One of the few benefits of being out of work is more time to spend at the bench. So here is, if my count is right, my fifteenth build for this year. The kit is the Hasagawa release built out of the box.
The kit
Build Photos
The paint was mostly MM enamels with a smattering of Tamiya and the underside is Alclad aluminum. First time using the salt weathering method. I used sea salt, which seemed rather large for the scale but I'm mostly happy with the results.
The kit is a good one right out of the box. It went together with nary an issue, very little putty. Builder problem related to the port wingtip light, which one can see to be missing in the photos. That's because that little bugger didn't align well on my first attempt, and when I went to adjust it, it fell off, bounced off my workbench and landed in a place only God knows. I did look for it on a couple of occasions but never found it. May it rest in peace.
The only negative on this kit was the decals. There is a lot of carrier film around some of them, and the hinomarus did not want to settle down at all, even with decal setting solution. In fact, a couple of them shriveled pretty badly. That might have been something I did wrong, don't know, but I wasn't happy with their performance. Next time out I am going to just skip the decals and paint them instead.
Speaking of next time, I will be staying in the Pacific theater and with the Japanese Empire and building Tamiya's Ki-46 Dinah air defense fighter. Looking forward to getting started on that one.