War In The Pacific Group Build 2009 - 2010

mucker wrote:

Alrighty guys, some WIP pics of the Claude. Still not all decaled. I'll try to seal the decals in with Future before bed tonight.

I cut all the barrels off of the turret bases of the Privateer and glued on the Quickboost barrels. It looks really nice so far. 

simpilot34 wrote:

Bill, that is a vast improvement over the kit!!!!! Looking forward to more pics!!!!

Absolutely...it's the small things like that which make it look more like a scale aircraft and less like a toy. Very nice improvement, Bill!

As for the Claude I must admit that the instructions call out for a silver of NMF finish. I saw a light gray picture in one of the publications and like the look of the red/gray/black together...but I'm not so sure this particular aircraft would have had a light gray undercoat.

Mucker The Claude looks great!! What color gray is that I really like it?

Bondo Those guns are a big improvement. I like those quickboost ones, dothey make a whole line of them?

Jason

jay12472 wrote:

Mucker The Claude looks great!! What color gray is that I really like it? Bondo Those guns are a big improvement. I like those quickboost ones, dothey make a whole line of them? Jason

jay12472 wrote:

Mucker The Claude looks great!! What color gray is that I really like it? Jason

Jason, it's Mitsubishi IJN Gray from the old aeromaster acrylic line. I'm having some graininess issues with it due to its age, but nothing too bad so far. A gold metal coffee filter seems to do the trick.

Bondo Thanks I will have to look into some.

Mucker Thanks I think I have some of that. I'll have to give it a try

Well here is the Oscar with some paint

This one is a little blury sorry

I still shave to add the antiglare panel and paine the flaps

As always let me know what you think

Jason

 Jason, Looking good. The photo of the engine is great. Very nice, looks the buisiness.

Mucker, that Claude looks great, I like the early war schemes with bright colors.

I've been away for a couple of weeks but hope to have some progress to show soon.

Looking good, Jason...keep those pics coming. does your camera have a Macro button? Some digi-cams do, and it will help with the detail on closer shots.

decaling is finished on the Claude. I need to re-seal with future, weather and then flat-coat. I don't want to force any mistakes by hurrying so I'll wait until the weekend for this. I'll be away for a few days on business.

Just to see the semi-gloss black cowl with the red, gray and white I gently placed it on the nose and took a few pics. These colors mesh nicely.

Charles

Jason the Oscar looks great!!!! Love the shot of the engine and oil cooler!!! Great work!!

AaronW welcome back mate!!! Looking forward to seeing some more progress soon!!

Charles that Claude is looking awesome!!! Yes, those colors mesh VERY nicely!! Almost there mate!! Looking forward to more!!!!!!

duiker2106 by all means join in the fun!!! aboard!!!! The CO will be along shortly and officially welcome you and add you to the roster.  Diorama? Looking forward to this one!!!

Maybe it's the coffee this morning.  Maybe the fact that in raiding my stash I can actually see some of the closet, but instead of picking between the Jill and the Tony, I figured I'd build both.  The Tony looks like something I could bang out in under a week if I keep it OOB which according to my wife and wallet is what I'll have to do.  The Jill looks awesome, but I'm dissappointed that Hasegawa did not include an open canopy option.  The interior is almost resin-quality and deserves to be showcased!  Here again is the after-market dilemma.

As for the Avenger......I pulled the big box of the trumpeter kit out of the closet and it's never going to fit in there again so I might as well build it.  This will NOT be a quick build.  I counted 70-some parts in the engine alone.  So I'll still probably be working on this one while the Pete, Dauntless, Tony and Jill are collecting dust on the shelf. 

mucker wrote:

Looking good, Jason...keep those pics coming. does your camera have a Macro button? Some digi-cams do, and it will help with the detail on closer shots.

Thanks Alot My camera has a close up setting but I never have any luck with it.

The pics come out blurry, but I think I need a tripod for it

Jason

Jason, sometimes you can shoot at a higher resolution a bit further back from the model so the camera can focus, then zoom in on the picture and save the zoomed pic. HTH!

Nice choice on the builds, Stu...must be good coffee!

Jason, stay away from the coffee! It will eliminate the need for a tripod...

 Hey mucker, Looking very good. I like the red.

 Jason, You might want to consider using more lighting or natural lighting when taking close up photos. It should force the camera to set the fstop at a quicker setting, reducing the need for a tripod. The downside, The depth of field is reduced. I'm no expert on photography just a few things I've pickled up. The main thing to remember is, Lighting is important in photography.

 HTH,

 Mo

Darren I would like to join in if possible.  Just started a Monogram Kingfisher that I am doing in British colors.  Also using it in the FAA GB.   JOHN

The Ki-44 is ready now for it's coat of NMF...

The gloss black has had a few days to fully harden off, as I never quite trust gloss coats to dry properly, having had bad experiences before.

This one is now hard though...

The wheel wells were painted prior to the gloss going on, hence the Blu-Tak masking.

The cockpit was sprayed at the same time as the wheel wells, and is now masked off with some foam.

The pitot is a piece of fine brass tube, I've got some more lined up for the cannon barrels.

I also added the canopy slide rail behind the cockpit from plastic strip. 

The under carriage legs have received brake lines, and I've drilled out the holes in the oleo scissors, something I've never done before.

About the only thing I did forget was to put in a landing light just inboard of the pitot tube. I'll just have to paint it silver!

Should get around to applying the NMF tonight.

Karl

KJ200 wrote:

The Ki-44 is ready now for it's coat of NMF... Should get around to applying the NMF tonight. Karl

 Hey Karl, Stuck on that toothpick it looks like a Shish-*Ki*-Bob. Seriously, It's looking great. Looking forward to the metal finish updates.

 Mo

LOL

Thanks Mo.

I'm not sure the AM resin wheels I picked up for this build are right.

They look too big, and too many to me!

Karl

Wow, Karl..looking tremendous! the NMF will be vibrant under such a hhigh gloss black. the Shoki is such a cool little plane.

John welcome to the build, it's great to have you on board.  I'll update page one with your OS2U Kingfisher.  By the way there is an excellent build article on the Kingfisher here if you're interested.

Karl the finish on the Ki-44 looks fantasticly smooth, it should make an excellent base for the NMF.

Cheers

Thanks for the comments guys.

I sprayed on the Gunze Mr Metal Color last night, and let it harden for a couple of hours.

For some reason the paint on the fuselage went 'staticky', ie some of the fine metal particles stood upright like static grass.

Having let it harden, I polished the surface with a chisel egdged sable brush, which brought the finish to what you can see in the photo below.

It's not perfect, but as it's only my second NMF, I'm not too fazed.

As the Gunze metalics are very delicate, I've sealed all of the components with a coat of Future.

Karl

Johnny!!!! aboard mate!!! Glad to be building with you in both places!!!!

Karl, thanks for posting pics of the Tojo in all black!!! Looks to be a VERY nice NMF when finished!! Just imagining how it would look in black with all decals on as per the profile in my book, would be different! Looking good!! Loving the NMF too!!!

Darren, thanks for the link on the Kingfisher! An interesting read.

A little bit of progress has happened on the Jake. Have the floats together and have the bottom windows installed. Not much to show a pic of yet. Did a trial fit of fuse, lower wing and floats to get a feel for how it's going to look and the size. Getting closer now!!

Good stuff, Karl! I'm a fan of the Gunze metals myself. you do mean "Mr. Metal Color", yes? They have nice fine pigments. I've always sealed mine with  the model masters sealer but I'm sure Future works wonders, too.

Bummer about the static issue. I've never seen that. I'm looking forward to the magic that you work with it. Kind of makes me want to buy a Tojo.