Jack: Looks good! Those single shoulder belts - odd but the photos of the restored Shiden I was using as a reference showed them as well as the Eduard set of PE seat belts has them so I guess they're the real deal though they still look a little strange to me.

Panzerpilot: Fantastic job there! Love the masking over the hinomaru - the few times I've tried to do that sort of work I didn't think to do that- very good idea!

Thanks. I cut index cards to mask off the area where I wanted the hinomaru, to use as a reference. I have yet to put the decals on.

Also, before painting the camo, I painted a sealer of alclad clear gloss. (That stuff needs a good 2 days to dry, in my experience.) It appears that could be a technique to get a smoother, more shiny finish, ie primer, gloss coat...then alclad. I learned that when I touched up some areas with duraluminum, after the gloss coat.

Next I am going to seal the overall finish with testors semi gloss acryl. (I almost messed up and was gonna seal it with alclad clear. That might have made a mess of the acrylic camo)

Great works on the Claude and the Tony guys 

Cliff add the Ki-15 babs 1/72 From LS  to the build list 

Arrived today and i'll stat to build this night 

sprues

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Panzerpilot: Lol, I guess I should have said masking the area the hinomaru goes! I would try to eyeball the right area and size and then always have to go back and try to touch up later. I picked up a bottle of the Alclad clear gloss a few weeks ago, I still haven't tried it yet though. Does it work ok over acrylic paint then?

Bsyamato: You sir are added! I've seen the LS kits around but haven't bought any, Looks pretty nicely detailed from the photos you've posted though. Except for those pilots who (like a bunch of companies other than LS) look more like department store manikins than people though, haven't seen many modelers that use them though.

LOL fortunately i don't use the pilots on my kits, lots of AM pilots set but mostly standing or mounting on the planes .

Waiting more japanese subjects again, surely will add more kits here :)

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The acrylic semi-gloss overcoat. It brings out the contrast a bit with the NMF, darkening the green and making the edges more solid.

Before:

After:

Looks realllllly good to me...can't wait to see it finished

Thanks, Josiah. Almost there!

Gamera

Panzerpilot: Lol, I guess I should have said masking the area the hinomaru goes! I would try to eyeball the right area and size and then always have to go back and try to touch up later. I picked up a bottle of the Alclad clear gloss a few weeks ago, I still haven't tried it yet though. Does it work ok over acrylic paint then?

Good question. I've never tried, uh risked, alclad clear over acrylic. It may be a bit hot for that, especially Tamiya? It would be nice to know, since it's pretty good stuff that goes on very smoothly.

Hey, I've just started using the Alclad gloss, semi-gloss, and flat.  I've used them over Tamiya acrylics without any problems.  I originally thought they were laquer and applied my usual acrylic wash over the gloss.  When I used windex to clean it up, the windex ate right through the clear coat.  I bought some Flory washes to use over them instead.  Otherwise, I like them better than using future.

Steve

Thanks guys for the heads up. I'll test some on a paint mule first though I've noticed that even lacquer like Testors' Gloss and DullCote are ok if the acrylic is good and dry and then you mist the coats on. If you flood it on it will discolour and ruin your paint- I found out the hard way...  

Looks great Panzerpilot, looking forward to more photos! 

First works on the babs:

Clean the few extractor marks from inner fuselage and opened two more little windows.. as i see on real planes alternate on the two sides, also totally closed the two remains windows

builded the sructures, instruments on the next session

A test fitting , on the cockpit floor removed original rudder pedals

engraved panel lines are too fine  i need to accentuate to not lost details with brushes 

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Those interior frames look terrific!

bsyamato. Nice work there.

I got the orange-yellow leading edges done and the black cowling top today. I made he orange-yellow by puting one drop of tamiya red in with some RLM04. It came out nicely.

Haven't checked in for the last several days. Been on a small outing in the mountains near Tokyo. Lots of work here in the meantime.

Good stuff. I won't single anyone out because it's all good. I do have a couple of questions for bsyamoto. What are you using for reference and are you doing your Babs in JAAF or NJAF markings?

Bs Yamato as the ship Johnsan :) no particular references till now, theres few references about this plane :( just pictures from www and helps from other italian modellers. The markings will be for imperial army as the box shows (not sure but probably found a picture of one of three planes from decals). A single image of cockpit i found.

Works of last night:

moved backward the operator hole in the floor, added a new plastic floor with new opening, some new instruments, rudder pedals and the control stick from the box

reshaped pilot seat, added two triangles that will be refined after

Starting to scratcbuild the middle fuel tank from this single piece

cut in two and smoothed, then glued lots of more plastic sheet to give them a solid look

final shapes, also added to the floor more pieces

glued togheter with a spacer in the middle and added fuel conducts and external metal holder

then glued in place :)

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Works of last night, cockpit almost ready for the paint

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Panzerpilot: Just sprayed my yellow leading edges the other day too, Figured these would be faded so  just used yellow with a little white, hopefully not too far off.

Bsyamato: Wow, fantastic! I esp love those fuel tanks you made!

Thanx Cliff :) it remind me in shapes the aliens in toriyama's Arale comic 

Today arrived latest delivery i'm waiting, ki-51, kate and rufe from hasegawa, and myrt and pete from fujimi, will add one or more of these soon in the GB :)

Salt:

NO Salt:

Bsyamato: Nice, those sound really cool!

Panzerpilot: Wow, that looks great, I've got to give this a try!

Thanks, Gamera.

I used sea salt and crushed it a bit. It's a bit more chunky than regular table salt. I dampened the surface with a bit of water and just sprinkled it on, then over coated with acrylic.

panzerpilot - nice effect there, and overall is looking really great.

bsyamato - some very dedicated detail work on in innards.   I'm interested in the Pete, where was it ordered from?

regards,

Jack

Cool effect Panzerpilot  

Jack unfertunately the Pete was delivered by a friend from japan, never seen the kit in europen stores (or just out of stock ..)   the same guy probably will found the delicious Ka-14 that Johnson builed here.

Thanks for the kind words, folks.

I hope to get her finished over the weekend. It's been a great build and good experimentation with alclad, etc.

Updates on the Babs:

After consulting some friend about inner colori choose to use a mix of white , interior green and a touch of medium blue yo obtain a pale green , italeri acrilics used (the real color is lighter and lesssaturation than the pictures shows..)

Also cut the canopy in 5 pieces, helped with a sort of blue tac and an old blade used as saw after a file cure :)

the observer canopy had a break at the base, resolved with plastic stripe and CA glue. To bend the canopy i did two engravings in the inner and the top middle of the piece (same on the pilot canopy section)

inner color on the frames first . 

some black  added

engine and the IP almost finished

Cockpit done, left to add seat belts and a washing before to glue fuselage

A picture withouth flash 

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Bsyamato: Very impressive- again I can't believe you squeeze all that detail into a 1/72nd cockpit!

Guys I went out and picked up some sea salt yesterday, I assume the course version was the right thing?

Gamera

Bsyamato: Very impressive- again I can't believe you squeeze all that detail into a 1/72nd cockpit!

Guys I went out and picked up some sea salt yesterday, I assume the course version was the right thing?

Great! Thanks Panzerpilot. I'll try crushing the grains then.

Great job so far guys....that salt method looks pretty good, I'll have to try it when I get the courage to weather one of my planes significantly

There's some awesome stuff going on in here.