Hey that's looking good Theuns! Good luck with the canopy, that's going to be fun to paint!

Looking good Theuns

Nice chippin

Just call me Mr. Chipps LOL!

I have put the final dullcoat on, but the decals were very thick and did not seat nicely, even several applications of micro sol did nothing to better the situation. :-(

Theuns

Hmm, don't think I've ever used Arii/Otaki decals. I've always replaced the decals when on the kits I built. Good luck with them, after the decals silvered on the zero I'm working on I set her aside and gee it's been months - really, really need to finish her. Just don't want to go back and repaint over the decals...

Dinah completed.

Theuns

well done Theuns 

Wow Theuns- she looks great!! Wish I could build that fast! (Ok, I can but the results won't look that good!)

Photo posted to the roster. And thanks again for joining us!

Thanx guys.

Theuns

Yet another fine specimen to come off the production line from Theuns

Good looking craft & well done

That looks really good Theuns, almost enough to make me pull out my Dinah. Your freehand canopy frames look pretty good.

Cheers

Tony

I must admit that I cheated a bit on the "free hand" canopy painting. After thinking I would in all likelyhood mess it up I masked each canopy frame individually and brush-painted them,except for a few small pieces on the front windshield.

It was a fun build and I am glad I didn't get the all glazed Dinah, that would have been tough!

Theuns

Theuns, your Dinah looks real good! That is an unusual shade of green gray on her to my eye.

Well I was able to get back on the workbench today and get some airbrushing in. I airbrushed on a primer coat of Tamiya surface primer thinned with generic lacquer thinner on all cockpit area. Boy that stuff is no joke-quite an odor and it sticks to everything! Great for priming PE!

and I airbrushed on a base coat of MM Acrylic Steel on the engine face

I am planning on getting cockpit and engine interior base colors down tomorrow.

SP: Looking good! Keep the pics coming!

Thanks Gamera. I am hoping that tomorrow I will be able to post more progress pics.

The grey does look a little strange in the pix, the sun was very bright when I took the pix. It is actually Tamiya IJN Grey straight from the pot and is a little greyer than green  LOL!

Theuns

Quote Cliff!! keep on japanize!!

Theuns, is that the new IJN Gray that Tamiya released around the same time as their 1/32 A6M2, XF-76?

More progress on my Frank. Tamiya Cockpit Green (which looks extremely close to RAF interior gray green) airbrushed to all areas of the fuselage that will be visible  thru the cockpit opening

And then Gunze Aotake airbrushed on the wheel wells, interior sides of the landing gear doors, and the inner surfaces of the engine cowling

Next up is washes and detail painting...

I don't know when it came out but the pot says "JN Grey  XF-12"

If it is to green I will just say it is moss growing on the plane from all the rain LOL!

Theuns

XF-12 is one of their original colors... very interesting... Must have been the rain

The paint looks pretty close to me in the photos. Considering the different shades used plus weathering and sun fading I've gotten to the point that I'm not too terribly anal about an exact match.

Sp: Nice! Moving right along there!

Thanks Gamera. Next week's days off should have some real progress to post. I am with you about paint shades, close enough works.

Today I made some major progress. First up I did all the detail painting colors on the interior. Then it was time for washes and dry brushing of highlight.

Engine colors are based off a few color photos of a Homare engine that I found online.

painted

and washed

cockpit floor and seat

and finally cockpit sidewalls- the color came from my interpretation of some post war B&W photos of a Ki-84 that had been captured and test flown by the Allies. The photos show each item such as levers, switches and instruments labeled with something like dymo tape in English... The whites and reds are guesses based off their contrast to the interior green, while black and bare metal were obvious.

left sidewall

right sidewall

for such minimal molded on detail, the old kit cockpit detail, while basic, compares favorably well with the real thing. If I was not trying to get this done in the next month or so I was quite tempted to improve the detailing there by scratch,,,

Banzai! Some actual assembly today! Not much really, but a huge step forward after all the painting.... if this was a tank it would be nearly done after one month of building! 

Well I actually got the cockpit floorboard glued in last nite, and today was gluing the fuselage together

And then once the glue had dried, it was time to hollow out the the ends of the exhaust pipes. For a double whammy with the pics I also tried to get the cockpit sidewall details in the shots...

and now it's "Back to the 60's!" Tamiya gives a decal for the IP. No plastic IP with raised detail for painting and drybrushing... just a decal to attach to either fuselage half, or follow the directions, cut it in half and attach each half to the respective fuselage side...  really?

All that glitters Tamiya is not gold...  and to think that at the same time Monogram kits of the same vintage were giving us cockpits with killer IPs that are still pretty dang good today... Now before you Tamigawaphiles get your knickers in a wad, I am just poking fun at ya... Everybody had to start somewhere.

Wow stik, an IP decal is a little lame for a Tamiya kit, when was that molded?  On the other hand, your seams sure look minimal.

I wanna say it is mid 70's vintage... 1974 or so...  I tend to sand seam mating surfaces ahead of time to make sure that they fit properly when I do assemble them.

Looking good SP! Not sure you'll even be able to see much of the IP when she's closed up with the canopy in place anyway.

I've heard that this is one of the earlier Tamiya kits that's closer to 1/50th than 1/48th- still as said the fit is pretty solid and detail is good.

Actually the kit does give an open canopy option and I will be using that. So some of the IP and cockpit will be more visible than the rest. But yes for the most part the detailing quite nice (a mix of raised and recessed panel detail) and fit is good. Test fitting reveals some gaps at the wing roots and around the cowling. But this kit cost under $15 and the molds are almost 40 years old, so I am not complaining. Just making observations. I don't know about the scale on this one. I do know that Tamiya did do a series of 1/50 kits back in the day, I want to say late 60's or so. I did build a Val and a Tony of those, and they did have a Pete and Tojo as well, IIRC. Those ones are certainly a step or two behind this one in terms of finesse with movable control surfaces, rotating wheels, being more akin to the old Revell and Monogram kits of the same time period.

A little progress over the past few days on my Frank. I glued in the engine face and the front of the cowl

It is just too dang hot to get in my work area right now and do more at this time... October 1st here and it feels like August 1st...