Better late than never. Tamiya A6M3 Type 32

Hi again. I have neglected my duties in the campaigne sorry...or not? I just forgot to upload. This was a few days ago:

I think I overdone the chipping but I couldn't stop myself, it was sooo much fun. I reversed a little though and I had a little problem with the decals. The 3 on the left side just decided to disentegrate...


And this is 5 minutes ago...well the reason she is on a bottle is one of the clips decided to hurl itself into my paint shelf then bounce back and take the Shiden to the floor. Thank God I sliped with one broken landing gear...


Substituted the lost 3 from a P-51 kit...wasn't a perfect match but it'll make do...admit it you didn't realize until I told you right?

And the prop...

Next stop waiting for the LG to dry, matt cote, masks off, anthennea, fuel tank and then some final dirt and retouches.

Cool Zero Richard...feels familiar...


Any relation?

My progress,



Just missing the canopy, masking and cleaning fingerprints..

Greetings,
I've been making progress. Filling seams and making smooth. These are photos of my progress.
Regards,
Firstsergeant

Okay... this hopefully fixed the mail problem. Fingers crossed!

Jim

Ok, last photos. This one is done







Will post some photos on the Gallery too.

Hi all

There are some great build in this campaign. I have a Val dive bomber from Cyber Hobby that I fancy building. Hope you don’t mind if I hop on board.

It’s a long time since I built a Japanese aircraft; I think the last one was the Airfix Dinah when I was 11-12 years old. I reviewed this kit a while ago and reading the review again I was not too bowled over with it. There is something about the detail and fit that promises a fairly quick build.

tim

Hi all
Ooopps I seem to have lost a couple of images above. They are included below. Sorry about that.

The parts for the cockpit bear no resemblance at all to the instructions. A pity really as the internal detail is quite good. The side walls are peppered with recessed ejector marks though. No control stick is included so a scratch built one will be necessary.

There is no gun for the back seater either. There is a lot locating holes [?] but nothing to place in them.
Painted everything internal IJN green [Tamiya XF-71]. I added some harnesses made from Tamiya masking tape. Weathering is a light scrub of Paynes grey oil paint.

You have to smile at the detailed CAD drawing of the instrument panel, but the detail does not translate to the plastic. Fortunately it will not be seen once the fuselage is buttoned up.

To be continued……

Tim

Hi all

The radial engine does look superb and the exhaust pipes look excellent. Unfortunately there is some damage to the moulded exhaust detail on my sample.

An oddity among a whole raft of oddities with the instructions is there is no indication that there is a choice of two engine nacelles included. One has closed vents and the other has open vents, which is fortunate for me. I can hide the broken exhaust pipes using the nacelle with the closed vents. The instructions just show the nacelle with the open vents.

The suggested building instructions for the engine look incorrect. If you follow the instructions the nacelle will not fit. The instructions also suggest fitting the engine through the completed nacelle, which is impossible.

Not a kit for the novice me thinks!!!

To be continued…..

tim

Looking good so far Tim !!!

Nothing like a Dragon instruction sheet to make a modelling evening fun ...

There's going to be a really great gallery when this campaign is over. Everyone is doing great works for this underrepresented (at least around here) subject.

Hi all

John - Yes the instructions are amazingly odd. The cockpit parts bear no resemblance to the instructions. The cockpit tub [D10] simply does not exist!!

Richard – This is a really interesting campaign. This campaign certainly has awakened my interest in Japanese aircraft of WWII. I'm pondering whether to acquire a couple of Japanese aircraft from Sword.

tim

Very nice John, your pics are in the gallery too

Hi all

Right moving onto the best parts of the kit: the airframe. The recessed detail and the overall shape look superb. The fit of parts is generally excellent. There is a slight gap between the rear wing and fuselage.

There is the option to display the model with wing tips folded. All the control surfaces are separate parts. Again the instructions are hopeless, the parts number don’t tally with the instructions. I did rub down the raised rib detail on the control surfaces.

I went over the joins with some liquid paper, although I’m not sure it was really necessary.

The fixed undercarriage wheels can rotate, so you can have hours of fun trundling this kit around your desk.
To be continued…

Tim

Hi all

All the control surfaces have been glued on. I have to say overall shape of the completed kit looks very pleasing, particularly the wings. The nacelle fits very nicely indeed.

The one piece canopy is a real disappointment. In my opinion the stepped appearance of the canopy is far to pronounced. Also the rear part of the canopy is a very poor fit against the fuselage. I decided to modify the fuselage around the cockpit for a better fit. I just added a couple of strips of plastic along the rear sill. Once dry I will re shape the area.

There are a number of alternative separate canopy parts if you want to display it open.

To be continued…

Tim

Greetings,
More progress to report. Paint has been applied and more assembly accomplished. More to follow...


Regards,
Firstsergeant

Hi again. Sorry for the delay. I didn't get online much the past week. I menaged to finish the Shiden Kai the previous thursday and it even earned itself a 3rd place in the 1st Scale Worlds Model Contest in 1/72 Scale Single Propeller Engineed Airplanes category.

Here is my entry. I guess it’s better late, LATE than never. I have started a few models but have yet to finish one. I am thinking if I have a hard deadline maybe I will finish one, I have two months, we will see. I don’t think I am up to doing a NMF, as per the kit. I will do a standard JAAF green/gray scheme. Revi decal has a set that I may use. Hope to have some progress pictures soon.

Some very nice builds here and I must apologies for not posting any replies but I have limited time. I have started my Raiden and there is paint on the cockpit parts, so I should get some pictures posted, well I have one so here it is:



Not much But this is also a trial of some new paints, more when I can get a review together. I have painted the cockpit in RLM83, a late WWII Luftwaffe dark green, the intention is that this will for the basis of "shadows" when I apply the Mitsubishi interior green, we'll see




Bill,
I have finished a few but at the moment I have several on the go and some are unintentionally taking a back seat, like my Raiden, but I do want to get it finished. Eeeek, 2 months you say! I had better get a riddle on

Hay wait! I miscalculated. I have almost three months till the dead line. That’s better!

Hi all

Attached the canopy and masked it with Tamiya tape. Not a difficult task, but a tedious one.

Halfords primer was used before using Tamiya paints. The white tail bands were painted even though there are decals for these included.

To be continued…

tim




Tim

Greetings,
I've applied decals and final assembly. I'm going to call this one done. I've uploaded photos to the Campaign Gallery.




Regards,
Firstsergeant