A poor update :( just a layer of thinned 147 as primer and 147+78 humbrol  on the bottom.. not easy to see the differencies from pictures with flash 

At the next!

Yeah, the guys have been kicking tail and taking names- reminds me that I really need to get my stuff done!

Wow.... some fabulous work in here all around! I had not checked in on daily progress for awhile. So I just went back and scrolled thru the whole GB up until now. Stunning work all around! I obviously need to keep up to date daily in here...

WW: Ah, sorry I thought you meant you were adding a little more- my mistake!

Terry, that tank is really coming along!

I will not be doing anything fancy in the Starfighter cockpit - pretty much just putting something in there to support the IP & console decals and have a floorboard! 

I was going to try again with some dark on the panel lines then a light coat to tie it together?  

Nice! Even if the pre-shading doesn't show though a wash should pick out all that detail!

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I made a mix of Tamiya JA Green XF13 at about 60% and Desert Yellow XF59 at 40% for my base coat. What didn't come through very well, was the pre shading I did with straight up JA Green along panel lines but I it wasn't dark enough to show through. There are so many JA colors out there so I chose a combo of two KaMi's and another tank for the base coat shading.  Still a lot to do.    

Terry: Looking forward to seeing her all painted up.

WW: Looking forward to seeing what you're coming up with too. Never really modified a kit much myself. Added some PE here and there but that's about it.

Looking great guys...won't be too long and I'll finally be able to get my zero on the bench for more than a couple minutes.

Very cool, Jibber!

A slight update - still working fit issues on the tail section but will finish that up tonight so I can start making some semblance of a cockpit. Put the bang seat together so that I know how much room I have to work with. I will be pretty much copying the Hasegawa cockpit with sheet styrene and have good Intrument Panel & Console decals to use.

Looking good Jibber, can't wait to see more

All primed ready for paint, final assembly and weathering.

Great work on the Val Congo 

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Very nice Val there, Congo!

Hey guys, great updates there.

I think the current accepted shade for the IJN of WWII is close to the Luftwaffe's RLM 02 - or is at least used as a starting point?

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Johnsan - thanks for the approval on the trainer I had recently completed.

regards,

Jack

Congo: very nice job pre-shading there! The engine doesn't look half bad either!

Hi guys,

I'm slowly going forward with my builds. The Dinah is on hold for now as i'm short on supplies and, as it turned out, i have to refresh my soldering abbilities which at the moment are crap. However th Val is going ok and already has paint on it. Even though it is a Hasegawa mould it was fighting me all the time throughout the build. Nasty seams appeared here and there and on top of that they were hard to fill and sand. After priming and painting the model i realised that i forgot to put the pitot tubein the wing so, as you will see in the pics, i had to glue the base in the painted wing, fiil, sand and drill and than repaint. With my luck the paint /Tamiya acrillic/ reacted strangely - instead of flat finish it turned out glossy and didn't want to dry for more than a day.

As for the paint itself, i did a lot of head scratching and finally desided to paint the Val IJN grey. I'm not sure for the supoosed "caramel" colour and were not ready to experiment after all the fight that the model was giving me in construction. I primed the model with Alclad grey primer which was slightly polished before puting the paint on. I've preshaded the Val with Tamiya black and then put on two light coats of IJN grey. Then i started postshading. On the upper surfaces i mixed IJN grey with a bit of japanese cockpit green as i wanted not to lighten the paint but alter the shade. I was satisfied with the result. On the downside surfaces i went with lightening the grey with white. the whole idea is to represent an used and abused Val somwhere in the spring of 1942. But enough writing, it's time for pics, just don't expect much from a crappy photographer .

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I forgot to mention that the blue black on the cowl is Agama enamel which in my oppinion is the best enamel paint i have ever encountered.

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I mounted the main gun and MG into the small turret. Not much room in there for operating these guns, it must have been close and very loud. Just about ready for priming the entire tank. 

Johnsan I found some pictures of damaged Japanese tanks including a Ka-Mi maybe even the one you're talking about , and even though the hull was in bad condition the interior parts were all intact. Quiet a simple vehicle really, not very big I bet that Braille scale was a lot of fun.  

Johnsan - it is not that the sprues were lacking. The F-104J kit actually HAD the F-104S sprue tree (the whole thing) in there! I felt like I hit the lottery! ;-)

Terry: Nice to see the pontoons shaping up.

Bsyamato: Excellent work as usual on correcting problems and superdetailing.

Jack - love your Willow. Very elegant build.

Jibber - while building my 72nd Ka-Mi last year, I found online wrecked Ka-Mis used as targets by the Russians up in the Kuriles. Pretty beat up specimens, but interesting still. Sorry, I don't have a link.

WiccanWarrior - what sprues did your kit lack? I"ve had several of the boxing you show and they contain sprues for Eiko and for Gs with partial parts for the S.

Bsyamato - nice work on your Sonia. Good luck with the Kurogane. I have that kit and realize it's going to take more than a little clean up work to look good.

Nice work on the Sonia!

nice work everybody. i  to get back on my JGSDF spaa. did pick up some small PE sets for TYPE 82 and 87 6x6s.

Nice works Jibber and Wiccan 

Sonia updates

Engine on

aotake on the cowling

then all main pieces glued and sanding, mg is not yet glued

a mod on the windscreen, originally the piece left a gap to allow the sight fitting

cut out the sight base and glued on the ip cover, also painted the upper cockpit parts

first version of the windscreen modify..

Second and correct version of the windscreen modify , in the lower part this time.. 

then glued withouth the rear part.. cut away also added the pencils holder on the rear position cover

the rear clear parts was thermoformed using original cutted parts

also i carved the landing light housing and fill with heated clear sprue, after painted in silver the inner zones

glued with CA glue and removed excess

Now the plane is ready for paint session :)

soon will add the little Ace kurogane

At the next!

It's going together very clean what a nice kit by Dragon. It's a little difficult to see but Dragon has molded in nice weld seams where the hulls connect and on the pontoons. If it didn't fit exactly right and I would've had to putty and sand it, surely I would've removed those seams. In previous pics you can see the seam lines but you really have to go carefully. WW thanks for the nice comments and you're coming along nicely, should have it together soon.  

Good stuff Terry! You will have that done in no time!

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Finished the rear float onto the cupola and paint. Terry

I'm pretty sure I posted my last update for this GB into the Braille Scale GB!! In fact, I know I did!! From this morning:

Handsome looking Hurricane so far, Rob! A bit of progress on my Airfix 1/72 Starfighter - wait, I didn't just go to the Airfix Tribute Forum, did I?? :-) I should go ahead and purchase another tube of Squadron Green - I know I'm going to need it! The wingtip tanks were shaped more like torpedoes, so I swapped them out for some "old box" Hasegawa ones. The Sidewinders came from the ESCI 1/72 F-100F kit I am doing for the Braille Scale GB on here. I snagged the wheels & tyres from the Hasegawa JASDF F-104J kit but what I am going to do now is build this one wheels up. I have not done that in a long time. I even have a nice clear plastic display stand from a KP Mig-17 to put it on!   Oh, and the Burner can came from a old New Years party horn - well the plastic part! I cut out the bottom part of the Airfix Starfighter exhaust and will use the nozzle part from the Hasegawa JASDF Starfighter. The "Can" even has lines inside it!!

Notice how the Hasegawa JASDF F-104J decal sheet is bigger than the Airfix Starfighter box itself! LOL 

This Evening: