeY609.jpg

 

Which brings me to my first observation of this Fine Molds kit, which should answer this question:

 

11 hours ago, Sturmovik said:

What's your take on the fit of the main parts? There's a Kikka in 48th from FM begging me to buy it, but if the fit is iffy, I'll be taking a pass.

 

I've dry fit the parts and now glued the fuselage together and I'd characterize this kit as: Tamiya detail with Hasegawa fit.  The fuselage had enough play in the alignment pegs that if carefully aligned and held while gluing the seams turn out very nice.  If you aren't careful there could be an ugly step in the seam to deal with, just like many of the Hasegawas I've done.  I was lucky and was able to hold things in place so the seam is pretty even.  Unfortunately there was a lot of flash along the seam, so there is a ridge that needs to be sanded down.  I don't know if this is true of all Fine Molds, or just this kit, but something to be aware of.

 

8 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

I'll sit in on this one also. I have this and the fastback in my stash. Fascinating aircraft!

 

Terry

 

6 hours ago, stevehnz said:

I'll be keen to see this come together, I've both versions, the fast back & bubble top, of the FM kits.

It has long been my understanding that the problems with the Ha21 engine ceased when the factory got bombed out of existence, 😳 hence the pressing need to find an alternative with it's serendipitous results.

Steve.

 

3 hours ago, TonyOD said:

 

...so in a sense, the allies did the Japanese a favour? 😂

 

I'll be following this one with interest (although there ain't nothing better than a Tony!)

 

Welcome aboard gents!  it's nice to have you!

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3 hours ago, 2996 Victor said:

Excellent news! (Just don't tell my better half! Or my wallet, for that matter!) Are they re-issuing their whole range?

 

Cheers,

Mark

 

Looks like just the radial-engined ones as only those seem to be on 'Reserve':

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/search?typ1_c=102&cat=&target=Series&searchkey=1%2f72+IJA+%26+IJN+Aircraft

 

I think the inline-engined Hiens are already available for order as can be seen in the above link 👍

 

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Spent a little time this evening working on the fuselage seams.  There wasn't a whole lot to do because there were no steps or gaps, just some ridges left over from the flashing and my hamfisted application of CA always needs cleaning up. 😕 

 

The only real issue I had was with the gun trough insert in the front.  It lined up nicely with the front, but left a gap where it met the fuselage aft:

 

WFhUMph.jpg

 

A fuzzy picture, but you get the idea.  Nothing some CA and sanding couldn't solve.  No step, just a gap.  That part was a bit troublesome however because there were no locating pins or no ledge to slide it onto, just butt joins the whole way around.  it kept dropping into the fuselage as I was trying to get it lined up just right.  Once lined up right, it was tight and I was able to glue it without drama.

 

I decided to have a look at the canopy, since I had to paint the landing light anyway.  First the landing light.  This is the one that goes in the wing's leading edge, and they thought to mold an indent for the light:

 

sWU2tSk.jpg?1

 

So I filled that in with white and will paint silver over the whole thing.  I don't like white or silver for light bulbs, but what can you do?

 

The canopy was well thought out.  Fine Molds were kind enough to put the attachment point on the bottom, so that you don't mar the canopy frame cutting it off.  All you have to do is trim the extra off the bottom.  Nice!

 

W8hZ28L.jpg

 

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The canopy fit nice and snug.  Maybe one of the best fitting canopies I've ever had.  I think I will mask it and attach it before painting.

 

Now... painting.  Here's what my approach is going to be.  Doing a lot of reading at http://www.aviationofjapan.com, I've seen that olive drab is a close approximation to the Japanese Army Air Force's #7, especially when oxidized.  For this reason, my Ki-61 and just-finished Ki-84 were painted with olive drab.  However, all the reading I've done on the topic indicates that oxidization of the paint tended toward a brown-ish hue.  There is an excellent, and exhaustive, article at: http://www.aviationofjapan.com/2019/12/kawasaki-ki-100-colours.html which goes through all the research and provides digital color samples, all of which are fairly close to some sort of olive-y drab-y kind of color.  The article's next to last paragraph reads:

Quote

Therefore there appear to be at least three colour variations in which Ki-100 models can legitimately be finished, although attributing them to specific aircraft and units is more difficult: - the # 7 olive brown (olive drab) colour with all its variegation and weathering characteristics; a slightly more olive green (which could be approximately represented by the so-called 'Kawasaki Green' available in many hobby paint ranges); and the black(ish) brown colour which is similar to, but not quite as reddish and slightly more greyish than, the Luftwaffe RLM 81 Braunviolett colour (as measured from the 1941 Tafel 5). AK Interactive Real Colors RC323 RLM 81 is similar, whilst the Gunze H-421 RLM 81 is a little greener.

 

I have Gunze RLM 81 and used it for accent on the Ki-84 and it is very close to olive drab, just a tad greener.  Since I am assuming that Ki-100s weren't in service long enough to really wear or oxidize, I think I will use Gunze RLM 81 to represent a fairly new Ki-100.  This also means I won't be giving it the multi-color undercoat treatment that I use to make paint look really worn.  This will be an interesting challenge since I've been learning all about worn paint... just not slightly worn paint. 🤔

 

I also plan to use my new Mr. Color Semi-Gloss clear as a finish since it appears that IJA and IJN aircraft were semi-gloss when new.  For instance consider this aircraft (which happens to be the one on the box top):

 

1024px-Kawasaki_Ki-100_W39_of_the_5th_Se
Kawasaki Ki-100 W39 of the 5th Sentai
SDASM, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

 

It has a slight sheen and as near as I can tell, it doesn't look terribly worn, although it's hard to tell.  Here's a picture of the subject I plan to do:

 

The_Kawasaki_Ki-100_of_the_111th_squadro
The Kawasaki Ki-100 of the 111th squadron
Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

 

A little harder to see, but still has that sheen and there's some definite exhaust staining on the side.

 

On the topic of painting, I've decided I'm going to paint the Hinamaru and some of the lines and stripes on the aircraft.  The decal sheet is pretty extensive, even giving you decals for the leading edge yellow:

 

dox0dRq.jpg

 

However, since painting Hinamaru and "don't walk" lines turned out so well on the Frank and Tojo, I will try it again.  I've thought of some ways to improve the process and if it all goes south, I've got the decals to fall back on.  The challenge will be the Hinamaru on the side -- these have white rings around them, so we'll see how even I can get those... 😟

 

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The last couple days I've found myself bogged down in a setback that is mostly of my own making.  When I went to put the wing assembly on, I dry fit it first and it looked like the fit would be good, but that the gaps at the wing roots would be a little bigger than I would like.  I probably should've dry fit it more than once to see if there was any trick to putting the wing assembly on -- the fit is a little strange, hard to explain and I didn't take any pictures.  Plus my dry fit examination was a little cursory.  So that was my first mistake.  I glued the wing assembly on and found that the wing assembly didn't fit snugly so that there were gaps and a step where it meets the fuselage on the bottom.  On the top there were steps at the wing roots.  A couple expletives later, I was trying to gently pull the wing assembly off, but decided to quit when I started cracking the trailing edge of the wing (did I mention that the trailing edges are amazingly thin?  A nice feature, except when trying to pry the wings off).

 

UveWbTG.jpg

 

FmQ3HMr.jpg

 

I'm not entirely sure if this poor fit is my fault or poor design.  Like I said, I should've been more careful with my dry fit inspection. :( 

 

My next mistake was deciding to use putty on the underside step.  I hate putty.  I've never figured out how to make it look good, it has pits in it, it doesn't feather well for me at all.  I avoid it at all costs.  However, I go so long without using that I forget how much I hate it.  So I figured a step that size would need putty to quickly blend in to the rest of the underside.  Yeah... no.  Last night I spent a couple hours working on that under side and I kept getting into that cycle where I would fix one spot, but damage another, so I would fix it... and damage another.... etc. etc.  This is what happens when I use putty and I forget that it happens.   

 

I got the underside to where it was acceptable. and decided to quit throwing good money after bad.  To be fair, if the underside was going to be painted, my fix would probably be fine, but the underside will be bare metal, so it will likely look a little funny.

 

I also puttied some gaps behind the cowl, which were nearly impossible to sand and may not look terrific either.

 

9BcOBcc.jpg

 

DKJSLFo.jpg

 

That last shot of the underside is a little deceiving.  Even though the putty looks irregular, it is coated with a layer of CA, which extends farther back and the whole fix looks acceptable when looking at it in reflected light.

 

Now to the wing roots.  First I had to remove the step, which was easily done with a round file.  i put protective tape around it to preserve the lovely surface detail.

 

vzOBYbn.jpg

 

Then, I put tape on either side of the gap and applied putty.  This morning I spent an hour sanding that putty down.  First, as we all know, wing roots are hard to sand.  Second, I think there were spots that hadn't completely cured yet.  When I was done, it was OK, but again had pits and didn't feather well.  Then I remembered something else I'm not a fan of: Mr. Surfacer 500 in a jar.  Now, I've never found a use for this stuff.  Things I've tried it on have not turned out well and I've had to remove it and use something else to get the effect I want.  (Actually, the only thing I've used it for that I've been happy with is making the heat resistant coating on modern US Navy bombs).  But, I figured it might work for filling in some of the pits in the putty and maybe even help the feathering a bit?  Maybe?  Hopefully this is not another mistake.

 

Here's the wing root after sanding and just as I started applying the Mr. Surfacer.

 

fpJAQJh.jpg

 

The quality of the putty aside, the fix actually looks pretty good and under paint may not even be noticeable.  So there is that.

 

Here's where I"m at now.

 

DsU1aAX.jpg

 

FatLpdP.jpg

 

Now I just have to remember how to use Mr. Surfacer.  Do I sand it smooth?  Do I use a solvent to smooth it?  I can't remember.  Time for research! 

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A turn of fortune in my favor!  I found an article at swannysmodels.com* where he said he used lacquer thinner to smooth the Mr. Surfacer 500.  I don't know what lacquer thinner he's using, but my Lacquer thinner will damage the plastic.  Mr. Levelling thinner, however, doesn't damage plastic and seems to be a mild lacquer thinner, so I used a Q-tip to run it along the MS500.  Well... it took the MS500 off in the blink of an eye.  So I thought with a grunt "that was a waste... back to square 1", but then noticed that the levelling thinner was slowly smoothing out the putty.  This shouldn't have surprised me -- I've used a slurry of putty and liquid plastic cement with good results.  So now the pitting is gone and the putty is feathered and I really didn't need to spend an hour sanding when I could've used Mr. Levelling thinner!  I've got to remember this trick.

 

 

* I had to get to the article through the waybackmachine (http://wayback.archive.org/) since the original site seems to have gone dark.  I wonder what happened?  When I first got back into modelling there was a lot of useful info there.

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Didn't get as much done this weekend as I would've liked because we had a lot going on.  Thursday night I started on my wacky adventure of painting all the national markings and stripes.  I started off by adding a base of black Mr. Surfacer 1500 where my hinamaru and the yellow stripes on the wings will go.  Black is not a good base for yellow, but I put it on for the RLM81 that the plane will be painted... you'll see where I'm going with this.

 

b9hEATN.jpg

 

Friday night I had just enough time to paint the red for the Hinamaru.  Unlike my dual build I just finished where I used Testors insignia red enamel, this time I used Tamiya acrylic red.   I was just careful to not get it too bright by comparing it to the decals while I was airbrushing.  I used this mainly so I wouldn't run the risk of damaging the paint with masking, which has happened in the past with the Testor's enamel, which seems to take an awfully long time to cure.

 

ywTVzXH.jpg

 

Saturday night I had just enough time to paint the RLM 81 on the area over the flaps.  I'm trying a different masking technique this time.  I'll do the insides of the rectangles (don't walk areas and ammo cover doors) the RLM81, mask those and paint the yellow-orange, and then mask those to do the final coat.  It some how seemed easier to do than painting the yellow and cutting super thin masks to cover the lines before the final coat.  the alternative is to mask for the yellow after the final RLM 81 coat is done, which I've done too.  We'll see how this goes.  Anyway, here's the RLM 81:

 

0psOw10.jpg

 

Today I masked preparing for the yellow-orange on the wings and the white ring around the fuselage Hinamaru.

 

y16yP7J.jpg

 

Painted those colors...

 

S9MlWTk.jpg

 

eRFXSWH.jpg

 

and removed the masking for the next step:

 

0Vq2rxp.jpg

 

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XDpVHKP.jpg

 

I hate leaving this half painted because I'm anxious to see if it's going to work the way I want, but before I put on the final topside green and underside silver coats on, I need to mask the canopy and install it and I need to put the front of the cowl on.  I masked about half of the canopy this evening before the tedium overtook me.  Hopefully I can complete it tomorrow evening.  The front of the cowl might need a little sanding, so maybe that can happen tuesday night.  Hopefully I can paint the green and silver on Wednesday night.

Edited by opus999
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Didn't have a lot of bench time this week.  My oldest turned 18 on Wednesday so we took him out to his favorite restaurant that evening.  He graduated from HS 6 months ago, when he was still 17.  I still find it hard to believe I have a college student in the house, especially when I still act like I'm 13 half the time! :D I don't know who thought it would be a good idea for me to raise children, but they clearly didn't study my mentality very closely! 🤣

 

Anyway, the little time I had on Monday and Tuesday was spent masking.  First though, I had to glue the engine in and the front of the cowl on.  The front of the cowl is a big check in the "cons" column of this kit.  See, there's no alignment pegs or even a groove to make sure it's centered.  So it's just a butt join.  So if I wanted, I could do this:

 

20T2Zol.jpg

 

 ...or even this:

 

5jQwM3a.jpg

 

...but I was good and tried to get it aligned perfectly.  Which never happens so there was a little sanding required, but it was all sorted out quickly.

 

Then it was time to mask.  Masking the "don't walk" areas over the flaps was pretty easy since I just had to run the tape along the panel lines.  The Ammo access panels weren't as easy since it seems that the yellow lines went outside the panel.  So I created a "frame":

 

kGRnDo8.jpg

 

Then I put the masking along the edge...

 

PysGgNE.jpg

 

And then pulled the frame off:

 

WOty7Qi.jpg

 

The tape is somewhat see through, and the contrast between the dark green and yellow is enough that I could see if it was even through the tape, which was handy.

 

I used a similar approach for the hinamaru.  I measured the diameter of the white "framing" decal, cut a tape circle the same size and then used the outside of that as a frame:

 

qKY2hOc.jpg

 

Then I put the inner part of the circle in the frame:

 

iMD5cJx.jpg

 

and then removed the frame:

 

QRSOiQ2.jpg

 

As you can see it was off center, so I had to re-adjust after taking the picture.  As it turns out, the tape is see through enough that I really didn't need to use the "frame" approach and abandoned it when I got to the starboard side.  I ran into trouble there because of my circle cutter.  The circle cutter is plastic and can slip with use, so I need to check it before each cut to make sure it is still the radius I want.  I apparently didn't do this because the red circle on the starboard side was slightly larger than the port side.  Nothing you can really see with the naked eye, but using the same size circle for the white "frame" would result in a thinner white border that would be noticeable.  So I had to adjust my compass cutter accordingly.  Well, another issue I have is that the cutting mat I use, and that the anchor point of the compass goes into, flexes, which can result in slightly larger, or even oblong circles. I wasn't having a good night that night because it took about 12 tries to get a circle the right size and perfectly round.  :headbang:  After that, I ordered one of those Infini-models "Easy cutting mat"s with the circles.  We'll see if that helps in the future.

 

At any rate everything was masked and ready to paint last night:

 

WyLuAzH.jpg

 

and I had enough time to paint the underside with my customary TS-30 silver leaf:

 

McMItZ8.jpg

 

That trouble spot where the wing meets the fuselage turned out pretty good for all the trouble I had!

 

This morning I painted the topside and tried to make it seem only slightly worn.  We'll see how that looks when all is said and dnoe.

 

gIglpUl.jpg

 

Anxiously, I took all the masking off and I am mostly pleased.

 

UCjJwLj.jpg

 

uuYPaa4.jpg

 

ayc0cN3.jpg

 

I have a couple of spots to fix but nothing major.  I am on the fence about the lines around the ammo access panels.  They seem a little wide to me, and compared to the decals they are indeed slightly wider... but not much.  They just seem wider than they are.  Hmm.  So I'm trying to decide if I want to try to paint some green to make them a little thinner or not.

 

So that's where I'm at and I'm going to go make those little fixes now.

 

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I had to fix the white part of the hinamaru on the port side because it was a little oblong.  Much better now.

 

DTKENeP.jpg

 

I decided I wanted the ammo access panel lines thinner after all, so I did some on-the-fly masking and painting.  I think it's much better now too.

 

mWCIeO0.jpg

 

As you can tell I started gloss coating too.

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The Goshikisen is looking fabulous, Opus, I think you've captured perfectly the look of a relatively new but late-war Japanese aircraft.

 

Congratulations on your son turning eighteen! 

 

Cheers,

Mark

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On 10/16/2021 at 1:16 AM, Bertie Psmith said:

Your adventures in masking are very interesting

That's kind of what I'm thinking too... :D Interesting, but maybe not entirely satisfying... the finish on the wings is really bad.  It's very sandpaper-y.  I think its because I had to put so many coats of the yellow-orange on that the overspray built up unevenly.  On the fuselage, the white only needed a couple of passes and right now it is very smooth.  I tried sanding the wings a bit, but that was hard to do without affecting the stripes.  The gloss coat helped smooth it out a bit, and in the end I don't think it will be noticeable.  That issue is making me rethink the approach.  It was much easier in some ways and maybe a little harder in others.

 

On 10/16/2021 at 2:28 AM, 2996 Victor said:

The Goshikisen is looking fabulous, Opus, I think you've captured perfectly the look of a relatively new but late-war Japanese aircraft.

Thanks Mark!  I think its turning out well.  I had my doubts when I first finished painting.  I just don't want it to look toy-like. :) 

 

On 10/16/2021 at 2:28 AM, 2996 Victor said:

Congratulations on your son turning eighteen! 

Thank you! Two more to go...

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