David Maddog

 

 

 

 

MD, now you know why I went with the "easier" paint scheme.  I think your's looking very clean, sharp lines on it and not overdone.  I posted these two pics to show what lighting will do, the top has the cowl anti-glare looking grey, while the bottom looks more black, go figure.  At any rate be careful with that blasted bomb rig with the 4 little support pieces for the bomb, don't lose one of them like I did!

Val's galore. What paint colors are you using? Guess there's a squabble about that too. I've got several IJN aircraft that will get that basic scheme and better start keeping tabs. I guess another question that's up in the air is when they started using the "leading edge" markers on the wing. Sometime during the Solmons campaign, although I can't swear that the bombers used it. But optional for an early war plane no doubt. (More blinking masking for those.) Like the soft demarcation of green/ grey. (I've quit building in single-engined planes in 1/72 but Dragon has put out a Val in that scale with folding wing tips. Wouldn't be surprised if a 1/48 followed.)

Eric

Wow, you guys had a productive weekend!

Reasoned: She looks perfect to me, nice smooth flawless finish!

Bsyamato: Nice, she's coming right along.

David: Really super job on the faded paint. And there's not much more eye-catching than a green plane with a bright red tail.

PS: Camera shop just called, hopefully will have her back by the end of the week!

Reasoned

 

David Maddog: MD, now you know why I went with the "easier" paint scheme.  I think your's looking very clean, sharp lines on it and not overdone.  I posted these two pics to show what lighting will do, the top has the cowl anti-glare looking grey, while the bottom looks more black, go figure.  At any rate be careful with that blasted bomb rig with the 4 little support pieces for the bomb, don't lose one of them like I did!

I'm still trying to get my camera and lighting figured out.  I think I my lights are too close for their power, I need to diffuse it and then change the white balance on my camera.  I think these shots were done on the outdoor setting.  Then again, the background might also have something to do with it.  My camera is a very old one and I plan to get a Canon T2i with macro lens.....hopefully this year. 

I've already got those supports on, all I have left to put on the plane are the bombs and canopy, however you were right about the pilot tube, I did manage to bust that off.

David good work on the Val and best wishes for a new camera i recently brought a z981 from kodak, but wishing to get asap a real SLR from nikon or canon

Cliff!!! 

the delivery from Japan arrived today unespected .. less than 2 weeks!!!! add the fujimi 72 tenzan Claude for now

Asap will post some detailed shots of all spuues , is not so easy to find on interned good shots of these fujimi kits

Edit:

Heres updates about mary

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[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

actually painted a gray layer as primer but more sanding needed

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

and here few shots of today delivery and details on the claude 

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little dimensions respect the mary

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

and the rest of the pieces

fine engraved panels

and the beauty box art

at the next

I'm 'n all these Jap planes!

Excellent work, guys! 

Seeing some discussion of photography here and there, and thought I'd share a post I wrote awhile back about some quick ways to improve things.

http://doogsmodels.com/2011/07/15/5-tips-to-improving-your-model-photography/

The George is still progressing. Need to finish up a last bit or two tonight, then have some happy sanding-fun-time. 

Reasoned: Just posted your Val to the front page. Again congrads on a beautiful build there. You're always welcome to build another aircraft (wink, nudge )

Bsyamato: Just posted the Claude to the front page too. Nice collection of kits you picked up there, you must really like the Judy After all that work on the Mary hopefully the Claude should be an easy build, most Fujimi kits I've build went together very nicely.

Doogs: Thanks for the photo tips, when I get more time I'm going to have to go though all your blog posts.

Much to my amazement GreatModels had all of the kits I ordered and they've been shipped. So inbound are (one each) 1/48 Hasegawa Tojo, George, Jack and Claude. All for less than $100 counting everything. The Tojo and George are available at some places, but as I've learned about Hasegawa Zeros, their 1/48s can go out of print very quickly. I haven't seen a Claude or a Raiden in a store for two years. Must have been sitting in their back-room somewhere. Don't know if there are any left, but each is a major Japanese aircraft and they'll be hard or expensive to find. (Arii makes three of them, but each are "classic" kits complete with raised panel lines, lots of rivets and thick canopies. I sold mine because the kind of modeling called for - either "I don't care" or lots of skilled scratch-building - neither are my specialty. I'm actually pretty happy. (That means in the last six weeks I've picked up two Hasegawa Zeros, a Kate, a Claude, a Tojo and a Jack. Already had a Tony and an Oscar. All on the strength of one build. Let's hope Hasegawa made good kits in the late 90s or I'll feel like a proper idiot.) I've only built one US plane: an Arii P-47. (Actually I did that one during this GB: so I'll throw in a pic. It's in 5th AF garb circa April 1943. 5th AF Jugs were very good at shooting down the planes I just bought.) In the stash is a Accurate Miniature B25, Avenger, Dauntless and A-20 (never built an AM kit); two AMT/Italeri P-40Ns, Tamiya Wildcat & Corsair and an Eduard Hellcat. Am I nuts?

Eric

Arii P-47 razorback with my own rendition of USAAF early war olive drab: if it's ugly it's because it's quite accurate:

Did I hear a call: "let's see your impossibly rusty AFV Club 1/350 I-Boat?" (Both of these kits were done within the last four months. Imagine what might have happened if I'd known the Group Build was on. Actually, maybe you shouldn't.)

Eric: Sounds like you had a good haul there, I looked the at the Great Models sale but I don't need to add anything else to the stash. I have most of those kits and have built a few of them and they're all good quality. Funny, I buy most of my models at shows and haven't had any problems finding any of them. Maybe it's a mail order thing?

Great job on the P-47 and the sub, love to have you jump in with something if you have time. BTW: the theme here is Second World War Imperial Japanese subjects- everyone so far has done aircraft but a ship, tank, or figure would be eligible as well.  

Gamera

Funny, I buy most of my models at shows and haven't had any problems finding any of them. Maybe it's a mail order thing?

I've bought two Hasegawas through online retailers (the George I'm working on and a Fw 190A-8), but most of the time the prices are just ridiculous compared to what you can grab them for on eBay or at shows.

And let's face it, most of the better Japanese-subject kits are Hasegawa kits.

I've had some amazing luck with scoring Hasegawa kits at shows. Last month, I snagged Hasegawa's 1/32 Tojo with the 40mm cannons for just under $40. Picked up a 1/48 Ki-84 for $15. Recently I scored a 1/32 Frank on eBay for substantially less than I'd be able to snag it on Sprue Bros, Great Models, etc.

Also...progress on the George and a question.

Been creeping toward priming. Opened up the wingtip and tail lights for the clear pieces last night and ended up spending more than an hour on the garage floor locating a wingtip clear that went flying out of the pliers.

Not long now!

Okay - question. Anybody happen to have Gunze Mr. Color 35? Goes by the name of "Green (Mitsubishi)". Which isn't the same as "Dark Green (Mitsubishi). I'm trying to get sense of what shade of green this is, but Gunze's online chart is worse than useless.

Reasoned

I'm 'n all these Jap planes!

LOL 

Nice pieces Eric put some jap plane in

Cliff i pick up two Judy because was the cheaper betwenn the pile i brought so hard to find these kits in europe so i exagerate for future work. I like it but is not my favourite

A really curious thing, all the kits includes decals for more than a subject out of..... the judy murphy's law win!

Yes the claude is the best kit between these and fit perfect! will be a good pleasure to build it. Probably will add only some missing thing in the cockpit. The worst is strangely the hasegawa raiden .. bioh

so there the other box art ,really cool the jill one 

Will post all sprues asap in aircraft section

Yeah, what Doogs said!

I've always had good luck at shows with grabbing three twenty-five dollar kits and shoving them and a fifty dollar bill at the vendor. The only limited edition Hasegawa kit I've had trouble tracking down is an elusive two-seat trainer Zero. I'll get one some day!!! I don't even pay much attention to the different limited edition marking schemes since I try to replace the decals when I can.

Doogs, I tried looking it up and Mr. Colour 35 on the IPMS Stockholm site is a grey. And H35 is dark blue. What does the directions tell you to paint in 35? One of us might be able to figure it out from that.

Bsyamato: I love that great box art. I never really liked the dull picture of the model on the box top so many went with back in the '80s. I've bought a few models just because the box art was cool. Funny, I'd have thought the Judy would have more than one scheme- I don't think they ever had much other than the standard green over grey scheme.  

Gamera

Yeah, what Doogs said!

I've always had good luck at shows with grabbing three twenty-five dollar kits and shoving them and a fifty dollar bill at the vendor. The only limited edition Hasegawa kit I've had trouble tracking down is an elusive two-seat trainer Zero. I'll get one some day!!! I don't even pay much attention to the different limited edition marking schemes since I try to replace the decals when I can.

Doogs, I tried looking it up and Mr. Colour 35 on the IPMS Stockholm site is a grey. And H35 is dark blue. What does the directions tell you to paint in 35? One of us might be able to figure it out from that.

My LHS has the two-seat trainer Zero...two of 'em I believe. Weird because their selection of Japanese aircraft in general is pretty much crap.

The instructions state Gunze Mr. Color 35 - Green (Mitsubishi) but yeah, it does look like it's IJN Gray. Weird. Either way, it's for the behemoth of a drop tank. Only thing on the kit that gets that color I believe. I also need to figure out what they primed the tanks with - since they were wood, chipping to metal wouldn't make sense. I believe I read somewhere that they primed them blue, which could create a nice bit of visual interest.

Call Gary at Hill Country Hobbies.  He has a full rack of Gunze Mr Color.

Doogs, on my paint chart it says Mr Color 35 is equal to Xf-20 Medium grey or 1731 Aircraft Gray from testors, FS16473.  You can search most paints on this Paintchart.

I've got Mr. Color 35 IJN Gray. According to my Zero color article by Millman it was thought to be a match for the Zero as thought accurate until the early 90s. This means a semi-gloss light gray with perhaps just a bit of blue or maybe green in it: call it light gray. It resembles to my eyes very closely German Revell's RAL7001 Silken Gray or RAL 7035 Silk Light Gray. Revell has a pretty good chart at http://www.revell.de/index.php?id=287&L=1 (if that doesn't work, search Revell Aqua Color and you'll find Revell's site. These are, btw, very good paints if you like water based acrylics. Unfortunately only found on eBay or from Europe.) There is a chart from a translated Japanese site that shows the Mr. Color range that has a pretty good rendition.

http://www.mech9.com/blog/2010/01/mr-color-solvent-based-paint-color-chart/

If that's the call for the underside I should think it would be very nice. It certainly isn't anything like a green. On my Paint Assistant utility (very nice utility for $20) it lists Gunze 35 as a kind of blue. It isn't. The program does say that RAL 7001 is quite close to RLM 75 which is pretty close to Tamiya XF20. Those look very much ballpark to Mr. Color 35.

Eric

Doogs: I think I'd just paint the thing a slightly different shade of grey than the underside of the fighter. I'm not really sure how a wooden tank would chip - I guess you could use a little tan paint maybe. Same with the blue primer.

BTW: Next time you're at your LHS could you look at what price the guy wants for the trainer Zero? Just wondering how much he wants for it. Funny he should have two, I haven't seen any at shows unless I didn't notice them. These are the 1/48th Hasegawa ones right?

Nice cuts there Doogs

Sstarted the Claude, not resisted to leave it in the box

Someone know what colors i can use to mix malachite green? never see it. Keep in mind i don't use tamiya or gunze colors.

Gamera

Doogs: I think I'd just paint the thing a slightly different shade of grey than the underside of the fighter. I'm not really sure how a wooden tank would chip - I guess you could use a little tan paint maybe. Same with the blue primer.

BTW: Next time you're at your LHS could you look at what price the guy wants for the trainer Zero? Just wondering how much he wants for it. Funny he should have two, I haven't seen any at shows unless I didn't notice them. These are the 1/48th Hasegawa ones right?

Well, a slightly different shade of gray should be easy - the underside's NMF (rally hoping to start the spray work tomorrow or Saturday). 

I guess, yeah, chipping might be uncalled for. Boo...

I'll definitely check next time I'm at the LHS. I want to say it was around $40...remember because I was looking for a Ki-84 and was all "WTF, all they have are these stupid Zero trainers and a Raiden"

Not wanting to be an R/C, just a word of advice on this pic and for builders of Jap planes with type #98 bombs exposed, in my research (which was limited mind you) it stated that they were grey, with green tip and a red stripe, not the "flat black" it usually calls for.

http://www.j-aircraft.com/research/bill_sanborn/phmod21.pdf

Reasoned

 

Not wanting to be an R/C, just a word of advice on this pic and for builders of Jap planes with type #98 bombs exposed, in my research (which was limited mind you) it stated that they were grey, with green tip and a red stripe, not the "flat black" it usually calls for.

http://www.j-aircraft.com/research/bill_sanborn/phmod21.pdf

 

Cool thing, saved  and me found a good detail page for the george (and i'm searching for the Claude and found too!!)

http://www.colesaircraft.com/N1K1-J.html

also here the main link

http://www.colesaircraft.com/JAPACDET.html

I can't say I've ever seen the Val with a home defense marking on the fuselage. (white rectangle with a hinomaru in it) 

this one:

from warbird pictures site.

For sureness will use the other option for mine, decals have two or more options.

Just last night try a test fitting ,not bad never perfect, the mold seems really used by years some bad flashes on wings.

bsyamato

Someone know what colors i can use to mix malachite green? never see it. Keep in mind i don't use tamiya or gunze colors.

Hmm...malachite green (at least what Google Image Search shows me) looks kind of similar to emerald green. More blue-toned, but not quite into aqua. I'd suggest getting a good, straight-up green and adding blue a bit at a time until you get there.

In related, the paint codes on my George call for 90% Mitsu Dark Green and 10% something blue...

bsyamato

Reasoned:

 

Not wanting to be an R/C, just a word of advice on this pic and for builders of Jap planes with type #98 bombs exposed, in my research (which was limited mind you) it stated that they were grey, with green tip and a red stripe, not the "flat black" it usually calls for.

http://www.j-aircraft.com/research/bill_sanborn/phmod21.pdf

 

 

 

Cool thing, saved  and me found a good detail page for the george (and i'm searching for the Claude and found too!!)

http://www.colesaircraft.com/N1K1-J.html

also here the main link

http://www.colesaircraft.com/JAPACDET.html

  

Very nice links...thank you!

The Cole site is a very good one. If I was playing historian, I would strongly quibble with the implied praise of Japanese aircraft production found in the captions. Considering the state of Japanese industry, the Ministry of Munitions did a decent job of increasing aircraft and component production until late 1944 when the roof began to fall in. But in the real world that was faint praise. Japanese industry was behind the curve in every way in the 1940s (that changed as I'm sure we've all noticed) and compared to countries like the UK, much less the US, Japanese production figures are quite modest especially when you consider the fact that obsolescent aircraft were kept in production until war's end because newer models had poor operational reliability. None of this was the fault of the engineers - Japan had good ones. But the whole industrial structure combined to create a kind of "friction" that led Japan to slip hopelessly behind in both quantity and quality to American makes.  The fact that the US was also fighting Germany, and still managed to demolish Japanese airpower simultaneously only makes the point more vivid. Rant over.

The exact color for Japanese airframes is yet another question up for quibbles. It wasn't a color at all, but a protective coating. Here is IJNAF expert Nick Millman's comments which sound very sensible to me:

Eric

Normal 0

Airframe Interior

The whole airframe interior with the exception of the cockpit was coated in the ‘aotake’ translucent protective finish. Some extant examples are almost an emerald green but this is possibly the result of age yellowing and the original appearance might have been more blue green or even blue in appearance. Whatever colour is chosen it is recommended to apply the paint in a thinned coat over a natural metal finish rather than to use one of the proprietary brands of ‘aotake’ paint which often results in a rather garish metallic finish.

Doogs: Thanks, just curious to how much he wants for it. After the 1/24th P-47 my modeling budget is shot for some time but I'd kinda still like to know.

Bsyamato: Um, can you tell us what it said to paint malachite green? I might clear some up.

As to aotake as I've been told it starts out as blue and yellows as it ages turning more and more greenish.

Eric: Very true. It's easy to forget that Japan has only been an economic superpower since the '70s or so. During the Second World War they were still mostly an agrarian nation working hard to industrialize.

If Millman is right, and I'd guess he is, you can paint the frame the natural surface color of your choice and spray on some clear lightly tinted with ultramarine, or even a light blue or green. The affect of the light coat over the silver would give it the metallic effect as opposed to getting one of the paints I've seen that do indeed give a kind of garish blue green.

Santa arrived early and brought me some pretty rare 1/48 Hasegawas. Thought I was getting a Claude but it's a Nate which doesn't have funk appeal but was a more important aircraft. Both it and the Raiden were finds that I expected to pay eBay prices for.

And because someone asked for a Japanese plane, I'll give you my one and only (prior to the Val): a 1/48 Tamiya Ki-84 that I built maybe a year and a half ago. It was my first 1/48 scale plane. For obvious reasons I didn't display it here. But it actually looks ok from ten feet.

Eric

Thanx for replies guys, after more sesearchs modellers around the world that builded claude seems used same mitsubishi interior green others just used it but a little darkened.. goggle images shows pieces of malachite to show the colo, LOL should find a piece of malachite and try to break it and make some dust to add in a cleal enamel mix or just use the conventional mix of interior green

Eric nice score there when i'll finish these jap group will search for the others missing fighters.

no updates for now ,i had hard working two days on the office.