Superb job, Joe, I can almost smell it, it looks so real.

Lee

Viejo

Are the wing tops hand painted?

Thanks alot.  Nope, its all airbrushed.  I used Tamiya XF-13 IJA Green cut with a tad of XF-49 Khaki to brown it up.  My weapon of choice is the Thayer Chandler Omni 4000 gravity feed airbrush.   

Joe

Thanks Lee.  

Joe.....wow, man.  I'm extremely impressed, considering the problems you faced.

Your build quality is outstanding, and your paint and finishing are inspiring.

The underside is.....just stunning - and your efforts in the paint and post-finishing of the upper surfaces have turned that painful experience into something that is a joy to see.

Very, very nicely done, mate.  Thanks for sharing all your pics.  It's beautiful - just beautiful.  

Thanks guys.  I hope to finish Berlin Express in the next few days (was waiting for the Ultracast wheels which came today), so I'll get that posted as soon as I can.

Joe

mississippivol

Sweet tea and cookies, Joe! That's way nice!

Glenn

Sweet tea and cookies, Joe! That's way nice!

Glenn

Now where in the hell was THIS tucked away at???? This is absolutely amazing!! Great start, great paint and great finish!!! Man you really nailed it with this one. I have a bare metal finish to do on my D-9 and hope that I can do half as good a job as you pulled off with this!!! And another thing......that cockpit is really nice and busy!!! Good job Joe!!

Another beautiful job Joe!  She's a stunner man. 

Thanks for the compliments everyone.  I recently got a 1/48 Hasegawa KI-44 off Ebay.  The more I read up on this plane the more intriqued I am.  It may be next eventhough I'm dying to have another crack at the Accurate Miniature Dauntless in the stash (I built one years ago when I first returned to the hobby with mediocre results)....

Of course I got to finish Berlin Express first.  

Joe

Holy crap Joe!  This is shaping up well.  I can't tell you how terribly jealous I am.  Makes me almost want to quit my job and do this full time.  Jap engines are much less familiar to me and this one looks especially interesting.  I suppose I'll have to put it on the list to get to one day.  =]

very nice! paint job is looking great.

Yeah, great work again Joe, kudos sir!!!

I was looking at your painting photos the other day on the phone and thought I'd wait till I had an actual keyboard to leave a comment and here you are done!!! Love the way you painted on the lightning bolt, maybe one day I'll work up enough guts to try the same!

You smacked it good Joe, terrific build and 38 kills with two 7.7 mm's is a testament to a great pilot.  That is one of the craziest flap setups I've seen, again, great work! 

Incredible, actually!  An artist at work.

Outstanding work, Joe. Add me to your fan list regarding the underside, it looks simply great (and I don't mean that to undermine the rest of the aircraft).

You are a great painter in my book. Hope to be able to emulate some of your techniques someday.

Oh, and that is one good looking OOB cockpit you pulled off.

Thanks for taking the time to share this build.

Damn Joe, that is gorgeous! Would never guess you had any problems with it.

Nice work Joe. Despite the typical Hasegawa issues you turned out a fine looking machine. Really appreciate the clean paint and decal work and the way you nail all the small details. I think kits like this one are a good alternative to build if your into Japanese aircraft and sick of looking at all the Zero builds and pics.

Wow!  I really like this!  Great paint work as usual. I really like the way you do your bases too!

Steve

Thanks Magnum and Reasoned.  Well I think I'm done.  To recap, its the 1/48 Hasegawa KI-43 Hayabusa "Oscar" in the 50th Sentai markings of 38 kill ace Isamu Sasaka.  With the exception of PE seatbelts and Berna decals, it's built right out of the box.  As I said earlier, I'm not exactly a huge fan of the early Oscar.  It's just too WW I-like for my liking, with its wimpy 7.7 mm machine gun tandem and two bladed prop.  But as I said, men like Sasaka did find success with it. 

Regarding the kit, I thought it would be a "weekend-like" build...wrong.  I had fuselage warpage issues and I absolutely hated the wing tip design.  The lower wing to fuselage fit was lousy too.  I also found towards the end of the build that the panel line detail in the mid fuseage area was "soft" and I had trouble getting the lines to hold a wash.   This is unfortunately common in Hasegawa kits and I remember the same problem on my zero, so I went with good enough. 

Here it is...

......and of course, I couldn't resist.  I'm gonna put my money on the P-40.....

Thanks for looking....comments and question are welcome...

Joe.   

The underside is absolutely stunning.

Looks beautiful!

Thanks Steve.  I'm in for a brief update.  The Berna decals went down without a hitch.  The Hinomarus color is a bit bright for my liking, but there's not much I can do about that.  I had the same problem with Sakai's zero.  I sealed them with more Alclad Gloss and the airframe got a Flory Wash.  I love the worn effect this stuff leaves and it seems to stay in the lines better than my former method of Windson Newton Acrylics. I have black and dark dirt.  The black shows up better on darker colors, such as JA Green or even Olive Drab.     

I assembled the landing gear and added brake lines.  These were added to the frame along with the drop tanks and combat flaps.  There were no issues with the gear leg installation, just a matter of making sure they're straight.  I used the kit tires which are fine.  There's no need for aftermarket here. 

 I think I'm in the home stretch now. 

Joe

Joe,

Looking good!  I like that  you painted the lightning bolts and fuselage band - painting always looks much better than big decals like that.  The engine looks sweet too!

Steve

Thanks guys.  I left off pondering whether to paint the fuselage band and lightning bolts or use the decals.  I ultimately decided to have a go at painting them in.  Besides, how much tougher could it be than that checkered FW 190 cowl I did a while back.  I first taped off the fuselage band and painted it XF-2 Flat White. Here's a tip when doing this, to eliminate the chance of bleed under.  Cut the paint with 91% Isoprophyl Alcohol and use light coats.  It dries almost on contact so it never has the chance to bleed under.  Anyways, next I used the Berna sheet as reference and used Tamiya tape strips to eyeball how the lightning bolts go.  I think I got it close here...

After some more masking, I sprayed the 'bolts XF-7 Flat Red.  I lightened the rudder portion a bit with white.   I must say I'm pretty pleased on how it all turned out.  Decals?.......we don't need no stinkin' decals!,,,,   

The airframe was then sprayed with Alclad Gloss to await decaling.

I also finished the HA-25 mill.  I normally rig ignition wires on all my radial engines but since the Type I had that huge oil cooler up front, I figured I wouldn't waste my time with this.  I built the engine out of the box.  I sprayed it Alclad aluminum and the prop box XF-19 Sky Grey.  I didn't have copper, so I dug out my old bottle of Model Master Burnt Iron to represent it.  I then gave it a detailer wash then blasted it with a Tamiya Smoke for a used look.  

 I should get to the decals soon. 

Joe 

Gret paint work as usual!  Love the condensation streaking.

Thanks Reasoned....

Always love to see your paint finish Joe.