Enzo the Magnificent Posted May 22, 2022 Share Posted May 22, 2022 This one is an Old Friend. It has been in The Stash for about fifteen years, so it is definitely time for it have its day in the sun! These days kits can be incredibly detailed both inside and out. Sometimes the detail cannot be seen in the finished model, but it is there nevertheless simply adding to the compexity of the kit. Sometimes that complexity and detail is taken to extremes with a negative impact on the buildability of the kit. Can you tell that I still have a touch of PTSD from one of my recent projects? This kit hails from a time when kits were relatively simple with good detail and ease of build. Any extra detail can be added by the modeller. Here is the selection that I have amassed over the years. I have been burned by Aires cockpits before so that one is out of contention. I think I'll just use the Eduard set. The model will be completed in the classic mottle over natural metal scheme. But I'm going to cheat... And how I've got that song by Montell Jordan stuck in my head... 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted May 22, 2022 Share Posted May 22, 2022 (edited) Hi Enzo - nice kit! I will be interested to see how the mottle works out as it is always a pain to paint, though even worse in my normal 1/72 scale. I note that Hasegawa say the kit is a Ki-61-1 Hei i.e. I KAIc whilst the mottle says it is for a I KAId (Tei) but hopefully that should not cause you any problems as the only difference I can see is the armament - actually the Id is a very curious version for HGW to be modelling (2 x 30mm wing cannon and 2 x 12.7mm mg in the upper fuselage compared with 2 x 20mm in the nose and 2 x 12.7 in the wings on the KAIc) as few were built so maybe it is a typo? Good luck. Pete Edited May 22, 2022 by PeterB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted May 22, 2022 Author Share Posted May 22, 2022 38 minutes ago, PeterB said: I will be interested to see how the mottle works out I have a feeling that the mottle is specific to one aircraft only. But I'm gonna ignore that and press on. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted May 22, 2022 Share Posted May 22, 2022 (edited) 21 hours ago, PeterB said: Hi Enzo - nice kit! I will be interested to see how the mottle works out as it is always a pain to paint, though even worse in my normal 1/72 scale. I note that Hasegawa say the kit is a Ki-61-1 Hei i.e. I KAIc whilst the mottle says it is for a I KAId (Tei) but hopefully that should not cause you any problems as the only difference I can see is the armament - actually the Id is a very curious version for HGW to be modelling (2 x 30mm wing cannon and 2 x 12.7mm mg in the upper fuselage compared with 2 x 20mm in the nose and 2 x 12.7 in the wings on the KAIc) as few were built so maybe it is a typo? Good luck. Pete I used the Tamiya decals for my build a couple of years ago. They looked good from any distance except up close. I should say very close, less than 5-6 inches. If you looked closely you could see the dot matrix from the printing process. Edited May 23, 2022 by Corsairfoxfouruncle 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted May 28, 2022 Share Posted May 28, 2022 Oooo and another nice/interesting build from Enzo!!! I do like your idea of trying to keep it simple, I need to learn to do that, but still great to see you have some lovely AM stuff to go on her, especially the Quinta cockpit!!! 🥰 I like the decal mottle! I used something similar for the "Smoke ring" camo on a pair of Macchi's I built a few years ago. They do make life/painting sooo mach easier. Though it does depend on the quality and thickness of the decal film, will be very interesting to see how it goes. Good luck with this one, will be interesting to see how it all comes together. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted May 28, 2022 Share Posted May 28, 2022 (edited) 11 hours ago, trickyrich said: I like the decal mottle! I used something similar for the "Smoke ring" camo on a pair of Macchi's I built a few years ago. They do make life/painting sooo mach easier. Though it does depend on the quality and thickness of the decal film, will be very interesting to see how it goes. That has reminded me of something that has been at the back of my mind for a while though I suppose it could be my memory starting to play tricks. I seem to remember that on a visit to my LMS in Bradford back in I guess the late 1960's they had a few kits of inter war RAF biplanes - don't remember the make or scale - which said they came with a "skin" or something which I presumed was some sort of silver coloured thing , perhaps with the markings already on. A few years ago I remembered them and tried to find them on Scalemates but without any detail I had no joy. Don't suppose any of the older modellers remember what they were? Its been nagging away at me since then. I would have thought it was too early technology wised for the sort of decal Enzo has got. Given the date they are unlikely to have been from Japan, and the US is more likely except for the subjects which make a UK manufacturer a possibility. Pete Edited May 28, 2022 by PeterB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Boak Posted May 28, 2022 Share Posted May 28, 2022 I saw this on Renwall kits when in Bristol 1965-68. They were mainly, in my memory, WW1 subjects, and received rather half-hearted comments in model magazines. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted May 28, 2022 Share Posted May 28, 2022 (edited) Thanks Graham, "Renwall" sounds about right, but I can't find any kits by that manufacturer on Scalemates or indeed anywhere else. Certainly they were RAF biplanes but I seem to remember the silver finish, which is why I thought they were from between the wars. Must dig out some Airfix Mags from that period and see if I can find anything. So far the nearest I have come is a range of 1/48 kits by "Inpact" which are of the right sort of subject and issue date, but no mention of the "Skins". Pete Later. Think you are correct Graham. On e-Bay I found loads of very crude Renwall toys, but amongst them is a Bristol Fighter with "Aero-Skin" whatever that was. Maybe I was wrong about the silver planes, or perhaps they were later. Even later. They are actually Renwal which is why I could not find them. Scalemates lists quite a few, mostly WWI but one post war Boeing. No sign of the RAF ones I seem to remember. So that is one mystery almost cleared up and I had better get out of Enzo's build thread. Edited May 28, 2022 by PeterB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Boak Posted May 28, 2022 Share Posted May 28, 2022 Just one more word: perhaps the Renwal kits you saw were crude, but they were also the original producer of the "Frog De-Luxe" series of 1/600 scale US warships and larger-scale military vehicles - I had the Nike-Ajax and the Skyweeper but a friend had the magnificent Atomic Cannon. These were certainly not crude. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted May 28, 2022 Share Posted May 28, 2022 It reminds me a bit of Airfix - started with kids toys and then moved in to "proper" kits - I knew the name was familiar! Pete 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted May 30, 2022 Author Share Posted May 30, 2022 There are numerous interior parts but assembly of the cockpit is quite straightforward. I used Lifecolor UA-137 RLM79 to represent the cockpit interior colour. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted May 30, 2022 Author Share Posted May 30, 2022 Wing assembly is easy. Main assemblky complete. The canopy is in one piece so I sawed it into three and fitted the relevant parts. I will use a vacform canopy to represent the sliding portion. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOCKNEY Posted May 30, 2022 Share Posted May 30, 2022 Is the Hien interior beige ? Every day's a school day Such an iconic aircraft, look forward to following this one Cheers Pat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted May 30, 2022 Share Posted May 30, 2022 (edited) 1 hour ago, JOCKNEY said: Is the Hien interior beige ? Every day's a school day Hi Pat, I think this came up in a discussion Stew and I had during my Ki-100-1b build - Kawasaki seem to have used a sort of light stone/sand colour in the cockpits of the Ki-61 instead of the earlier blue grey and more common shades of green so I did the same in my Ki-100-1a, though not quite as "red" - I have since found a colour drawing showing it. Don't forget this is a JAAF plane and they did not always use the same cockpit colours as JNAF - in fact for much of the war they seem to have deliberately tried to do everything different from each other including engines and sometimes guns, which must have damaged the Japanese war effort somewhat. In the end they were at least forced to unify the engine designation scheme so that the odd identical engines had only one name! Pete Edited May 30, 2022 by PeterB 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted June 2, 2022 Author Share Posted June 2, 2022 I sprayed the wheel well interiors in the same colour as the cockpit and then masked them off. I want to protect the natural metal finish as much as possible so I decided to paint all the colourful bits first and mask them off. The tail is Xtracrylix XA1217 RLM23. The wing leading edges are Fiat Broom Yellow from a rattle can. The anti-glare panel is Lifecolor UA-271 SCC 14 Blue Black. The fabric ailerons are Lifecolor UA-124 Japanese Grey Green A5. This is an army colour and is different to the grey green that I will be using on my Zero build. Once again I'd like to mention the sheer mind numbing task of masking yellow paint with yellow tape! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted June 2, 2022 Author Share Posted June 2, 2022 Once masked, the model was again oversprayed with primer. The fuselage markings will also be painted, so the fuselage was sprayed white from a rattle can. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted June 9, 2022 Author Share Posted June 9, 2022 Fuselage markings masked off. And then oversprayed with black to give some depth to the natural metal finish. The next step was to spray overall with Xtreme Metal AK479 Aluminium... ... followed by overspraying various panels with ad hoc mixes of Xtreme Metal colours. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted June 10, 2022 Share Posted June 10, 2022 wow quick progress as usual Enzo, and boy she's looking nice. I didn't know about the interior colour, will have to remember that for mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted June 15, 2022 Author Share Posted June 15, 2022 Masking removed with a few areas requiring touchup. And then on to the camouflage decals. These are provided sprinted on to a single sheet of carrier film so they will need to be trimmed down. The intention is to apply the camouflage in four large pieces. I admit I chicked out of that and have cut it down into a few smaller pieces. What you see here is five pieces. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted July 15, 2022 Share Posted July 15, 2022 wakey wakey............. time to finish this one! She's looking too good to be a shelf queen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted July 20, 2022 Author Share Posted July 20, 2022 On 16/07/2022 at 00:51, trickyrich said: wakey wakey............. ooyah! Decals completed. and greeblies painted up ready for fitment. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted July 20, 2022 Share Posted July 20, 2022 (edited) Hi Enzo, The camo has come out very well. - certainly much better than anything I could have painted! Pete Edited July 20, 2022 by PeterB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted July 21, 2022 Share Posted July 21, 2022 that camo does look awesome....I wonder if anyone does masks for it? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandboof Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 Looking awesome . Camo decals work well Martin H 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted August 6, 2022 Author Share Posted August 6, 2022 And we're finished! 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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