Hi all,

Just to show I do eventually complete some models...here is a 1/72 Hasegawa Ki-43 II Oscar in French Indochina colors, circa 1945 at Phenom Phen, Cambodia. Former IJA aircraft pressed into French service after WWII.



The kit is the older Hasegawa with raised panel lines. Totally hand-painted. Roundels and letter "A" are from Carpena Decals; fin flash is painted on.

Bob, looks great what did you use for the natural metal base coat??? stug

very nice work, dont know how you guys do that braille scale stuff, but you make it look good

Bender

GREAT PAINTWORK - CONGRATS
ROBERTO

Sponge,

It looked real nice, I like the Oscar, the only japanese plane that I think is capable at the end of the war. Good work!

Glad you asked that, Stug. I started with a base coat of Floquil Old Silver railroad color. After it dried, I buffed it with a cotton rag and Pepsodent toothpaste. A few days later, I got some SNJ Aluminum powder and buffed that in with a cotton rag. The result was a semi-oxidized natural metal finish, over which I applied Aeromaster acrylic (Marine Dark Green) for the splotches. Finally, to apply the decals, I put a coat of Future acrylic over everything except the control surfaces.

Thanks for all the comments and encouragement, guys!

Very interesting subject and very well done !
The french flew all they could lay their hands on in indochina. They also had Ki 43s...
Most of the planes were very tired and lacked replacement parts so they didn't stay long in service. My granddad was a transport pilot in indochina then so he had the occasion to see a few.

That had to be something else...it was quite an interesting "sideshow", although to the people who were there, it wasn't a sideshow.
Imagine if you could have seen the things he saw...

The french army was certainly something strange then. There were many young men who had entered the army at the end of the war... there was the foreign legion, full of people who wanted to be forgotten (many ex-waffen SS)... very little equipment...
In Madagascar, a guerilla appeared in 47. The french used some old JU 52 transports, with a man at the door and throwing bombs out, to fight the rebels.
Combats in all those places were extremely violent and the methods used were not always very human (to say the least)...
It's sad it took so long for the politicians to understand that people had a right to independence, even when they weren't european.

Hi M60A3

That's a neat looking Oscar - always one of my favourites - they're so delicate looking they make a Zero seem like a heavyweight! I've never heard of buffing paint with toothpaste so I'm going to give it a try... thanks for the tip and showing us your model. :-)

Cheers

Rowan

:-) Excellant Oscar, m60a3. I don't do these unusual schemes, but I like to see them. Especially done as well as this :-)
Mal

wow great job i hope my plane will look like tahat

Greets Rowan,

A 1984 issue of Fine Scale Modeler had an article about simulating NMF with Floquil paint. I tried it then and use it exclusively since.

Floquil puts out Bright Silver, Old Silver, Platinum Mist and I recall one or two others (fumes are taking their toll).

These stick to plastic like...well...glue! The pigment is ultra fine, some say finer than Humbrol. It can be masked and unless you slopped grease between it and the model, the paint ain't coming off!

It can be buffed and polished and handled without gloves that remove metalizers.

One color can be buffed with different subjects, i.e., cotton, toothpaste, polish, and give as many slightly different sheens.

Floquil used to be laquer-based. In the late 80s-early 90s they reformulated. The new paint is still as good as described.

Hi all

Great subject matter Im gunna half to try your idea on the buffingsonds great.
This is a great job good work

ponysoldier

The Horse The Gun The Man
Still followed to this day