Oh cool!!! 

The Tank Museum at Bovington posted a video about the vehicle I watched just today! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GINmlDX401Q

I need to finish mine, just need to get the tracks on and a little detail work. But it's so friggin' hot now I don't want to work on anything. Just come home from work and collapse in the A/C... 

Gamera,

Thought you might enjoy this video about the FV4005. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHEvEr_aEeA

Gary

Starting work on the Rita.  Like many of Hasegawa's kits (though not all), this one appears to fit rather well.  At least the main parts.

I've started the cockpit.  It's pretty bare-bones, and only three pilot figures to liven it up.  I have no pictures of the interior, so I'll base it off a Betty and try to add a few things.

Also, there's an unusual raised ridge along the fuselage where the two halves meet.  It's not a mismatch, but as if the edges were raised.  I'll sand it off, but it's a bit unusual so I thought I would mention it.

Gary

Gamera, Gary & John-again, thank you & for the encouragement along the way.

Guess I better post this here, thought I've already posted it in the Japanese XIII GB. A G8N1 Rita four engine bomber.  I managed to find a copy in my local antique mall where I've picked up a few models before.  The original run on this model was 1967, though the version I have is 1991. It seems to be in good shape, though I'm wary about the decals.

The G8N1 was a prototype, four engined bomber produced towards the end of the war, but was canceled due to lack of materials.

Not sure what version I'm going to do yet: Orange prototype, operational bomber, or American captured version.

Gary

The Aerotech looks mighty fine, Bob!

Bob> That turned out great!  Sorry for the troubles, but even so you made a nice model.  Gloss finishes are hard to do!

I'll get you up on the front page along with the Shinden.  And thank you!

Gary

She looks great to me Bob! I can't do gloss finishes to save my life so I'm always in awe of a good smooth gloss paint job! 

Gary-another interesting subject-looking forward to your build (noticed it on the Japanese GB also).

Oldsmobile Aerotech is done.  Could use some more 'Fit & Finish' work but this is a kit that would be best build and then doing the body paint work.  I will probably end up gluing the rear body work (leaving the hood scoop unglued so the engine could be viewed) but I fought with body alighment issues but afraid damaging the paint work.

Body fit issues-nothing a little CA won't cure

All in all, a great subject of an automaker with a rich history (Oldsmobile) in an attempt to change their image to focus on their engineering history.  Kit has a great deal of engine detail & options, suspension detail is ok and body fit has room for improvement but it is an old kit.  Decals went on with little issue but left a film that showed up when the gloss coat was sprayed-decided I could live with it.

Thanks all for all of your encouragement during this build and to you Gary for running this GB and posting subject information.

I have another one in the stash so if there's a v2.0 X-Files, I'll build the long tail version.

Having said that, I would like to submit the following kit for v1.0 X-Files

This is the 1/48 version-just need to find some picks so I can paint it orange....

Nakajima G8N1 Renzan ("Rita")

The Nakajima G8N Renzan ("Mountain Range") was a four-engined long-range bomber designed for use by the Imperial Japanese Navy. The Navy designation was "Type 18 land-based attack aircraft"; the Allied code name was "Rita".

In February 1943 the Imperial Navy staff asked Nakajima Aircraft Company to design a four-engined bomber, capable of meeting an earlier specification set for a long-range land-based attack plane. The final specification, issued on 14 September 1943, called for a plane with a maximum speed of 320 knots (590 km/h; 370 mph) able to carry a 4,000 kg (8,800 lb) bomb-load 2,000 nmi (3,700 km; 2,300 mi) or a reduced bomb-load 4,000 nmi (7,400 km; 4,600 mi).

Nakajima's design featured a mid-mounted wing of small area and high aspect ratio, a tricycle landing gear and a large single-fin rudder. Power came from four 2,000 hp Nakajima NK9K-L "Homare" 24 radial engines with Hitachi 92 turbosuperchargers driving four-bladed propellers. The engines were cooled by counter-rotating fans positioned just inside the engine cowlings. Defensive armament included power-operated nose, dorsal, ventral and tail turrets along with two free-swiveling machine guns at the beam positions.

The initial prototype was completed in October 1944 and delivered to the Navy for testing in January 1945, a year after the Navy ordered development to start. Three further examples were completed by June 1945, with the third prototype being destroyed on the ground by US carrier aircraft.

Other than minor problems with the turbosuperchargers, the Renzan performed satisfactorily and the Navy hoped to have a total of 16 prototypes and 48 production-version G8N1s assembled by September 1945. But the worsening war situation and a critical shortage of light aluminium alloys led to the project's cancellation in June.

One proposed variant was the G8N2 Renzan-Kai Model 22, powered by four 2,200 hp Mitsubishi MK9A radial engines and modified to accept attachment of the air-launched Ohka Type 33 Special Attack Bomber.

Just before Japan's surrender in August 1945 consideration was also briefly given to producing an all-steel version of the aircraft, to be designated G8N3 Renzan-Kai Model 23, but the cessation of hostilities precluded any further development.

After the war, one prototype was taken to the United States and scrapped after testing. None are in existence today.

Bob: She's lookin' good! And yeah, I too hate dealing with old decals. 

That looks great, Bob!  I haven't been too active on here for the same reason.

Gary

Thank you John.  I did scan a copy in case it was a total disaster-fortunatly it wasn't-I'm not ready to learn the fine art of making decals....

Looking good, Bob.  Old decals are not fun to work with.

John-nice build! 

Been fighting the time out messages like everyone else and hesitant to try to post pics-however, I have massaged the ductwork in the Aerotech to a level I can live with, repainted and put decals on today.

Decaling could have been much worse but still had some of the longer pin stripe sections 'come apart'-able to recover, again to my standards-not perfect but I'm good with it.  This kit is origin 1989-I tested on a section that would not be used and it worked-again, only problem was the longer pinstripe sections. The adhesive was interesting-I gave the decals a 'double dip' and unidentified film came off on the second dip but no harm.  Some of the decals gave off a 'discolored' water upon application-dunno if previous owner coated the decals before selling (kit was from the Kitlinx Collections section-fair price so no complaints). 

Added Solveset and will do a light cleanup before applying Tamiya coat.

Any way, were are the pre- and post decaling:

Hopefully get this one finished before the end of the month.....

Thanks!  Yeah the site has been hard to work with lately.  Works well tonight, though.

John: She looks terrific!!! Great work!!! 

Sorry, I missed you before, the site has been so wonky I've been missing a lot... 

The Black Bullet is posted, John.  Again, good work!

Gary

You can choose, Gary since you run the show, but I do like the one with the prop spinning.

John,

That's an excellent job on an unusual model, especially considering the fragility.

You got any preference for which photo to use?

Gary

Nice job on quite an interesting subject.  Never seen that little bird before.

Gary, there was nothing new about the use of swept wings, the first I can think of at the moment was the Burgess Dunne designs that preceded WW I.  In tail-less designs longitudinal stability is improved.  What the Germans did was realize that there were benefits in lower drag at high speeds.  Interestingly the sweep of the Me 262 wings was intended for balance purposes, Messerschmitt did not do that in anticipation of lower drag.

Going to stop where I am, though I would have liked to have worked on the panel lines a bit more. The fragility of the landing gear made that too difficult for me and my shaky hands. Apparently the maker really wanted a scale size landing gear and that resulted in very weak struts, made worse by the flexibility of the limited run soft plastic. They will hold the finished model up but won't tolerate any kind of side loads. The design of the gear is very complex.  Like the Grumman Bearcat there is a sort of trapese mechanism such that the top of the strut is moved outboard as it retracts.  It was interesting to install the antenna post on the vacuform canopy, it was a resin part and I used a drop of five minute epoxy. The antenna wire is Uschi Fine, with just enough tension to stay straight, also attached to the fin with a drop of 5 minute epoxy. I may continue the use of epoxy with antenna wires, it worked very well.

 The last photos are with a Collect-Air Curtiss XP-55. So far as I know there is no Vultee XP-54 in 1/48, so this may be as far as I can go in 1/48 with this series of out there experimental WW II fighters.

The instructions have  a few gotchas, they say to install the main gear struts with the axles outboard, but pictures and logic say otherwise.  They also show you to put the lower wing insignia on the left wing, but we all know better than that (but I still checked photos!).

John: That looks cool! I've got the same kit, it's such a weird odd bird I had to have the kit. She's been sitting in my stash for probably twenty years now since I've not had the guts to start the darn thing! 

Good progress, neat work you're doing there on the contra-rotating prop. I'd not thought it'd be that much work to modify. 

That looks neat, John! Something you don't see everyday.  And as for the propellers, the worst that could happen is it will fly backwards! 

The odd thing about this aircraft is the "swept" wings.  I always hear about how the Germans did all this research which we used on fighter jets, but in 1942 they were designing a swept wing aircraft at Northrop.  Wonder what happened to that research?

I'll get you up on the front page.

Gary

I started another X-Plane, one that I have had in the workshop pile for 10 years or so.  It is the 1/48 Czech Models XP-56.  It has resin detail parts and the rest is fairly good limited run injection moldings.  Fit is very good so far but bring a rough file for the pour stubs.

The cockpit tub positioning wasn't too bad and it locks the nosewheel bay in place.  The main gear bays fit well once all of the pour remnants were belt sanded down to flush with the perimeters.  I painted the cockpit interior green as well as the gear bays.  The inside of the tip venturies were painted flat black but it might have been good to put some sheet plastic in there to block the see through.  I installed the wings to the fuselage halves and taped the assembly together to check for any ballast requirements but the model appears to be balanced well to stay on the nosewheel without any.  I didn't install two subpanels that fit at an angle to the main panel as it looked like getting them in the right spot was going to be difficult and they would be hard to see anyway.  There were no instrument panel decals in the kit but there is sufficient detail on the panels for some drybrushing.

The wing to fuselage joins needed some work due to the fuselage mating detail being a little too wide in the vertical dimension.  A large exacto blade shaped to a curve scraped things into a close shape followed by a rough file and some Tamiya Putty.  The putty was held to a narrow area by Tamiya Tape applied on both sides of the problem areas.

The vacuform canopy fitted nicely, I cut it close with Tamiya nippers and did the final shaping with a low powered Dremel like tool from Harbor Freight.  I used a 2 inch carborundum wheel running at the lowest speed so that process wasn't too exciting.  I took photos of the canopy and scaled them to size in Corel Draw, outputted a dxf file and cut them in a Silhouette Cameo vinyl cutter.  Once masked some interior green was sprayed on for the interior color.

1/16 aluminum tubing was inserted into holes drilled at an angle in the depressions the kit had for the exhaust and glued in with CA.  I should have roughed up the outside of the tubing first as that gives the tubing some tooth for the CA but I forgot.  That made it so I couldn't be as aggressive as I would have liked to be when I hollowed out the tubing.  Before hollowing the tubing out I clipped the stubs off at an angle and filed them down flush with the fuselage skin.

Double post due to 504 errors

LOL Gary, the Hillbillies were a classic! 

Or I guess FV Four, Zed, Zed, Five would be British too....