Nakajima Ki-87; RS Models 1/72

[Ngantek]

Slightly odd one here, This is something of a mule build of RS Models' Ki-87 prototype. The design really caught my eye, with pleasing lines and the turbo unceremoniously crammed in and sticking randomly out the side. The slender shape belies the size; this thing is about on par with a P-47 and looks ludicrously out of scale next to something like a Spitfire.

 

The kit itself is nice; the detail parts are very basic, the frames and sprue gates are pretty messy and limited-runnish and the hand drawn instructions having a about the detail and precision to match the parts themselves. Still, I think RS have got the important stuff right; while I can't speak to the accuracy of the shape, the surface detail is fine (if a little simple) and canopy aside, the overall shape comes together quite nicely with a bit of care and cleanup. Overall quite enjoyable. The canopy needed a fair bit of reshaping, both inside the clear part and on the fuselage; and frankly still required rather more work than I ended up putting in. 

 

I hope you'll forgive a bit of drivel, I've been too lazy to document this stuff in a WIP.

 

The build itself is rather rough I'm afraid. I used this really as a training model, trying out lots of things for the first time, and consequently didn't go to any great effort to get it perfect, nor to add detail. Really the plan was to learn to use metallics; mostly getting a good finish and then experimenting with ways to weather them, and break up that rather bland, sharp-edged look that you get once they're freshly applied. I wasn't particularly bothered about accuracy, really just playing with techniques that could just as easily go on sci-fi build or something.

The various experiments were as follows:

• I had a first, rather lazy go at riveting the model (again in the hope of breaking up the metallics a bit). The work is pretty rough, nice to have the practice. 
• Getting a good gloss layer for the metallics is always a work in progress. In this case I used black Mr finishing surfacer 1500, then sanded back with  1200-5000 grit to smooth the slightly rough plastic down (until speckly gray and black). Then glossed with Mr Color 002, polished a little, followed by Alclad Dark Aluminium and patches of stainless steel. I was pretty happy with the result.
• The good bit about this scheme, there was no need for any decals. The Antiglare, leading edges, Hinomarus and prop were masked, then got a protective Aquagloss; VMS chipping solution; Tamiya acrylic satined with X22. A bit of chipping and wearing, a bit of repairing, then all sealed again with aquagloss.
• I had a first go at shading panel edges and general dirt with Tamiya X19 smoke. This wasn't particularly successful, and since it comes out almost wet glossy, required those areas to be toned down again with VMS satin varnish, which affected the metal look somewhat.
• The overall look is a rather overblown attempt at shamelessly stealing this lovely brushed metal effect. I used very thinned brushed on Tamiya NATO black, but being Tamiya it's rather unforgiving and a lot of stripping and metallic repair work resulted. The brushed effect probably isn't very realistic, but (in the other model) I thought it looked really nice and added nice 'texture' to the metals. Mine turned out way over the top however, and the smaller scale probably didn't help. I'd try a more forgiving type of paint next time.
• I had a mess around using oils to highlight and shade panels in between rivets. It didn't work at all.

 

In the end there's some finishing with tamiya powders, oil washes and other faffing around. 

 

Anyway sorry after all that spiel, this is what I ended up with:
 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, fun experiment. Thanks for looking in.

 

Andy

 

 

 

 

[AliGauld]

Looking very nice.

Really like the distressing.

 

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[François Escudé]

Not the one you see every day !! And so nicely done !! love the way you treat NMF really nice indeed !! 

 

thanks for sharing  ! 

 

cheers !! 

[georgeusa]

It sorta has the look of a slimed down P-47 doesn't it?  Great looking prototype and the experiment with metallic seemed to go well for you.  Thanks for sharing.

[Whofan]

It's always great to see a model completed that I have in the stash, as I do this one.  I hope I can do mine half the justice you've done yours!

 

I'm going to say thanks for the tips on NM finish and general weathering etc., even though I know you didn't mean them for me alone !!

[72modeler]

What the others have said- you did a great job on this one; I also have this kit, and it isn’t exactly Tamiya or Arma Hobby  quality, but in the hands of sonebody with modeling skills, that you sure seem to have, it looks a lot less like the short run kit that it is- very nice bare metal finish as well as the correct grey-green dope on the fabric control surfaces! 👍👍

Mike

[Mig88]

A stunning result!! Lovely work. Well done.

 

Miguel

[Ngantek]

On 29/03/2023 at 21:33, AliGauld said:

Looking very nice.

Really like the distressing.

 

 

Cheers,

Alistair

Thanks Alistair. Poor kit did get a lot of abuse! 

 

On 31/03/2023 at 18:25, François Escudé said:

Not the one you see every day !! And so nicely done !! love the way you treat NMF really nice indeed !! 

 

thanks for sharing  ! 

 

cheers !! 

Thanks, it's a long way short of all the great NMF builds I tried to copy, but happy enough with the result.

 

On 31/03/2023 at 20:51, georgeusa said:

It sorta has the look of a slimed down P-47 doesn't it?  Great looking prototype and the experiment with metallic seemed to go well for you.  Thanks for sharing.

Cheers, yeah it has that nice balance of aesthetics and silliness in my book! Always like a bit of silliness. 

 

On 31/03/2023 at 21:21, Whofan said:

It's always great to see a model completed that I have in the stash, as I do this one.  I hope I can do mine half the justice you've done yours!

 

I'm going to say thanks for the tips on NM finish and general weathering etc., even though I know you didn't mean them for me alone !!

Good luck with it, looking forward to seeing how you get on. I took the 'build it as simply and lazily as possible' approach but equally one with more patience and skill might view it as a simple blank canvas upon which to apply lots of scratch detail. Had a nice time personally. 

 

Have care with the 'tips'! I'm a total amateur at NMF, but if I have one take away from this, I'm glad to have just had a go at lots of stuff, rather than my usual thing of planning to have a go but never actually getting round to it. Kit like this is perfect for not being too bothered if things don't turn out how you want them too.

 

16 hours ago, 72modeler said:

What the others have said- you did a great job on this one; I also have this kit, and it isn’t exactly Tamiya or Arma Hobby  quality, but in the hands of sonebody with modeling skills, that you sure seem to have, it looks a lot less like the short run kit that it is- very nice bare metal finish as well as the correct grey-green dope on the fabric control surfaces! 👍👍

Mike

Got lucky on the control surfaces then, I think I just pulled out a random light grey. Not sure about modelling skills! You're right, Tamiya or Arma it certainly isn't, but fit wise I don't think there are any major tool or fit issues with the basic shape. I've certainly seen many more mainstream kits come together a lot worse than this one did.

 

11 hours ago, Mig88 said:

A stunning result!! Lovely work. Well done.

 

Miguel

You're very kind! Bit of a mess from my perspective but looks fine on the shelf if I don't look too closely!

 

Thanks very much all for the likes and comments!

Andy

[Hopesdaddy]

Beautiful finish on your lovely prototype. 

[MACALAIN]

Well done.

 

Alain

[Chuuurles]

My man! This is so good! 

[Ngantek]

On 02/04/2023 at 14:49, Hopesdaddy said:

Beautiful finish on your lovely prototype. 

 

On 02/04/2023 at 19:05, MACALAIN said:

Well done.

 

Alain

 

22 hours ago, Chuuurles said:

My man! This is so good! 

Thanks guys.

 

How's things going Chuuurles, still building stuff?