Thanks Jay Jay.  On the next one I'm gonna see If I can make an IP out of a brass sheet.

I too think you did an excellent job. The "firsts" gives one a good sense of accomplishment which is the best thing about this hobby,so onwards and upwards as they say.

ManCityFan

Excellent job on this build.  The camo looks excellent, and the wiring of the engines was definitely worth the effort.  Lots of firsts on this kit, and they all came off quite well.  Congratulations for taking the risks and executing them all well!

 

Thanks ManCityFan. I was the most nervous painting the insignia

Excellent job on this build.  The camo looks excellent, and the wiring of the engines was definitely worth the effort.  Lots of firsts on this kit, and they all came off quite well.  Congratulations for taking the risks and executing them all well!

Thank you very much for your continued support Toshi it’s appreciated 

An excellent excellent job with the camouflage!  And you sprayed the bottom of the Aircraft superb!

Your friend, Toshi

Gamera

She turned out great! You should be proud of her, great job!

 

Thanks Gamera. As you can see I just couldn’t chip those meatballs under the wings. I was too shocked that they actually turned out 

jeaton01

Looks mighty fine, Robert.  Pretty sure that I'm not wiring those engines when I get to the one I have.

 

Thanks John the wiring wasn’t really all that bad other than I need to count the excess pieces that I snip off. 

She turned out great! You should be proud of her, great job!

Looks mighty fine, Robert.  Pretty sure that I'm not wiring those engines when I get to the one I have.

Thanks Joe.  I liked the two toned camo as well.  I have plenty examples of the green and gray schemes

Well Betty Lou is finally done.  Had a few firsts on this one.  First time I wired engines. First time I tried making PE.  First time I painted on insignia, and the best first....the first time I've managed to finish a model without breaking at least one fiddly bit. As for my experience with the kit most of it went very smoothly.  I had some fit issues with the engine nacelles and the fit of those to the wings. Also the bottom of the fuselage didn't want to close.  Had to glue and hold by sections.  The top fit like a dream so it must have been operator error. Note to future self, if your gonna put the little dudes in make sure you put them in BEFORE gluing in the control yokes. Otherwise it's quite a chore to get them seated Also had issues with gluing the exhaust tubes in after gluing the engine cowling on.  That required a paint repair. Had some bleeding around some of the Eduard masks so that made me ornery. Overall a fun kit to build and in more experienced hands I think it would be a show stopper.  Anywho enjoy and as always if you can see things I can do to improve please feel free to comment.  Thanks all.

IMG_E1616 by Robert Pederson, on Flickr

IMG_E1617 by Robert Pederson, on Flickr

IMG_E1618 by Robert Pederson, on Flickr

IMG_E1619 by Robert Pederson, on Flickr

Greatmaker

Boy My hat's off to anyone who paints on insignia.  Eventhough it was just a white line and 6 meatballs it took me 2 hours to line them up... 

Completely worth it. Painted on insignias are just so much better than decals.

cheers

-J

Toshi

Wow, great job!  

Your friend, Toshi

 

Thanks Toshi 

Looking forward to your Ki-61 build.  I have built the Hasagawa one and wasn't planning on building another Ki-61 until I heard the rave reviews on it

Looking forward to your 

Wow, great job!  

Your friend, Toshi

Boy My hat's off to anyone who paints on insignia.  Eventhough it was just a white line and 6 meatballs it took me 2 hours to line them up and I still have a crooked white band.  Hopefully finishing up tonight.  I'm happy with how my engine wire job turned out.  Just have to do a better job of policing my cut off wires. I've been finding too many of them with my feet. 

IMG_E1615 by Robert Pederson, on Flickr

IMG_E1613 by Robert Pederson, on Flickr

Looks great to me so far!

I've had one of these in my stash forever, I'm hoping you'll motivate me to finally build the darn thing.

Looking great. And nice job with the pilots. This is making me kind of jones for a Betty even more. 

If you're on to painting insignia, you've moved on well past this?

cheers

-J

Here's some pics of the inside

IMG_E1605 by Robert Pederson, on Flickr

IMG_E1604 by Robert Pederson, on Flickr

IMG_E1603 by Robert Pederson, on Flickr

Tanker - Builder

Hi;

      The last part of your statement hit home .Is there another way besides hand painting Canopy frames ? LOL.LOL. I have done that for years and would rather do that than do all that masking 

 

I had to do some hand painting on one of the frames.  I haven't taken off all the masking but I did the front and back cones off the model.  The back worked well but some paint came off on the front some so I hand painted with a toothpick and applied dullcoat with that as well.

Hi;

      The last part of your statement hit home .Is there another way besides hand painting Canopy frames ? LOL.LOL. I have done that for years and would rather do that than do all that masking 

Johnny1000

Looks really good. The engines look great. Looking forward to seeing the rest of it. 

I haven't tried yet, but it looks like there's some good tips for masking meatballs here:

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/2/t/161854.aspx

cheers

-John

 

Thanks John Yep I found that thread.  Hopefully I will do them justice

Toshi

Fantastic job sir.  Keep up the great work!

Your friend, Toshi

 

Thanks Toshi. Last night I did some experimentation with differemt kinds of tape. I think the blue painters tape is the winner. It’s thicker so it cut cleanly with the circle cutter and it didn’t distort when I applied it to the model.  Hopefully tonight I’ll at least get it masked 

Fantastic job sir.  Keep up the great work!

Your friend, Toshi

Looks really good. The engines look great. Looking forward to seeing the rest of it. 

I haven't tried yet, but it looks like there's some good tips for masking meatballs here:

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/2/t/161854.aspx

cheers

-John

Ugh was just trying to put the finishing touches on it and the decals all fractured except for the tail decals. Tried to get a hold of Tamiya support but no go today.  As I have one white stripe and 6 hinomaru to put on I think I might try painting them.  I've seen there are basically two ways to do this.  Area paint and place a circular piece of tape and paint around it or cut a hole in the tape and paint that.  I have a circular cutter and wide frog tape.  Any hints as to which way works the best? I'd rather not have to repair my current camo scheme.  I've also read if you use the "paint the hole" technique it helps to place a smaller circle as a guide to align the mask.  Thanks in advance

Toshi

Nice start, good work on the engines!

Your friend, Toshi

 

Thanks Toshi. Looking forward to you next project as well

lawdog114

Good stuff. I’ve been there. Those engines look great. The Yamamoto Betty is definitely on my someday when I have room list.

 

Thank you very much Looking forward to your rendition. It’s a pretty large plane for a twin engine. I looked up your discussion as to interior color and I have decided to use RAF interior green with some Khaki mixed in. Trying to figure out how to mask the tail glass with it on the plane. It has a large slot