tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79355232939997550372024-03-21T02:52:00.378-07:00super plastic model!!fugakuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03773832426533197409noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7935523293999755037.post-79374191913485603332013-05-19T00:00:00.000-07:002013-05-19T00:00:07.346-07:00Good times at the benchI've loved workbench photos since the moment I happened across the very popular and long-running thread on Hyperscale. Here were these oddly fascinating glimpses of other mad scientists' secret laboratories, with their arcane and ingenious organizational elements, an endless variety of tools and supplies, and very often a huge, looming stash of kits surrounding or even dwarfing the work area. Guys with six, seven, ten partly finished kits lying around, homemade spray booths, antique stereo gear, cats, empty beer cans...just great eye candy. So finally today I remembered to grab the camera when I headed down to the paint shop.<br />
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Most of the basement is unfinished and crammed with stuff, but this corner sees some action from time to time. You can tell I had a cleanup recently.<br />
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Spray booth made from an old rangehood, vented outdoors, and homebuilt workbench made from two old solid-core doors that were in the basement when we moved in.<br />
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Iwata HP-CS clean and in pieces. Love this airbrush. Easy to use, works great, never gives me problems.<br />
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Dragon 1/72 Ha-go with yellow disruptive stripe masked and second colour sprayed. This kit was really fun and quick to build; a short week of evening sessions and it was down in the paint shop. Using Tamiya acrylics as I just happened to have all the colours, and they spray beautifully. After this photo I spent an hour masking with more Blu-tack, followed by five or six minutes spraying IJA Green...and twelve minutes cleaning the airbrush.<br />
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Tamiya 1/72 Shinden with fuselage hinomaru area undersprayed white. This is such an old kit, I don't know why I decided to build it when I have three of the Hasegawa Shinden in the stash. Fit was generally poor and it took weeks of fill/sand/repeat to finish building. Using mainly White Ensign enamels, which I was lucky enough to get before they stopped shipping internationally. Had bad experience trying to use Mr. Surfacer as a primer, but moving along better since. Decided to model this one in flight, so I scratchbuilt a blurred prop that hasn't made it down to the paint shop yet.<br />
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fugakuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03773832426533197409noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7935523293999755037.post-85231905109875672772013-05-11T19:04:00.000-07:002013-05-11T19:04:02.161-07:00Over the past year, in between selling/buying/moving house, losing job, finding new job, etc, I've somehow managed to cram in some modelling. Most of it has led to the usual unfinished if promising results and several more half-built kits back in the stash pile. There was one project I did complete though, proving that a) I am actually capable of completing something, and b) a deadline makes all the difference.<br />
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Couple years back I won a lot of six old Silver Streak HO scale maintenance of way cars on eB**, intending to build them as a Christmas present for my dad. His model railroad hobby was probably the biggest inspiration for me to start building models as a kid, and I spent plenty of time reading back issues from his awesome library of Model Railroader, Railroad Model Craftsman, and S Gauge Herald, stretching back to the late 1940's. My favourites were the various Maine 2-foot gauge layout articles in RMC by Dave Frary and Bob Hayden, as well as the general tone of the magazine which was subtly humourous and fun to read. Reading about model railroading during that era (late 60s/early 70s) gave me a sort of basic notion that while building kits is fun, in many ways scratchbuilding <em>is</em> modelling. I never was able to run too far with it back then, but coming back to the hobby decades later it's an area I'm really drawn to. So I really owe my whole interest in this hobby to my dad, and it seemed like building these cars for him would be kind of coming full circle.<br />
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I'd previously built him a later, Walthers era (mid 70s) Silver Streak Santa Fe reefer car, which for my first attempt at a craftsman type kit actually turned out OK, and at least gave me an idea what to expect. For this project I set out to build four (later revised to three) cars at one time, an almost insane undertaking given my virtually unbroken track record of not finishing stuff. Plus, these MOW cars were much older, Tru-Scale era kits, likely from the 1950s, and somewhat more of a challenge. All the cast zamac parts had lots of flash, which created a lot of work, and in general this earlier generation of these kits leaves you more on your own. But hey, scratchbuilding <em>is</em> modelling, right? I leapt in fearlessly, spending many an hour cleaning up parts and bringing all four to a decent ready-to build stage. Meanwhile I'd decided to build them as an old Canadian Pacific work train, since his layout is loosely intended as an imaginary branch of the CP around the steam/diesel transition era. Luckily I found a couple excellent reference books at the library with plenty of gorgeous colour photos, and sourced some CP boxcar decals that could be adapted well enough.<br />
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The build started in late February and rolled on at a decent pace for a few months before the whole moving thing got in the way. Resuming in early autumn, I started to realize just how much work was involved, and had to get kind of disciplined about it. For about a month before Xmas it became virtually a part-time job, which was kind of crazy, but also fun. Overall there was a lot of trial and error and the usual wheel reinvention, but I really learned a lot and gained tons of confidence. Some highlights:<br />
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- scribed planks on the inside of each car side, since I wanted to start with bare wood and the pre-painted and lettered outside didn't sand down well at all. Couple weeks of sessions to finish this<br />
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- made version of classic "ink and alcohol" wood weathering mix, in this case using shoe dye and methyl hydrate, and aged the wooden sides<br />
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- used rubber cement technique for peeling paint effect. Came out OK<br />
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- cut the pre-scribed roofwalk stock too short (duh) so had to scratchbuild those out of coffee stirrer sticks<br />
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- somehow wound up scratchbuilding a fair bit of underbody detail - air line, brake rods, levers, mounts, etc<br />
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- scratchbuilt brake rods, stirrups, brakerod chain (OK, I bought that), brake platforms - basically everything except the brakewheel<br />
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- kit turnbuckles were unusable so scratchbuilt those from styrene rod (harder than it sounds). Results are overscale but look the part at least<br />
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- evolved my own variation of the fishing-line truss rod method. Bit of an engineering feat<br />
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- scratchbuilt various external details like smokejacks, doorway grab handles, and rain shutters<br />
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For the base colour I chose True Line mineral brown/freight car red, after unsuccessful experiments with mixing something suitable from various Humbrol enamels, but since I wanted to be able to mix numerous variations on it, I got some Model Master Acryl colours - Guards Red, French Blue, Semigloss White, Tan, Burnt Sienna Raw Sienna, Dark Earth, and Neutral Gray. This worked out surprisingly well for the most part, though I did find the MM Acryls caused a lot of tip dry when airbrushing and are tough to clean up really thoroughly since they harden so fast. <br />
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The prototype CN/CP mineral brown is an interesting colour. Photos show all kinds of fading effects from dusty reddish brown to rich reddish purple, as well as the "freshly shopped" option. Using reference photos, I sprayed a different base colour for each car, then mixed three variations and brushed down individual planks with a #0 brush. After the second variation of this the cars started to take on sort of a vivid look, which was encouraging.<br />
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The zamac ends had to be painted separately as in an attempt to imitate the "peeled paint showing wood" effect of the sides, I started with a sort of "raw lumber" colour mixed not too successfully from MM enamels. Think I tried to seal that in with a coat of Future before going to the base colour. The car ends wound up looking OK but not quite the perfect match to the sides I was going for. One thing I will do next time: prime metal parts! Also, I painted the doorway windows with either Tamiya XF-11 or XF-13, to represent (spurious) green oilcloth window shades, and carefully pooled several coats of Future in between the window frames to look like glass. Didn't really work as well as I'd hoped.<br />
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After awhile everything was glued together and it was on to decals. My first time using waterslide decals since about the age of ten was pretty interesting. Spicing things up was the tendency of these minute decals to break apart, which forced an awful lot of fast improvisation with brushloads of water and moving things very gently with a cocktail stick. After drying I sliced the decals down between the planks with a fresh #11 blade and hit them with Micro-Set, and in the end got just about all of them looking painted on. For the car designations I used Woodland Scenics dry transfer letters, not quite the right font but passable, and did the same slicing trick with them where needed. Finally I peeled up the rubber cement with a cocktail stick and moved on to weathering, with Vallejo black wash and some light applications of shoe dye/methyl hydrate. One cool side effect was that the methyl hydrate melted the white decal ink a little and gave a weather-stained look to some of the lettering, which was accidental and luckily not a disaster.<br />
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The Kadee archbar trucks got a dry brush of steel and a couple layers of rust and earth/mud colours, while I believe the undersides were sprayed neutral gray and drybrushed with a two or three earthtoned layers. I was still touching this up and finishing weathering on Xmas morning.<br />
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It felt like a big accomplishment to have actually completed three models at once, but the real satisfaction was watching my dad open the box. We saved it til last, and it was worth every minute of the 100 hours or whatever it was to see how happy he was with them. I didn't really relax til we took them downstairs and put them on the layout, since I wasn't completely sure they would track properly, but they did. We ran them around behind a CP diesel switcher for a while, and I took some pictures. It was a great feeling to finally see them sitting there on his handlaid track, where they belonged.<br />
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fugakuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03773832426533197409noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7935523293999755037.post-25573910716426440892012-03-05T15:33:00.001-08:002012-03-05T15:37:05.055-08:00Dragon PLA J-15 "Flying Shark" 1/144<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEt-PTzNsil6wWe3-_O5GgsXbrXN1EEFr9AuxyCKXbrhADEfUgGAn8pXNaUm3rr1xZ_TxrzEtm9gm_1BVBkM-fVvPqJEMa_Gp8PT_0Lin9qP8L8vovwe0fv8Gajl-ZvDsl0GqshaPXCspJ/s1600/IMG_4716.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEt-PTzNsil6wWe3-_O5GgsXbrXN1EEFr9AuxyCKXbrhADEfUgGAn8pXNaUm3rr1xZ_TxrzEtm9gm_1BVBkM-fVvPqJEMa_Gp8PT_0Lin9qP8L8vovwe0fv8Gajl-ZvDsl0GqshaPXCspJ/s320/IMG_4716.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Back in</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">December I kinda got tired of work in progress posts, so I've been trying to actually finish something. I'm pretty close on a few things, but meanwhile here's the latest kit to catch my attention. Modern jets are not particularly my area but something about this one caught my eye - probably the box art!</span><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Nice crisp molding. Panel lines somewhat overscale but par for the 1/144 course really.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Here's the kicker though - notice the identifier numbers on the sprue. Reading up a little on this plane, it develops that a) it's not actually in service until 2014 or so, and b) it's repeatedly described as seriously resembling the Russian SU-33, or the Sukhoi Flanker family in general. So the seeming wonder of how Dragon could produce a kit of a plane that's still undergoing presumably top-secret design trials is no great mystery - this is a reboxed SU-27 with Chinese decals and sexy new box art. Might bother some, doesn't worry me. I just want to build it (maybe even OOB for once!!)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Canopy looks nice and thin, and comes in its own little bag (decals too) - a nice little touch.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjt_GHVj8MlSSxvmie2zYibFiRJmWs_ChzvHAw0ee-t3OhHqb1wniJGDCqCxL6rjmu-D364tsCNKKbQpl8-BSXgXwTvnIoCOfdAyR6zLxmdiHZCFfzW7gtiv4yFqR7zR9xqx3hFRN2FGaD/s1600/IMG_4722.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjt_GHVj8MlSSxvmie2zYibFiRJmWs_ChzvHAw0ee-t3OhHqb1wniJGDCqCxL6rjmu-D364tsCNKKbQpl8-BSXgXwTvnIoCOfdAyR6zLxmdiHZCFfzW7gtiv4yFqR7zR9xqx3hFRN2FGaD/s320/IMG_4722.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Love how the pilot figure looks like he's slouched deep in some kind of futuristic La-Z BoyTM, glued to a big-screen HDTV. Certainly the most relaxed pilot I've come across yet...actually he looks a bit robotic as well. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The exhausts could probably use some thinning around the edges. Generally though the exterior detail looks very nice and I'm really looking forward to starting this one. I guess it's kind of a "future what-if" in a way, and I do love a what-if.</span></div>fugakuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03773832426533197409noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7935523293999755037.post-49599190253170887462011-12-18T14:07:00.000-08:002011-12-18T14:07:35.251-08:00Model Box Art Part Two<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">More action packed closeups of the 1/72 Hasegawa Emily.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">This G3M2/G3M3 Nell boxtop is probably my favourite.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Doesn’t appear to be signed, but has a rather extraordinary “you are right there” feel to it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Again there’s that illusion of floating, and the depictions of the crew are unusually vivid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If it’s not Koike’s work (I suspect not), it’s certainly worthy of inclusion in the same bracket.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRThxx-MgM1jsn_uPPfGUz426N8mdc5bZNjK9H3otlrIyD_XyowswtpBCdVcSbq0DUd59NoZ-gMRlLi4QplAs9SdCOYt7IJeKRNbWAttQ8TYaUzwQg4mRiIaRezgtz7RLk_zFvF3Gr12Yi/s1600/IMG_4551.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRThxx-MgM1jsn_uPPfGUz426N8mdc5bZNjK9H3otlrIyD_XyowswtpBCdVcSbq0DUd59NoZ-gMRlLi4QplAs9SdCOYt7IJeKRNbWAttQ8TYaUzwQg4mRiIaRezgtz7RLk_zFvF3Gr12Yi/s320/IMG_4551.JPG" width="320px" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Just a couple reasons why you can never have too many model kits!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span>fugakuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03773832426533197409noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7935523293999755037.post-2317010755658925932011-12-18T13:48:00.000-08:002011-12-18T13:48:27.362-08:00Model Box Art Part One<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">One of the best answers to the not-infrequently asked question “Why so many model kits?” would have to be “The box art!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of us modellers can probably recall the fascination these colourful boxtop paintings held for us as kids, and it’s likely the agonizing decision of which ONE kit the allowance would accomodate was helped in no small measure by which one had the best box art.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzFJ-UYOl-59zIUqljgvcTFZ-RDoqGQrMt_f42kO_sCi7rshQkAixsJEegyqXpIlggP4pBLm22Wsb0lEvsfQnOHzRt96C3XRMDHoXZ7I2AD9HC70kgtbeYQSV7X8yLmp9B6I_LUdqgFQ2L/s1600/Airfix_D3A1_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="137px" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzFJ-UYOl-59zIUqljgvcTFZ-RDoqGQrMt_f42kO_sCi7rshQkAixsJEegyqXpIlggP4pBLm22Wsb0lEvsfQnOHzRt96C3XRMDHoXZ7I2AD9HC70kgtbeYQSV7X8yLmp9B6I_LUdqgFQ2L/s320/Airfix_D3A1_1.jpg" width="320px" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Airfix knew how to grab ya!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8R_xqW9a9w6etIBmt9iokQwf0AS4KGqmz9NwqLdzBzzgPqwziHhbsithP7LBY0oJQm8SVUq05-2CBKfpGxvzJd6UOlwTZMWwofNrNwak1pt66bnOwXJ38Eau4GPkFPSAmoAG6XrfNGgAT/s1600/revell-b-52.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="144px" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8R_xqW9a9w6etIBmt9iokQwf0AS4KGqmz9NwqLdzBzzgPqwziHhbsithP7LBY0oJQm8SVUq05-2CBKfpGxvzJd6UOlwTZMWwofNrNwak1pt66bnOwXJ38Eau4GPkFPSAmoAG6XrfNGgAT/s320/revell-b-52.jpg" width="320px" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Whoa! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Sometimes it’s just the overall look of the box too – I vaguely remember being able to buy models at the drugstore (!) several blocks from our house, and it seems to me it was there that I first encountered the Tamiya 1/35 WWII figure kits I loved to build and paint during my latter childhood phases of modelling, before other things came along.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their four-figure Afrika Korps boxing is the one I really remember; the art was nothing too special, but something about it grabbed me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It might have been my first encounter with a Japanese model box, and doubtless all the Japanese characters fascinated me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I liked the Tamiya logo too, and the whole thing just seemed to have an irresistible air of mystery to it <i>(Shizuoka City, Japan?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where is that?)</i></span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0acuQ1I3PLg-SQr7Rl2_pPh6vRdW-M_f6cBIIbaPp5ZuIU62thUlN7vgnQEflUJIL8yXGUWwvnFimazmvwQ4Xd96r_Lh9kddlD4B5pbTShTA6Ca66YOTHwZfZZ8sUlhe2W63iFbMRwbF2/s1600/Tamiya+Afrika+Korps+4+figure+boxing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0acuQ1I3PLg-SQr7Rl2_pPh6vRdW-M_f6cBIIbaPp5ZuIU62thUlN7vgnQEflUJIL8yXGUWwvnFimazmvwQ4Xd96r_Lh9kddlD4B5pbTShTA6Ca66YOTHwZfZZ8sUlhe2W63iFbMRwbF2/s320/Tamiya+Afrika+Korps+4+figure+boxing.jpg" width="320px" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">I can even call back the feeling of that afternoon, sitting at my desk with the old gooseneck lamp, gluing, painting and (helmet) decaling the figures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was entranced by the diorama photo on the instruction sheet, and loved how the figures went together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGzBREZVFrD1E6Wp2ttErJUomnKj5QVzC5cYcQwMyDWYy4dAG18MqzeScsY3DRJjX1LWE_Rgp2-h-SiHKxwx4FRc2gDwclCCsf13b0_9ToL42RX5KFRzTmpdv99RdHLQC3WXK_oEM25LVv/s1600/Tamiya+Afrika+Korps+instructions+photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320px" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGzBREZVFrD1E6Wp2ttErJUomnKj5QVzC5cYcQwMyDWYy4dAG18MqzeScsY3DRJjX1LWE_Rgp2-h-SiHKxwx4FRc2gDwclCCsf13b0_9ToL42RX5KFRzTmpdv99RdHLQC3WXK_oEM25LVv/s320/Tamiya+Afrika+Korps+instructions+photo.jpg" width="240px" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">It was just coming on dusk as I reached the decal stage; my mom was cooking in the kitchen, and I remember the particular pattern on the small bowl I borrowed from her for warm water to activate the decals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To this day the sight of the Tamiya logo on a kit box strikes a chord with me, and they certainly have their share of fine aviation art too.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBSJ3e0s3I4rSAK5gfHsq0gQdAfz-QnMC9OyaTj0V4nEaoTH1oM-uzYe68jKR2Zxc9hIVu3wm0i8l25n4CYtolFtGeCiSDu3PpSQLe5PqvVpwKl7M7IAwjxal6MzTieJLLBuRqCVZBk21n/s1600/IMG_4578.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBSJ3e0s3I4rSAK5gfHsq0gQdAfz-QnMC9OyaTj0V4nEaoTH1oM-uzYe68jKR2Zxc9hIVu3wm0i8l25n4CYtolFtGeCiSDu3PpSQLe5PqvVpwKl7M7IAwjxal6MzTieJLLBuRqCVZBk21n/s320/IMG_4578.JPG" width="320px" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib_EpkyJU1dMnruJcwwou6mHkxrmAq6DhpS4tIzDJEIEUP_mRsx72MLcD9QaHdfxUwGCiMoqPH4WY8u-_hcD7z4y28rWAY2XFYQIIvmT5BFGemBKPnX8WthYCif0-t7eayU3iqPETRgT5T/s1600/IMG_4579.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib_EpkyJU1dMnruJcwwou6mHkxrmAq6DhpS4tIzDJEIEUP_mRsx72MLcD9QaHdfxUwGCiMoqPH4WY8u-_hcD7z4y28rWAY2XFYQIIvmT5BFGemBKPnX8WthYCif0-t7eayU3iqPETRgT5T/s320/IMG_4579.JPG" width="320px" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">These days I’m more likely to have Hasegawa kits kicking around, since their 1/72 line seems to be a little more extensive, and it’s hard to miss some of the awesome box art on these things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their star artist for many decades has been Koike Shigeo, and recently I had some fun taking close-ups of a few of my favourites.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXc3AO5fZ4foYLe6Jk6P5OX7A6FMLEHqToc5xReMWkv3WRg8Xlax4G6wrf49Ss91UPKhI0CqqQHD-preGMy2EcH-LeIuWqsXJuIcJfCS86kEIhNaDLeWh2lw2mjdk4Nox0_rWLKnqkvU6Y/s1600/IMG_4552.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXc3AO5fZ4foYLe6Jk6P5OX7A6FMLEHqToc5xReMWkv3WRg8Xlax4G6wrf49Ss91UPKhI0CqqQHD-preGMy2EcH-LeIuWqsXJuIcJfCS86kEIhNaDLeWh2lw2mjdk4Nox0_rWLKnqkvU6Y/s320/IMG_4552.JPG" width="320px" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">This kit looks pretty venerable; the grossly overscale raised rivet lines kinda give it away as a tooling first marketed back in the 1960s, but Hasegawa keeps on reboxing it to this day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This unusual yellow boxtop is an example of Koike’s adventurous use of colour, which is apparently one of his trademarks.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihyphenhyphen_08GSl7YO1yMOFDYn3Jhuf8JYStc74n23r8x6rR9BZkBj-xne9Cb5S7TnECqhyphenhyphenr3rRpl4e_9ODvZEjEGoZckkOsjcoaPTJsC4F1-IPXh3zAw0_KtLaNMU4xgVddq0TwyjVhvWoQBMen/s1600/IMG_4553.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihyphenhyphen_08GSl7YO1yMOFDYn3Jhuf8JYStc74n23r8x6rR9BZkBj-xne9Cb5S7TnECqhyphenhyphenr3rRpl4e_9ODvZEjEGoZckkOsjcoaPTJsC4F1-IPXh3zAw0_KtLaNMU4xgVddq0TwyjVhvWoQBMen/s320/IMG_4553.JPG" width="320px" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRQngG7NJRPHsBdFdUCEtgMWdMtyfQ0L34yVypJKMjHoAemCqkLtU_ek358Vb_jeRYOC-fgQoKZ7AAq7niqje3h9lipmnHijBXSj_K55kLJ7Xhyphenhyphena5nya03mIxNdOG9C9u-t9BGyt-4zlTS/s1600/IMG_4554.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRQngG7NJRPHsBdFdUCEtgMWdMtyfQ0L34yVypJKMjHoAemCqkLtU_ek358Vb_jeRYOC-fgQoKZ7AAq7niqje3h9lipmnHijBXSj_K55kLJ7Xhyphenhyphena5nya03mIxNdOG9C9u-t9BGyt-4zlTS/s320/IMG_4554.JPG" width="320px" /></a></div><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Today’s current boxing of the same massive sprues sticks a bit closer to a realistic light, while creating a similar illusion of the aircraft floating in a sea of air (as opposed to merely “flying”).</span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9JNJ_fqft3LqehdyFmMC7W9mh4lMn-D3rhM8qLQXbxK5ZeiVD8DPWFi3o-ZVU5ofyvwyZadeLxpvKfjkgRYHBUKJBcJpLzu3hFd3EcpVkvbXjuL4alzNuH-7mDEiRKVczkXhxAkYeIOel/s1600/IMG_4560.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9JNJ_fqft3LqehdyFmMC7W9mh4lMn-D3rhM8qLQXbxK5ZeiVD8DPWFi3o-ZVU5ofyvwyZadeLxpvKfjkgRYHBUKJBcJpLzu3hFd3EcpVkvbXjuL4alzNuH-7mDEiRKVczkXhxAkYeIOel/s320/IMG_4560.JPG" width="320px" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Personally I think the H8K Emily is one of the most fascinating Japanese planes, which explains why I have two of these monsters and will one day find myself trapped in a world of endless, excruciating sanding and rescribing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the moment it’s a lot easier to play around with the camera:</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLlVu5FVFPyNMigrpu3PhJOzIokyxC6-PboYGTtpF99luljmIJ2uovyXy447LYGcXxQ0sJmGxqFT1WlwgwgPQXxjtzA5DoTSupVFv95jPhxKh8g2WbU8u2kPjaJk3NgCJYJIdaSXS-Tr29/s1600/IMG_4561.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLlVu5FVFPyNMigrpu3PhJOzIokyxC6-PboYGTtpF99luljmIJ2uovyXy447LYGcXxQ0sJmGxqFT1WlwgwgPQXxjtzA5DoTSupVFv95jPhxKh8g2WbU8u2kPjaJk3NgCJYJIdaSXS-Tr29/s320/IMG_4561.JPG" width="320px" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Apparently I've maxed out the available file storage for one post, so I'll continue with part two.</span><br />
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</div>fugakuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03773832426533197409noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7935523293999755037.post-17676173525247119702011-12-16T21:02:00.000-08:002011-12-16T21:02:44.993-08:00Hasegawa JASDF F86F Sabre 1/72 WIP<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNQkgy3v0Eu2EvazwJesipH7uaYhSk2TZS6UJxCEf4mXx-8aGC20N7cdeDg-nDH0MoThu4LXyje4TFuQxj-yCeKDFJfrVwDvjsE86Yk9pFPZFU4S9DpGktI3uksTNEmtwtwZJksy9UpYG4/s1600/IMG_4258.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNQkgy3v0Eu2EvazwJesipH7uaYhSk2TZS6UJxCEf4mXx-8aGC20N7cdeDg-nDH0MoThu4LXyje4TFuQxj-yCeKDFJfrVwDvjsE86Yk9pFPZFU4S9DpGktI3uksTNEmtwtwZJksy9UpYG4/s320/IMG_4258.JPG" width="320px" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Nyutabaru Airbase, Kyushu, Japan, March 1961 – Radar reports unknown contacts approaching from the northwest. Flight Lt. Kamiko Tomoyuke is raring to get airborne…but what’s this?</span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzD8lsXrYMuM4pCEQl3Hh0yW3m40kIofGJi21BekNF3PH_S2Bmwp0yx_ip2-XPxwUjW0mGeRqgvpSv6W-h6nkTxuhkSl4DpETafzvd1dm4MSM8qMSoysBx01am94bBYkM6mMqyn77RWs4x/s1600/IMG_4518.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzD8lsXrYMuM4pCEQl3Hh0yW3m40kIofGJi21BekNF3PH_S2Bmwp0yx_ip2-XPxwUjW0mGeRqgvpSv6W-h6nkTxuhkSl4DpETafzvd1dm4MSM8qMSoysBx01am94bBYkM6mMqyn77RWs4x/s320/IMG_4518.JPG" width="320px" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">A Russian plot - his plane is in pieces!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact it appears as if <i>someone</i> has yet to even build the cockpit or wheel wells.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>Bakayaro!</i> </span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSS-h1bsoiRMaVRqQchC7Id-J4fMfYF5No696pZHsmfTj4nxNXBOe24kKyhPcgoLI93S7dO-VSz2-W15Gsk8xf9igRdloHGrdaE6inaiPlcD0pV5-4DUhh4_Eg8fTyyW66wppsf_nbWZ4T/s1600/IMG_4522.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSS-h1bsoiRMaVRqQchC7Id-J4fMfYF5No696pZHsmfTj4nxNXBOe24kKyhPcgoLI93S7dO-VSz2-W15Gsk8xf9igRdloHGrdaE6inaiPlcD0pV5-4DUhh4_Eg8fTyyW66wppsf_nbWZ4T/s320/IMG_4522.JPG" width="320px" /></a></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">This JASDF boxing of the Hasegawa F86F Sabre in 1/72 looks to be a pretty old kit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Judging by the raised panel lines and rivet detail, minimal cockpit, and complete lack of wheel wells (merely indicated with more raised lines) the tooling might even go back as far as the 1960s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What the hell, even though WWII Japanese planes are really my thing, I couldn’t resist getting a JASDF Sabre because it just looks so cool.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So one night a few months back I decided to build the thing…and upon coming to grips with the kit’s limitations, decided to go ahead and scratchbuild in some of the missing detail, undaunted by lack of experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I figure enough will be seen through the canopy to make it worthwhile as the Sabre canopy is mostly one big convex piece of glass with no framing to obscure all that effort.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Back in the day, Hasegawa figured that an instrument panel decal (but nowhere really suitable to affix it) and a skinny floor/front & rear bulkhead part (mainly there to glue the pilot figure to) took care of any necessary cockpit detail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today we know we can do better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First thing was to make a tracing of the instrument decal, transfer it to styrene sheet and make a mounting piece for the decal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then I built the floor out to the sides, added forward and aft bulkheads, and cobbled together a sort of “bench” on either side of the pilot as a base for the various consoles.</span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8zuSxfNdethLHT5ZNbF96R6Z5oYNepoYkjwjvPSTDTsxglE-jqZpjFR11XkOx6h-yOPAFHPJkwfBPWYbqMjKzxRr-gWWjcUwZMaZnBP4WEWMWGeQcYstHK1bfvCCitH5Sa-jAawv-YeNi/s1600/IMG_4520.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8zuSxfNdethLHT5ZNbF96R6Z5oYNepoYkjwjvPSTDTsxglE-jqZpjFR11XkOx6h-yOPAFHPJkwfBPWYbqMjKzxRr-gWWjcUwZMaZnBP4WEWMWGeQcYstHK1bfvCCitH5Sa-jAawv-YeNi/s320/IMG_4520.JPG" width="320px" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYVXjOASjbdvJ5mckiNnQVTCEs0J30tlPbwIIS1n_rnfRdPrm_APn9ReLm1n6gEQq_rJUL_OeAx2XJO6FB0GDMgBej4GEmxq2YTTmNxpIafGHM5v40PeVoi0S9EdQ7LxxBTazfdyUfB3vC/s1600/IMG_4521.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYVXjOASjbdvJ5mckiNnQVTCEs0J30tlPbwIIS1n_rnfRdPrm_APn9ReLm1n6gEQq_rJUL_OeAx2XJO6FB0GDMgBej4GEmxq2YTTmNxpIafGHM5v40PeVoi0S9EdQ7LxxBTazfdyUfB3vC/s320/IMG_4521.JPG" width="320px" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I decided I kind of liked the pilot figure in this kit so started painting it up right from the start.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As an experiment I used Tamiya acrylics as I’ve always read they don’t hand brush well, but they seemed to go on nicely here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe getting good coverage on larger, flatter surfaces is more problematic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The uniform was XF-13 and the boots Testors Gloss Black, with Humbrol Matt Black for the ejector seat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the face I custom mixed what looked to me like a Japanese skin tone using craft acrylics, and it turned out OK.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The visor was done with Tamiya Smoke, then carefully coated with Future for a glossy shine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since these photos I’ve repainted the gloves with XF-14 and the oxygen apparatus the same X-2 as the helmet.</span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9aIaGkneajBYBW3Jf0DbA5TJ_mGlKE01pvhLATUJtZjU9_ZXX2T-RoG9-6KOBqEQeN5pwBrwhuPMUQZjkrGVQfe8VPaXr_YIP_wL3pQ4KZvpcn80Rk0dMQ5kGWmavRDABjq2EVizx6x1F/s1600/IMG_4261.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9aIaGkneajBYBW3Jf0DbA5TJ_mGlKE01pvhLATUJtZjU9_ZXX2T-RoG9-6KOBqEQeN5pwBrwhuPMUQZjkrGVQfe8VPaXr_YIP_wL3pQ4KZvpcn80Rk0dMQ5kGWmavRDABjq2EVizx6x1F/s320/IMG_4261.JPG" width="320px" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Meanwhile the wheel wells had to be routed out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This would have been a little easier if I hadn’t already glued the wing halves together…funny how I always start out thinking this will be a quick build, then immediately start reinventing the wheel.</span></span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr5CXBMaADNtSB0JU4KCwXmC2d-S9qaEahfJiOAoutc4cpGtU3JD6eyK-EQy3M31oxG5lmREmKOGMKxFiU22ZFjikfi1fPDHlLPIKgMs9DY9uQ7vQs_MbZpgG_Mp_yfw67LYvP3Kxz3HeM/s1600/IMG_4530.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr5CXBMaADNtSB0JU4KCwXmC2d-S9qaEahfJiOAoutc4cpGtU3JD6eyK-EQy3M31oxG5lmREmKOGMKxFiU22ZFjikfi1fPDHlLPIKgMs9DY9uQ7vQs_MbZpgG_Mp_yfw67LYvP3Kxz3HeM/s320/IMG_4530.JPG" width="320px" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Matter of fact</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">, I’ve been reexamining my obvious AMS* in light of the recent 1/144 Hamp build.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Much as I enjoy the torture of attempting to invent a method for transforming the tiniest bits of plastic imaginable into something resembling a radial engine, it was getting a tad bit frustrating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By contrast, 1/72 seems refreshing…it’s easier to see what I’m doing, and I can actually hold the part I’m working on with my fingers instead of constantly using tweezers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes you have to give yourself a break.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No doubt 1/48 and 1/32 modellers are shaking their heads, and I do have that 1/48 Tamiya Rufe I’d love to break out sometime…</span></span> </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisyB04Fc5y5RNEnMc8Q2XjMC9nhQT0DF6iSdJiBnC2EMPEgNhJh2GlcP5AKXVaU6CBiJ_J3XgXt4xc8Cd3SD-a6aaNh1BbqRR_pH4A3WrIUjmKV6qRmpDblfuTtiXRy6C2UPTX3cHQKwnj/s1600/IMG_4533.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisyB04Fc5y5RNEnMc8Q2XjMC9nhQT0DF6iSdJiBnC2EMPEgNhJh2GlcP5AKXVaU6CBiJ_J3XgXt4xc8Cd3SD-a6aaNh1BbqRR_pH4A3WrIUjmKV6qRmpDblfuTtiXRy6C2UPTX3cHQKwnj/s320/IMG_4533.JPG" width="320px" /></a></div><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">*Advanced Modeller’s Sydrome – a fairly acute condition that renders the well-intentioned modeller just about incapable of building a kit right out of the box without improving, upgrading, scratchbuilding, and generally re-engineering the thing.</span></span>fugakuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03773832426533197409noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7935523293999755037.post-75601662355721422172011-11-29T15:41:00.000-08:002011-11-29T15:46:03.471-08:001/144 Hamp update<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After a couple weeks of hardly any workbench time, I found some opportunities over the weekend to get back to this build. Got the cockpit base-coated with an oil wash, and started trying to figure out what to do with the engine.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Scratchbuilding radial engine cylinders in 1/144 turns out to be no Hawaiian vacation, and after several attempts I still haven’t gotten it quite right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s a brief mention of how to approach this on page 63 of Brian Criner’s excellent “Modelling the Mitsubishi A6M Zero”, though he does it in 1/72.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He describes using a punch and die to create “over 500” (hey, no problem!) tiny discs, which he then stacks with smaller diameter spacers to create the impression of cooling fins.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Should work just the same at half the size, right?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, not quite.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiWzcW5UZnl8jwszqnnO18n9KXF_MGN9pRF_b8h4Y5Mwkfky_Qc8ormtKSqa8N5Vt9YF8CNsOy0R2_AHaqjDqu-sGgpj_hvDaqafYmdEqwM3dmtjpWtZNVTeYBN9D6pS3lHoEk7yRcJOPs/s1600/IMG_4431.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dda="true" height="240px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiWzcW5UZnl8jwszqnnO18n9KXF_MGN9pRF_b8h4Y5Mwkfky_Qc8ormtKSqa8N5Vt9YF8CNsOy0R2_AHaqjDqu-sGgpj_hvDaqafYmdEqwM3dmtjpWtZNVTeYBN9D6pS3lHoEk7yRcJOPs/s320/IMG_4431.JPG" width="320px" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First of all, for an even remotely to-scale appearance I decided it had to be .005 styrene sheet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is paper-thin, and the biggest problem is just physically dealing with the discs once they’re punched.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sized at .038, they’re semi-microscopic and display a stubborn static-cling tendency with tweezers, cocktail stick, fingertips, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even more than most incredibly tiny parts they love to fly off into space at the slightest provocation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Keeping them aligned while gluing becomes a very fine balancing act involving intuition, trial and error, and luck.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRhDkNMB5NKHB_ZbOj6X1A1fIo7Sh-vQcXUTiwtKUr04gKl3B1S8WrPhMT6KOhqYE9SrntQ0W5mhiGJyUHo-JplYDcb4lrb33Yh-i09QvKiwfak6M5BQDVNocxsD2ZI0yZRz8pfG7ix40Z/s1600/IMG_4448.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dda="true" height="240px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRhDkNMB5NKHB_ZbOj6X1A1fIo7Sh-vQcXUTiwtKUr04gKl3B1S8WrPhMT6KOhqYE9SrntQ0W5mhiGJyUHo-JplYDcb4lrb33Yh-i09QvKiwfak6M5BQDVNocxsD2ZI0yZRz8pfG7ix40Z/s320/IMG_4448.JPG" width="320px" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Between having a couple dozen of these lying around plus dozens of other minuscule bits, one sneeze at the workbench these days would do as much damage as a Kansas tornado.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At least I don’t need 500 discs, as I quickly found out that even such small bits rapidly fill the available space.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>.038 is the smallest punch size I have so smaller spacers were out of the question, but there’s no room anyhow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First thing was to mark out the seven axes of the front row, spaced about 51.5 degrees apart, on some styrene sheet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then using a compass for a circle cutter I marked out a 3/8” circle to use for a backing plate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once I got a piece that fit OK inside the cowling I drilled the center hole for the propeller shaft and started gluing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My first effort went awry when I discovered fit problems after about the 3<sup>rd</sup> cylinder, and they didn’t look right anyhow.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNtCa51hL1XUu7xNqN64InsGzfMeV0QXyiyJugDBJIlxzeDdUr8tG7GHPrrGQ-NNcQ7t0pjruKdmjphkiwqI8GbPrWQToxgcudUPmtKcarZC8pjtA7AmwZCAdYEENK-7U-gH-5Zb0ZIY2k/s1600/IMG_4444.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dda="true" height="240px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNtCa51hL1XUu7xNqN64InsGzfMeV0QXyiyJugDBJIlxzeDdUr8tG7GHPrrGQ-NNcQ7t0pjruKdmjphkiwqI8GbPrWQToxgcudUPmtKcarZC8pjtA7AmwZCAdYEENK-7U-gH-5Zb0ZIY2k/s320/IMG_4444.JPG" width="320px" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was slicing a sliver off the discs to make a straighter gluing surface, but this combined with less-than-perfect alignment to give a distinctly uneven appearance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After some thought I decided it would be better to make the cylinders as standalone pieces that could be sanded flat on the back and maybe narrowed at the bottom for fit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Starting with the bottom disc stuck in some Blu-Tac<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">TM </span>on a flat toothpick clamped in the jaws of Mr. Helping Hands, I tried stacking using superglue applied with a short, slender piece of wire in an Xacto knife handle.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0ozkWxKpP3fFcgJUGyB8BAHtJlExmRDVkVAIW8AF6EQMzQpPbgP6uFeI-awQs89r7IpjHi1CKg6sAHW8wFDZz_tQLrE1EtO-GyPnEnTP3i-a-Reog84WXRcqZye7sD1CwWwPZzH3BHImV/s1600/IMG_4433.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dda="true" height="240px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0ozkWxKpP3fFcgJUGyB8BAHtJlExmRDVkVAIW8AF6EQMzQpPbgP6uFeI-awQs89r7IpjHi1CKg6sAHW8wFDZz_tQLrE1EtO-GyPnEnTP3i-a-Reog84WXRcqZye7sD1CwWwPZzH3BHImV/s320/IMG_4433.JPG" width="320px" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This was fine til the superglue started to tack up, making first placement the final placement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After ruining a couple this way, I tried using white glue and found the opposite problem, not enough adhesion even when dried.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Guess I’ll try liquid cement next, if it doesn’t melt these tiny styrene flakes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Luckily by now I’ve got kind of a production method down so it’s becoming less time consuming, and no doubt at some point I’ll actually figure this out and end up with fourteen (or at least the front seven) passable cylinders glued to the backing plate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then I need to get back to crash molding a decent canopy… </span><span style="font-size: 8pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"></div>fugakuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03773832426533197409noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7935523293999755037.post-73410737595723693002011-11-12T23:43:00.000-08:002011-11-12T23:48:03.257-08:00Arii 1/144 A6M3 Model 32 “Hamp”<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Alert readers may have noticed a tiny white airplane in pieces behind the Corsair in one of the photos from last time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That would be the Arii “Hamp” kit (misidentified as a “Zeke” in previous post - duh), which I recently picked off the top of the pile and proceeded to get fearlessly stuck into, despite the number of already unfinished planes lying around.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">It’s some challenge too, I mean they give you decent-looking (raised) panel lines (considered rescribing, decided to live with it as is) and a generally OK shape to the thing, but…there’s no cockpit AT ALL (faired over just like the Corsair – what, no half-pilot figure?)</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisDA_o7-vr7AcIbpUul8PHCxCgIPhxl11c90i0zQPGo9HSQZXJ8rqTlqIJ4v9fMBdpnqCivRpVRlLnJeuJDz6Vk9bt54tqmQLuRX4seBzMBQBW16ug5N5DEjPlEyg6FakRAIpgveOavdxU/s1600/IMG_4321.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" nda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisDA_o7-vr7AcIbpUul8PHCxCgIPhxl11c90i0zQPGo9HSQZXJ8rqTlqIJ4v9fMBdpnqCivRpVRlLnJeuJDz6Vk9bt54tqmQLuRX4seBzMBQBW16ug5N5DEjPlEyg6FakRAIpgveOavdxU/s320/IMG_4321.JPG" width="320px" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRe7fkCpliT2TJ7oXeswWTwJuhlIZw3Y1QYqD3JQzKVSGzZ2oL-fBhrflgTEQkoY_HMM4aJGv22bTzln1edBigIp818NWUTyqALn65E-KNz-6fOwgnjmWKs4-4nI0lB5dt2rMwDiVg62Iw/s1600/IMG_4327.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" nda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRe7fkCpliT2TJ7oXeswWTwJuhlIZw3Y1QYqD3JQzKVSGzZ2oL-fBhrflgTEQkoY_HMM4aJGv22bTzln1edBigIp818NWUTyqALn65E-KNz-6fOwgnjmWKs4-4nI0lB5dt2rMwDiVg62Iw/s320/IMG_4327.JPG" width="320px" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">No attempt at engine detail, the canopy is just all wrong…so clearly this is no weekend build, though that’s exactly what I tried to tell myself it was whilst spending a couple hours cleaning up the rather extensive flash on virtually every part.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m guessing Nixon was president when this tooling was new…however, I enjoy this type of modelling, taking an old outdated kit and doing the utmost to overcome its flaws and build something better.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">First thing was to open up the nonexistent cockpit and build in a floor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I decided to try something I haven’t seen anybody do in 1/144 (though I’m sure it’s done all the time) and put in some sidewall framing as a background to the cockpit detail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi66k5B6Bgt97_jHSgNggDupwiqsSzXbqFXiOapXyxGd9HBKOhAs3VkYsAN9lwxbGdthOgWDxAL30iQsJXc3JmjbdmmxGkM2Mi_rRUjKUnnUBxDMcHMZ1LUzcWIu6U6KHLYD6wRsOKNA_vQ/s1600/IMG_4330.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" nda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi66k5B6Bgt97_jHSgNggDupwiqsSzXbqFXiOapXyxGd9HBKOhAs3VkYsAN9lwxbGdthOgWDxAL30iQsJXc3JmjbdmmxGkM2Mi_rRUjKUnnUBxDMcHMZ1LUzcWIu6U6KHLYD6wRsOKNA_vQ/s320/IMG_4330.JPG" width="320px" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Then I put in the turnover truss behind the seat, built the seat (second attempt – first one looked a bit too much like the ol’ porcelain throne), and started detailing the port sidewall with the electrical box, upper throttle quadrant, and elevator trim wheel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At this scale I’m happy with any kind of halfway decent representation of components like this, and also happy if they don’t launch off the tweezers into a void before I can glue them down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve learned to use superglue instead of styrene cement, so these semi-microscopic parts don’t melt or distort when glued in place.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Next was the dashboard, some rudder pedals, and on to the starboard sidewall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Looks a bit rough here, but should paint up nicely. </span>I used some mighty slender stretched sprue for wiring detail, which of course will be invisible once the fuselage halves are glued together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hey, <i>I</i> know it’s there…</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi452G9jSJmpanVpTxmLDxyl0GZAPqLAlRwQFDATVkrr7zG2YiC7n_9dcUL61OVwg5pKqJQhmR8fsRz4igk2tg2Kv4e_ACOWLcokfe6QERbxid5BWMatweDoljXHJ5Yap1e655F_FeY4bg1/s1600/IMG_4394.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" nda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi452G9jSJmpanVpTxmLDxyl0GZAPqLAlRwQFDATVkrr7zG2YiC7n_9dcUL61OVwg5pKqJQhmR8fsRz4igk2tg2Kv4e_ACOWLcokfe6QERbxid5BWMatweDoljXHJ5Yap1e655F_FeY4bg1/s320/IMG_4394.JPG" width="320px" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Things got more complicated as I realized how lacking the cowling piece was, soon remedied by sanding down the cowl flap section and thinning its edges to a more believable “scale” thickness, then scribing in the cowl flaps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Had to freehand this as Dymo tape wouldn’t stick in such tiny lengths, and it shows, but I’ll have to live with it and try to figure out a better method.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also scribed in the fuselage-mounted machine gun channels, which didn’t turn out so hot either, but better than nothing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I used the cowl from the Sweet kit to mark the exhaust pipe locations, having got rid of the stock “exhausts” which are way out of scale and better described as “exhaust horns”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then after drilling out a pair of #80 holes, I glued in a couple short bits of styrene rod that looked about the right diameter and after trimming to length drilled them out, with fairly credible-looking results.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Things are looking up!</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMRZ4ojAewYAfUCWjugz6n9Onxm0kCucMS6zr-WgDq-4CBGYcyuFIcURgNyxwl5n8SNwHvfM8R3kyUOUF4-apdVbzcJwHZmqTX2pv7or_hbfRxrSnZY8h5BBBj8zCUrDT8jTpD3UfXeZge/s1600/IMG_4333.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" nda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMRZ4ojAewYAfUCWjugz6n9Onxm0kCucMS6zr-WgDq-4CBGYcyuFIcURgNyxwl5n8SNwHvfM8R3kyUOUF4-apdVbzcJwHZmqTX2pv7or_hbfRxrSnZY8h5BBBj8zCUrDT8jTpD3UfXeZge/s320/IMG_4333.JPG" width="320px" /></a></div><br />
Might add a few more cockpit details before painting the interior. Meanwhile there's some fairly tedious work with the punch and die making discs for the engine cylinders, and a major learning curve crash molding a canopy since the kit canopy is just dire. Too late to stop now!<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>fugakuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03773832426533197409noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7935523293999755037.post-39704181773361189762011-11-10T20:37:00.000-08:002011-11-10T20:37:13.912-08:00Testors F4U1 Corsair 1/72 WIPThis is it, the earth-shattering launch of my new blog about whatever's happening on my rather cluttered, yet "precisely organized" workbench. Got back into building model aircraft 10 months ago and despite continuing efforts & preoccupation have yet to completely finish one plane (sad, I know). On the other hand considering my ever-wandering interests as well as some of the demands on my time it's amazing I've gotten as far as I have. <br />
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Kits in progress:<br />
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- 1/48 Tamiya J2M3 Raiden (first kit started, now finally on the painting table, albeit minus a cockpit and some exterior detail that got removed w/ lacquer thinner, plus other gaffes - truly a sacrificial learning-curve build)<br />
- 1/72 Testors F4U1 Corsair (second kit started, furthest along paintwise, starting to look not half bad - another sacrificial learning-curve kit)<br />
- 1/72 Hasegawa J2M3 Raiden (haven't thought about this one for a while, but do recall making some progress before moving on to something else, as usual)<br />
- 1/72 Hasegawa J7W1 Shinden (got hung up on scratchbuilding cockpit detail, but should build up into a nice model at some point)<br />
- 1/144 Sweet A6M2-N Rufe (2 kits, just at the point of masking canopies prior to paint prep - some OK cockpit detail added)<br />
- 1/144 Sweet GM-FM3 Hellcat (built up just one of the two kits so far, stalled at the enhanced cockpit stage)<br />
- 1/72 Hasegawa F86F Sabre (ancient JASDF boxing w/ raised panel lines, etc - scratchbuilding cockpit detail, planning wheel well detail and maybe a crash moulded canopy)<br />
- 1/144 Arii A6M3 Model 32 Zeke (serious upgrade challenge build of ancient tooling - scratchbuilding entire cockpit, planning engine and wheel well detail and well as crash moulded canopy - my current preoccupation)<br />
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So things have gotten a bit involved. Anyhow, might as well start with the Corsair since it's looking the most like an actual model airplane as opposed to a bunch of parts.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixa2wwmwazzSsxJO5oLrehwrWkl0N8wa1TR7cJbhr-Mtp0AlkzA50OqBCYFWOmP1Nzk5nhaV2M6sR1izK35tFwm9Ft4476vFSawq3WXGpxSPrjF8R2fer1gsmAt5vDyosGykJXAAiDaW5Z/s1600/IMG_4353.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" nda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixa2wwmwazzSsxJO5oLrehwrWkl0N8wa1TR7cJbhr-Mtp0AlkzA50OqBCYFWOmP1Nzk5nhaV2M6sR1izK35tFwm9Ft4476vFSawq3WXGpxSPrjF8R2fer1gsmAt5vDyosGykJXAAiDaW5Z/s320/IMG_4353.JPG" width="320px" /></a></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Started this cheap kit ($6 at Michael's) about 9 months ago – I think it's an old Hawk tooling or something like that, probably from the 1960’s, complete with faired-over cockpit and half-pilot figure. Panel lines a mix of raised & recessed, possibly the kit’s best feature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of the detail is nice, but a lot of it is just missing – engine exhausts, air intake grilles, etc – anyway, it was a learning build and learn I did, mainly a whole lot about compensating for poor fit with filling, sanding, filling, sanding…more filling...there was also a pretty rough first attempt at wiring up an engine and giving it a black oil wash, all of which was prelude to several months spent stuffed in a plastic box back in the shadows. But then without warning this raggedy, half-forgotten old airframe reappeared for a quick dustoff, assembly, painting prep and overall try for the finish line. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Got the canopy masked and glued (forgot to include the pilot figure though – all painted up and no place to go) </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpCSif0p-0FXqnybabYP3sTUJGceEkFUw4tGLQGU_B-Gsmpn_4l5_WoXK8p1n3NsjKQzSpa6Df_RHH6fN_Yc_7FLz-6nF-sCEE9eKcxsgYDuPtkX6IXLBzYNkWejIGdDyYI0vijy_6849a/s1600/IMG_4368.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" nda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpCSif0p-0FXqnybabYP3sTUJGceEkFUw4tGLQGU_B-Gsmpn_4l5_WoXK8p1n3NsjKQzSpa6Df_RHH6fN_Yc_7FLz-6nF-sCEE9eKcxsgYDuPtkX6IXLBzYNkWejIGdDyYI0vijy_6849a/s320/IMG_4368.JPG" width="320px" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Drilled out gunports, scratched up a few radio antennae on top and a pitot tube (got broken off, natch), and even learned how to repair a raised panel line (!), before finally an all-over polish with 10000 grit and some Testors grey primer sprayed from a can.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Used Tamiya XF-16 Flat Aluminum for a metal undercoat, which I don’t recommend as it left a very pebbly finish that continues to show through the upper colour coats.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’d read about that too and still went ahead and tried it anyway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yep!…anyhow, the underside colour is Tamiya XF-19 Sky Grey with a drop of X-2 White, while the top is X-4 Blue darkened to more of a navy blue using X-1 Black.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During unmasking of the lower half the forward wheel covers somehow disappeared without trace, so I’ll be scratchbuilding a pair of those.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfsjjJhCfgeSPREHTh1aMPyTo9u8Q8vBx7x7ATKKOS0O2o_FEMnccco2eDm1dwGXr-rvSE903ICXPhCKnJ7WDrT1g-Cmx5jZeMaFXm1Rt48lcIv-Vfb_HJJgD-ODwVNzO_h5ePosS2lxWU/s1600/IMG_4357.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" nda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfsjjJhCfgeSPREHTh1aMPyTo9u8Q8vBx7x7ATKKOS0O2o_FEMnccco2eDm1dwGXr-rvSE903ICXPhCKnJ7WDrT1g-Cmx5jZeMaFXm1Rt48lcIv-Vfb_HJJgD-ODwVNzO_h5ePosS2lxWU/s320/IMG_4357.JPG" width="320px" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Spindly landing gear still masked off with Parafilm, but coming in handy to prop up the model during painting. Next is masking random panels on the underside and respraying to cover up Tamiya tape marks, bits of navy blue overspray and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>two thumbprints (one on each wing).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then chipping the paint a bit to show the aluminum underneath, before a coat of Future, decals, washes, and weathering.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifVWwTtLdBrifxp6jLMcsYJuS3BSAC1zdxeaWCOySrg77kP7su2U9g4zAFnNuJmXnEvlusftnJu2El6RC63OApDzmj99N50vsqkaKMtU_lmXtdj7WCsHdEZ-GjBCwmFgV1wppn6MfZg-Tu/s1600/IMG_4355.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" nda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifVWwTtLdBrifxp6jLMcsYJuS3BSAC1zdxeaWCOySrg77kP7su2U9g4zAFnNuJmXnEvlusftnJu2El6RC63OApDzmj99N50vsqkaKMtU_lmXtdj7WCsHdEZ-GjBCwmFgV1wppn6MfZg-Tu/s320/IMG_4355.JPG" width="320px" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>fugakuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03773832426533197409noreply@blogger.com0