Hello all, there's some great work in here so far. I'm in the midst of trying to remodel my basement to make a playroom for my daughter so and I have relocated "Ye Olde Model Bench" to another part of the basement. I'm still trying to get used to my new digs. That aside, I have been making some progress on the Hayate. The airframe went together nice and needed no filler. The normal wing root issues that are common to this brand were absent on this kit and they fit like a glove.
I
I then turned my attention to the Nakajima Ha 45 mill. Hasegawa does a nice job here and its fairly detailed right out of the box. To me, radial engines just don't look right without ignition wires, so I endeavored to add them. I found a pic of Ha 45 through a Google search and used it as reference. I used .10 rod styrene as the ignition points around the ring then added fine stereo wire for the wires.
I gave it a paint job with Alclad Aluminum and painted the gear box XF-19 Sky Grey. The wires were then paint Floquil Grimy Black per the reference photo.
Then a Detailer wash was used then followed with a blast of Tamiya Smoke X-19. The finished product.
I have the Sky decal sheet 48041, which supplies 20 options. I ultimately I decided on 8 kill Major Kawamoto's Hayate of the 50th Sentai from April of 1945. It carried a Dark Green over Light Grey scheme and didn't appear too beat up with paint flaking off, which is common on these. I sourced an old bottle of Model Master Enamel IJA Light Grey that I had and custom mixed my own equivalent with Tamiya paint. I came up with 3 parts XF-12 IJN Grey and 1 part Xf-19 Sky Grey. I can't tell the difference between my mixture and the Model Master color.
Back to the airframe, I sprayed the flap area and gear wells Alclad Duraluminum and taped them off. I then preshaded the panel lines with XF-1 Flat Black then painted the yellow for wing ID bands, the red flap warning stripes, and then the white fuselage stripe. The black anti-glare panel was sprayed too in XF-69 NATO Black. I then taped all of these areas off and the IJA grey was sprayed. This was then lighted with white XF-2 and streaked for weathering. After the control surfaces were shaded, to add more contrast, I used a mix of diluted XF-69 NATO black and XF-64 Red Brown and sprayed it along select panel lines, into the intake, the flap area, pretty much all areas where the plane would get dirty. I think it just adds that extra touch of realism and make it less toy-like.
The Nakajima Dark Green upper will be next. I don't believe Tamiya makes this shade either so I'm sure I'll have to custom mix this color as well. Stay tune for this . Thanks for looking.
Joe