Thank you! I appreciate it! Makes it easier knowing someone is following along and learning from my hardships lol!
To be honest, it is still a nice kit. The cockpit is really nicely detailed for a 1990’s kit, the fit of the cockpit, fuselage halves, cowl, and lower wing to fueslage fit is near perfect. It is completely possible that the wing root fit was somehow my doing as others claim there’s was perfect. The only down side of this kit is the outer wing sections, I am pretty confident my fix will work with some cement and super glue to strengthen the joint. With wings folded I think it would look decent and this might be the solid option any way as with wings extended the wingspan is around 12 inches in 1/48
Encouraging that it is still a good kit. And while this is just supposition, I’m sure there are a lot of lurkers out there that are following your every post with glue and putty-baited breath. I can pretty well guarantee that for everybody that posts about your work, dozens are watching.
Except for fighters, my Japanese hanger is very much early war. I built a half dozen Vals and three Kates ( two are the Nichimo kits which I still consider to be a beautiful model), but the only late war attack aircraft I have are the Hasegawa Grace, and a 1/72 LS Judy. I want to build a modern kit of a Judy, but for some reason Jill just hasn’t excited me that much, before I build a Jill I want to build another Myrt, a Francis, a Peggy, and every Japanese seaplane and flying boat available.
But thanks to you, Jill is moving up closer near the top of my interest right now. Thanks for all of your posts about your build.
Scalemates suggests that this is the 1980 boxing of a 1972 molding. Lots of classic Hasegawa features, the instructions feature a different set of markings than the supplied decals, so they added a new instruction sheet for the markings. There are also 2 engine options and 3 cowls. It’s a charity shop find, $1.99, but no canopy. I probably spent more on the replacement than the kit.
Two of the options are for early war, pre-Midway, planes. I thinking that these would only be lightly weathered, no need for black basing and mottling, but maybe some bleached out panels. Since it’s all raised panel lines an rivets, panel lineing might not work. Any other light weathering options?
@md72, Mark, good to see your diving in. I have to look and see how much longer I have on to complete my entry. “I got a bad feeling about this.”
Try a mechanical pencil. Gives you a ton of control and allow you to put very fine lines onto the aircraft. I’ve seen other modelers do that, and I’ve tried it a couple of times where I just could not make wash panel highlights as fine as I needed them, and very satisfied with the effect. I used a number three and four lead drafting or artist pencil. It’s been a long time since I bought them but I think they even go up into number five and above. I don’t remember.
The other thing you can do is mask off along the prominent panel lines, just a few of them, and give a very light shot of the main exterior color, just tinted or shaded with a hair of white or black. Just enough that the eye would pick up and tell the brain that there are different sheets of metal there. And is your A6M a carrier based or land-based?
One other idea that I’ve used on several of my most recent models is what I describe as spatter pixelation. Take the base color, change it with tints or shading, and even add some other colors. Very very small amounts. You want it to be very subtle. Then you mix it up as a glaze. Even thinner than a wash. Protect your fingers or hands however you see fit, dip a very stiff brush like an acrylic artist brush into the mix, get as far or close to the model as it takes to get the effect you want, and just spatter the solution onto it. You don’t want to make the surface of the model wet or everything just pools together and then you have horrific cloudy globs of ugly. Let the first little mist of particles dry and then hit it again, preferably with a solution that’s slightly different. But it does simulate all the little microscopic pigments that make up paint, in a random pattern.
There are a few gaps and a couple small parts with a slight step between the two sides, but I think I’ll fill the seam with a combination of strip styrene and super glue and then scribe a panel line where the wing seam is
The wingspan and dihedral on this thing are crazy! It has almost the same wingspan as the TBM avenger despite weighing 4000 pounds less
I didn’t get any more done on the Kaiten II model this weekend but did build another stand for it. This one is supposed to be something like the one the Japanese might have built for the thing themselves but made in a model display stand.
Thanks @JPTRR. This build has raised more questions about how should I do it than a lot of others I’ve done. First plan is Shigeru Itaya off of the Akagi. So Naval version. I can see sun bleaching, lightening up some of the wing panels. I’d like to do panel line darkening, but there are almost no panel lines. it’s all raised rivets, same with almost all of the panel lines. I’ve got some very soft leads, I think they’re 9B (I believe the range is from 9B softest to 9H hardest). I may see if I can do anything usable with them. If not maybe some sort of light alcohol, acrylic or oil wash to highlight the rivets. If they’re going to be there, I might just as well highlight them because there’s no way I’m sanding them off and rescribing this thing.
Colors have also been a bit of fun. Hase is suggesting the cockpit be metallic blue, I assume the aotake blue, or even silver (aluminum) but every online source suggests a light green, dark green or brown interior depending on the manufacturer, not the aotake (blue). Then just for simplicity’s sake they suggest painting the landing gears malachite green and give the Gunze color code for aotake blue. At least one source suggested that how you translated the aotake it was green or it was blue. Oh, that simplifies everything. Not sure if I’m going to just use the aotake blue from Tamiya or go with straight aluminum then add a clear green overcoat. At least the overall finish isn’t too controversial, although I’m sure there’s some difference from manufacturer to manufacturer.
At least one source suggested that how you translated the aotake it was green or it was blue. Oh, that simplifies everything. Not sure if I’m going to just use the aotake blue from Tamiya or go with straight aluminum then add a clear green overcoat. At least the overall finish isn’t too controversial, although I’m sure there’s some difference from manufacturer to manufacturer.