Bsyamato: Nice selection there! The Raiden is coming along great, I like how you do the wheel wells. I'm too lazy- it's on the bottom- no one is going to see it- leave it alone!

SP: Cool, I've picked up a couple of ships but still haven't had the guts to start on one. Looking forward to seeing the Type 97 all painted up.

I just finished painting the road wheel and return roller tires. Boy does that make it look a whole lot better. Taking a break from the bench right now.

updates on the raiden

cockpit works, the floor, seat and rear bulkhead from the kit with some mod, other pieces scratchbuilded

the wings.. need more works 

At the next

Nice work on the 'pit BSY...

Well, here are my update photos on the Chi Ha

and I figured that I might as well get this finished up here...

Very nice work from both of you, looks like they should both turn out great

On my front, I've finally got around to finishing up my BF109, so here are some pics. Its been a joy to build this kit, Airfix really have stepped up their quality with their recent releases. Oh, and sorry the pics aren't that great, I've lost my good camera

Nice looking Emil. The markings sure look outa place on a bf109 but you sure did a good job applying them.

Stik, your brush work looks great. Its just screaming for some weathering now. Strange sprue color on the Woodpecker?

hey stik

nice build, ugly tank. that thing is just screaming for an oil pin wash.

and the 109 does lool wiered with japanese markings.

Alex, your Emil looks great in the colors of the Rising Sun. very well done!!!

Nathan, yes, that bare plastic was really  bad to look at. It's all under a base coat of paint now. I will be painting it as I move along with the tank's MGs

Wayne, oh yes, pin wash, drybrushing, and a few other things should make this thing look better as I move along down the finishing stretch.

Stik: Really nice work! That tank (not your model) looks really ugly indeed, but it's like the A-10 in my opinion: Ugly but cool. Any plans on the weathering? (I'm voting for some heavy weathering, but that's just my 2 cents...) I agree with Nathan on the MG. I could never build anything with a plastic color like that (at least nothing bigger than such a gun)

Alex: Those Japanese markings look strange on an 109, but I really like the look of it! She's a beauty!

Yamato: That's some great work in the cockpit! It's hard for me to believe that it is 72nd scale!

Stik i see some touch of perfection on the way you bended and glue the metal on the tank 

convincent finish on the 109 Alex :)  i'ts a good excuse to buy another 109 with these markings.

heres my updates

cutted canopy with my usual stanley cutter, used patfix (something like blue tac i suppose) put under to prevent unwanted breaks 

and painted with a mxture of humbrol 78, 66 and white for inner face of frames simulation

inner fuselage and cockpit too

Thanx Spartan :) i build only in 1/72 scale actually (..not sci-fi and ships of course..)

At the next

Alex: Wow, she looks great! Just a neat idea- as a Bf-109 she looks familiar but not at the same time with the different markings. Funny, I did a captured 109 in UK markings so years back and people kept asking me if it was a Spitfire! Do you want me to post one to the front page or do you want to try for some better camera shots?

SP: Really nice! I think the camo is the hard part- everything should be a downhill run from here right? Right!?!

Bsyamato: Again nice work there too! Wish I the courage to cut a canopy like that. I'd be afraid to ruin it.

Thanks for the comments guys, think I'll try a Zero if this GB does carry on into a third running.

Nice work on the cockpit again Bsyamato, I really do need to give scratch building details a run some time 

And Gamera, I doubt I'll be able to put together any better shots at the moment, so feel free to throw one of the existing ones up

Alex: You sir are posted! If you'd rather have a different photo or take one later you'd rather have up just rattle my cage and yell at me.

And again- kudos, beautiful work!

Exhaust anyone?

I thought these Quickboost exhaust were so killer I had to stop to take a pic! And to think...I almost didn't go for them. don't know if they will be seen so much after everything is all painted up in Dark green??

I did get all the pe done on the pit, and fitted the instrument panel, and gave the whole pit a gloss coat. Oil wash tomorrow!

Nathan: I don't know how visible they'll be but they look great from here!

Thanx for comments guys 

Nathan i suppose  that inner surfaces out of cockpit are in aotake (aoteke.. dam.. memory  ) color , metalic grren or blue .. at least i suppose so 

heres raiden updates; painted tdetails on the cockpit and added seat belts with masking tape and electrical wire

Scratchbuilded the radio apparatus after the cockpit

All gears primed in black (the other pieces that don't match the raiden are from an academy thunderbolt :) )

At the next

More great work Bsyamato- again I have to admire your steady hand in painting those tiny 1/72nd knobs and switches.

Nice cockpit work Bs. those are some fine seatbelts! I don't think there is any Aotoke on a late war Tony? Did the JAAF ever use any?

Aotake, from what I have read, was the Japanese equivilant of zinc chromate. A blue green, transparent coating, used as an anti corrosive covering on all interior components/areas. Cockpits and crew areas usually were painted a differnt non reflective/glare reducing green or brown coloring.

IIRC from a long forum discussion a while back aotake was transparent and tinted by various manufactures so the painters could see where they left off. but i'm not an airplane guy so.....

may sneak in another JGSDF warwheel before the end of the year.

stikpusher

Aotake, from what I have read, was the Japanese equivilant of zinc chromate. A blue green, transparent coating, used as an anti corrosive covering on all interior components/areas. Cockpits and crew areas usually were painted a differnt non reflective/glare reducing green or brown coloring.

Right but it was rarely seen except on Mitsubishi built Zeros on the gear doors or wells? Did every Jap A/C have it applied at least somewhere on the inside? Such as inner fuselage or interior cowling panels?

Look on this site for more detailed information

http://www.j-aircraft.com/

I cant give much specific information myself. But when I have been doing photo research on my last couple of builds, I mostly saw the stuff on areas that I listed above in aircraft restoration photos. 

That's an odd subject. Most of the time interior surfaces were painted aotake. Wheel wells and the interior of the cowling were sometimes but sometimes left just bare metal. The J-Aircraft site SP listed above is a fantastic site for details on stuff like this.

BTW: I know I'm repeating myself here but just in case. Aotake was a translucent varnish. It started as bluish but as it aged it would turn more green. So on a new aircraft you'd want a more bluish and more greenish for a weathered old aircraft. Being translucent if applied to a metallic surface like bare metal it would take on a blue-green metallic look. Normally it would be applied to the bare metal surfaces mostly interior of the aircraft but sometimes wheel wells too.

Nathan: I'm not totally sure you can lay down any hard and fast rules here. It seemed to vary from manufacturer and some cases plane to plane. I think as the Japanese 'farmed out' parts to smaller sub-factories to escape Allied bombing and the rush and lack of quality control later in the war it might be painted aotake or could be just bare metal. I'm not sure anyone can tell you it's wrong either way you do it.  

Wayne: You're certainly welcome to bring on as many war-wheels as you want!

Hi folks

Finally I managed to come to a completion. I exhausted my bad words arsenal when the upper wing hinomarus of Tamiya just disintegrated when they tried to adhere to the levers of the movable surfaces.

I then decided to paint the hinomarus over the remains of the decals, which I roughly achieved after cutting and applying various masks, playing with my circles like Archemedes for many hours to make everything concentric

I also attempted to make an experimental wash with an acrylic water soluble color,which dried up too fast and left a bloody mess, so I just washed it of and did nothing more because I had started to feel a bit retarded.

Below are some pics of the finished model without any weathering at all.

Thats a beatiful build with excellent paint work. Too bad you couldnt' figure out the wash as it would help bring out the detail. The painted on markings look much better than decals any day.

Zvezda: She looks great to me! As Nathan said painted on markings generally look better than decals anyway. The pre-shading looks really good.

Was your wash a 'sludge wash'? I've started using them since if you don't like the results they're really easy to wipe off and start over.

And do you want me to go ahead and post you to the front page or would you like me to wait till you get a photo off your bench?

Again let me say beautiful model- congrads!

Wonderful result Zvezda!

She looks great, Zvezda!

Cockpit finished! I had a tough time getting the resin pit to fit inside the fuselage, as the forward gun deck was a little too wide, so it was out with the dremel. The fuselage is now closed up and drying, so when that's dry i'll get some finished pics. Here's a quick test fit before I committed to glue:

The only casualty was the gunsight...