HEY GUYS! FINISHED THAT RUFE! PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU DO YOU THINK, SO I CAN IMPROVE MY WORK! THIS WILL BE MY ENTRY FOR THE A.G.E CAMPAIGN, AND MY CONTRIBUTION TO THE RISING SUN GROUP BUILD. THANKS!

Bus, fist things first. I edited your topic title from all caps to upper and lower-case. Just one of those moderator duty things.

Second, awesome plane. I'm not an expert on Japanese aircraft so I don't know if it's accurate or not. I can comment on the finish though.

I really like the undersides. You can tell you put a lot of work into that area.

The top has a couple of things I would change. You've obviously weathered the top because you can see the paint chips which were characteristic on these planes (I think). I do think the green and red are a little "overdone" for a weathered plane. Maybe making the red and green a little faded would help.

You can see the decal film on the rudder numbers. Trimming up the decals before application will remove the excess decal film.

Lastly, the flaps on the cowl. While what you have isn't wrong, if you were to remove the excess material between the cowl flaps they would look a little more realistic.

Overall, though, pretty impressive.

Thanks for the tip Tin Can!I´ll try to make things better next time...
About the cow flaps -The rules of this campaign is to present the kit without modifications, OTB.
Thanks for the reply!

Bus

I was snooping in the gallery, and saw these pics, and hoped you had posted in the AC forum, so I could reply. Congrats on a very very nice effort with your Rising Sun entry for the AGE Campaign.

Unfortunately I am not an aircraft expert, but I do believe I can judge a well done model when I see one, and that is what you have here. Other than the decal film which Tin Can mentioned, this one looks great.

I really like the soft weathering on the leading edges near the tail, very discreet, and yet just enough fade into the main color to make it look realistic. Beautiful weathering on the pontoon undersides also.

Congrats on your build here!

Steve

Hi Bus,
Your Rufe looks great! Really nice job all the way around.
The one thing that catches my eye tho is that the main insignias are awfully bright and clean. They don't show any of the great weathering you did to tie them into the rest of the plane.
Not trying to nit-pick or anything Just an observation.
Overall your Rufe looks great and it is a very nice build.
Job well done

Wayne

Thanks guys!I´ll see if I can make a lil weathering on them too!

Hey that looks really good! I am pondering on building either that or my Jill next. Is that Tamiya or Hasegawa?

~Chip

Excellant job on the paint, it really looks worn out!
:-)

Hey guys!Folowing your tips , I got my pastels and weathered the decalsWhat do you think??

Hi Bus,
The weathering looks great on the decals and really ties them in with your Rufe.
Great job and great looking aircraft

What color is your green? I usually use Model Master IJN Green which I like really well. I really like the green you used too and it is a little lighter than the IJN Green. I just might have to get me some of that color also.

Small update on my progress....A first for me, but definately nothing new to most modelers, I dipped all my cockpit parts in future and WOW!!! those really come out super clear and shiny. I also used the technic of mixing red and green food coloring into the future and dipped the wing lights into the colored future and am thrilled with how they look too. They actually look like colored glass :-).
I am now in the process of finally weathering the Zero- panel lines - smoke stains - paint chipping/fading. Hopefully won't take me too long but want to take the time to do it right.

Good modeling,
Wayne

I was going to tell you about the unweathered decals, but I see you fixed that. another thing would be that your paint chips are too shiny, gunmetal would be better for paint chips. anything else looks fine.

Thanks guys!!
Wad Ware- I think I used Humbrol 68 for the plane,but I´m not sure about that.I´ll PM you later as soon as I found out!
Chip- Thanks!this is a Tamiya kit

beautiful work !
The decals realy look much better after the weathering !

Thanks!Its always good to hear your comments!I was afrais to weather my decals, but now I´ll start to work it out on my next projects.

Hi Bus,

Good looking model.

I fancy myself as an air-head, pilot by profession, minor-sub-amature historian, here's my 2 cents:

The cowl is upside down.

Nakajima built the Rufe under licsence. I believe it should be Nakajima green.

Try to fill the gaps where the stabilizers fit into the fuselage. Gaps = drag = decreased performance.

Are the colors to bright? That depends. Rufes were used extensively in the Solomons. They suffered heavy attrition. Probably didn't last long enough to harshly weather. After mid-43 when they were relegated to second-echelon, they would last long enough for severe weathering.

Shading panel lines? I am not a fan of them. Most seem to exagerated compared to what I've seen on real planes--in real life and in archives.

Keep up the great work!