OK, as hoped, the bottom of the Ki-84 is now gray. I kind of like the patchy way it came out, and did do some preshading first. So far, so good!



Michael

PBJ-1H's interior is now done, I'll double check whether I've missed anything and glue the fuselage halves.

Michael, Ernest and Mike: Thank You for leaving a comment. It is much appreciated!

Michael: Your Hayate proceeds very well!

Mike: Nice choice.I will follow Your build with interest.

Pasi: Nicely done interior! Are these fabric seat belts?

Oliver

Michael, very nice shading on the underneath of your build, very pleasing to the eye!

Pasi, your interior is the bomb! Excellent work!

Following are three photos of my build as I begin weathering. It is hard to see under the harsh direct lighting on my work bench, but the Dauntless has gotten its wash, paint fading and some chipping and general wear. I am about 2/3 of the way through, but have to leave on a business trip until Monday tomorrow, bummer. When the build id complete I plan to set up my photo tent and take some better shots to post.

Ernest

DSC03684 by Ernest Roth, on Flickr
Directly after the wash has been cleaned up.

DSC03686 by Ernest Roth, on Flickr
Paint fading, best seen on the right tailplane.

DSC03685 by Ernest Roth, on Flickr
Overall shot showing fading and chipping wear

Ernest

Here's my build for the campaign. I'm already working with Dragon care to get the missing parts for the high bustle turret on this one. The low bustle turret provided in the kit is wrong for this model of Sherman, These M4 Composites with low bustle turrets had neither the pistol port nor the oval loaders hatch on the turret, and the one provided in the kit has both!

Ernest: Your Dauntless comes along nicely. Chipping is spot on. Did You use some lighter colors for the national insignia. On Your last picture they look a bit bleached. I like it very much!

Charlie-66: Nice choice! Will be interesting to follow!

Finished a little dio for my Kate. Figures were a bit difficult to paint due to the soft plastic, but lots of primer worked well.






Looking at these pictures I found out that I have to repaint the landing gear . Too much chipping on the tires. I reckognize most flaws on my models on pictures of them and not on the model itself.

Oliver

Oliver, real nice looking dio

That a heck of a good start! The instrument panel looks phenomenal





Wow, that is one gorgeous finish! I refuse to believe that this is 72nd scale.

Well done everyone.


I'm making progress still, I just keep forgetting to upload the photos and when I remember I'm just too lazy

Hi All!

The big part of the move is complete, I'm in country. Still hanging out at my sister in-laws in the capitol while Crickit completes her quarantine period, fortunately only 7 days. So after careful consideration and seeing a couple of the old Tamiya kits entered in the fray, I'm in with their A6M2-N allied code name "Rufe".



While spending time in quarantine I felt it best to use the time to scribe the raised detail. I'm planning a mostly out of the box build, though I have a PE set for the Hasegawa zero. I've played with using PE as a template for making little odds and ends, for this, I'm thinking the instrument panel and seat, and adding some scratch stuff to the cockpit. More to follow soon!

Here's the jig I made up for work on the rear of the engine. Note how far the spark plugs stick out. The exhaust manifold isn't glued in place, It's being used to align the front cylinders by way of their respective exhausts.






The fit of the exhausts to the exhaust manifold isn't critical because the exhausts themselves attack to the upper pipe coming from the cylinders so the manifold attachment point won't be visible.

The fit of the crank/gear case on the other hand is phenomenal. It fit so tighly that I had to press it out from behind. It aligns using a keyed end. Same with the exhaust manifold.




This is coming together nicely, but I really don't care for how some of it is engineered - you can see where the sidewalls attach, this ledge is even smaller on the sidewalls themselves and the alignment was never quite right. Dry fitting the cockpit kept breaking one of the sidewalls or the rear bulkhead off. Eduard would have you believe that you remove the raised detail from the fuselage halves when in actuality you have to grind both halves beyond wafer thin.



Driving my OCD nuts.




Moving on to kit parts was such a welcome relief. EVERYTHING here fit perfectly, as you would expect.




Well kids, like I said, I'm now ready to glue the fuselage together. It will involve more than a few four letter words and a fair bit of alcohol afterwards. It should be (relatively) smooth sailing from there. Don't worry, I just knocked on (actual) wood.

hi all. i'm a little late to the party but i was finishing up my pearl harbor campaign build first.

here is my project for this campaign. the old monogram devastator kit. i remember building this one as a kid and i am 52 now so that shows how old it is. it looks pretty well detailed for it's age though and i am looking forward to building it.

i am going to use the starfighter decal sheet devastators in war paint. i wanted to do an accurate miniatures dauntless of Lt Richard Best's aircraft but the sheet is sold out. i really only need some black identification numbers for the B-1 on the side but can't find them either. so i will do Lt Cmdr John C Waldrons plane in honor of the brave pilots who sacrificed their lives of torpedo sqd 8 and also those of sqd 6 and 3.

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i will be starting this build this weekend- joe

now that's an oldie

John that Rufe looks like it will be a very cool project!

Matt, your build is (unsurprisingly) looking very good indeed. The interior work is excellent.

Joe, I have to echo another post, that kit is an oldie, that brings back some memories. I wish you a lot of fun with the build!

The Dauntless is complete. Overall I give my effort a solid "C" grade; I made a few small mistakes in construction and painting that don't detract from the view - if one does not get closer than 20 cm's away that is. The kit is very good, though there was a fair amount of flash that had to be dealt with. It went together well, the only problem area being a slight step on the tailplanes that had to be worked on. The interior is pretty nice and it is a shame that the curve of the fuselage hides a lot of it.

Ok, I'll stop blabbing and post some pictures of the finished build below.

Ernest

DSC03687 by Ernest Roth, on Flickr

DSC03688 by Ernest Roth, on Flickr

DSC03689 by Ernest Roth, on Flickr

DSC03703 by Ernest Roth, on Flickr

DSC03691 by Ernest Roth, on Flickr

DSC03695 by Ernest Roth, on Flickr

DSC03694 by Ernest Roth, on Flickr

DSC03698 by Ernest Roth, on Flickr

DSC03707 by Ernest Roth, on Flickr

Thumbs up Ernst!

Very nice Dauntless, especially that engine, it just looks damm good

Cheers
Pedro

Great work Ernest! I do like that kit, happily I have a couple more in the stash.

Michael

great work ernest on the dauntless. looks perfect.
i just researched the fact that the devastator i am building of torpedo eight had the rear 30 cal modified to a two gun setup just before the battle of midway. so i will have to find an aftermarket setup. anyone know where i can find one?

joe

Ken and Matt: Thank You very much for Your comments!

John: This a a nice kit, You have chosen there! Good lock for You!

Matt: Wow, I wish You nerves of steel and a steady hand for the installation of the cockpit! I will keep my fingers crossed!

Bob: Mmh, I think I built this kit long long time ago. Will be a pleasure to have some nice memories.

Ernest: Fantastic looking Dauntless! It a real Beauty! Congrats !

Oliver

Ernest, congrats on finishing, well done.

Here is my start up Photo.



Tom

Frank is ready for decals:




Michael

Oliver, sorry I completely missed your question. Yes, they are Eduard'd fabric belts. I think they are my new favourite as far as belts go. They aren't real fabric as I'd understand, but more like tyvek or very strong and tear resistant paper like material. Only drawback is that they have colour only on one side.

Just a quick update (Dinner's ready and I'm being called) but lots of progress!!


It was a real fight to fit the cockpit into the fuselage. Honestly, I was expecting a better fit from the Brassin set - but the detail is superb and it was no more work to fit than the old days (Verlinden etc)

I'm relieved to have the fuselage glued together and the wings (or part thereof) attached!




The Brassin engine sits in a state of incompletion - some parts were warped beyond salvation, but Eduard has sent replacements. Luckily the engine can be attached last.

Kit engine on the right.




Have you ever noticed that everyone criticizes Trumpeter for their rubber tires, but no one ever says the same about Tamiya's? I can't stand them.


Thus;





I heard a rumor that 32nd scale is the best scale. Confirm/deny

Hi all,
Oliver, as always kind words, and another great build! Nice Kate and in 1/72 no less. To add to the question regarding the holes in the seats of some Japanese aircraft. These were made to lighten the aircraft, they are asymmetric, though most pictures will show the holes of varying size in the same general place. From a pilots perspective I’d think they would have chosen better places somewhere on the plane to lighten the load! Gotta love those engineers!

Ernest, I like the SBD!

Matt the corsair is coming along nicely. Regarding scale? While 32nd may allow for greater detail that is actually seen, after you build a few, where do you put them?

Mike, if you’ve not redone the yellow on the Frank, you may wish to try this. Yes Tamiya yellow is a bit too bright for IJA/N ID bands, though if you mask the area and give it a shot of Tamiya clear orange the color is quite convincing!

Michael, I’ve always liked the homeland defence bands on a Frank! Looks good!

So two weeks into my build and I’m making some hard discoveries. The local Tamiya model shop here has decided to scale back on the models available, now just one shelf. To add insult to injury there were only four bottles of paint! All colors that I’ve not seen on any model. I inquired when more would come, and the young store rep said “that’s it” in a proud sort of way. This has led to purchasing my paints via the mail. They say that they should be here in a month! Aiyo!

The first week was spent scribing the raised detail. There’s not too much on this kit so it was pretty straight forward. Nice straight lines! While time consuming, about 10 hours total, I had little better to do as I was spending my time with Crickit, my dog, in quarantine. For the record, it is no fun at all! And in the heat, even modelling was a bit of chore. Fortunately, it was over and we all headed down to our new home, which isn’t quite done yet.

During this time I also took a photocopy of the PE set for the Hasegawa kit and cut out the portion for the seat, and instrument panel. Next I glued the copy to 1/10K thick plastic stock, using water soluble glue. Then I punched out the holes in the seat and for the instrument panel (twice for the panel!). I then made light scores on the seat after carefully cutting it from the pattern. I then folded the plastic as if it were PE. After a little work and sanding it seems to looking the part.





The second week was spent doing the engine and cowl, and test fitting the parts, and more clean up. In prior visits here I was smart as I’ve been doing a little modelling and had purchased a few paints. And was able to give Tamiya Chrome aluminium a try, and it seems ok. Also had some Tamiya NATO black so a little wash was added.

I started to play with the cockpit by sawing off the radio boxes from the cockpit floor. Not sure what they are representative of, I’ve not seen them in a photo of any Zero cockpit. I plan to add a lever and handle for the seat height adjuster, although I doubt on this aircraft it was used very much.



I also added some weight to the nose of the float, and got that buttoned up.



Next will be cleaning up and working with the wings. This is quite a fun little kit! More to follow, till then have fun! I am!

John

The same place I put the 48th kits!!!

The 32nd scale kits are larger obviously, but they also take longer to build - so they don't really take up any additional space.

I am going to go with this fellow...



Quick check through the box and it should be a reasonably quick build compared to my recent stuff, so if I get a chance I may also throw in this fellow as well...