Cool Falcon, I think Hasegawa makes about every version of the Zero ever made, funny I've only built the Tamiya kits though. Looking forward to seeing you build her!

Check that, I can't for the life of me find a set of Ki-44 decals at a decent price. I'll do an Arii N1K1 George in 1/48 instead.

Sure, no problem- switched you over.

Gamera,

I "might" be interested in joining the GB, but I need to finish up a couple of others first. 

Is there a cut-off date for joining?  I didn't see one in the first post.

Luckily, I have a few subjects for entry (all 1/48th scale):

Hasegawa A6M5 Type 52 "Super Ace" kit 

Tamiya A6M2 Zeke kit

Tamiya N1K1 Ja Shiden Type 11 kit

And on order:

Hasegawa A6M2b kit

The Shiden could be the subject of choice, but who knows what I'll think in a few months?

Gary

Hey Gary, no cut-off dates at all. You're welcome to join anytime in the next year. Would love to have the Shiden or any other of your fighters there!

BTW: I stumbled across this pretty cool photo of a JSDF Sherman M4A3E8....

At least I think so- the foreground is kinda distracting!

i'm in. probably start of with a JGSDF TYPE 87 35mm(2) SPAA followed by either a Komatsu LAV 4x4 or a TYPE 82 C&C 6x6.

Thanks, Gamera!  Now to knock out my other GBs and I'll be set...

Gamera

BTW: I stumbled across this pretty cool photo of a JSDF Sherman M4A3E8....

At least I think so- the foreground is kinda distracting!

And here I thought it was a cosplay of "Girls und Panzer"!  

http://animeflow.net/files/K_folder3/akiyama%20yukari,%20girls%20und%20panzer,%20isuzu%20hana,%20nishizumi%20miho,%20predatorss,%20reizei%20mako,%20takebe%20saori.png

Gary

Awesome guys!

Wayne: I'll just put you down with the SPAA right now. Is that a 1/35th Trumpeteer kit?

Gary: Lol, never thought about that! I think Saunders School was the only one to use Shermans though? Looking forward to seeing what you come up with for an entry.

Gamera, are you building the tank or the girl?

waikong

Gamera, are you building the tank or the girl?

Lol, nope, nope, nope- just couldn't resist posting two of my favorite things- a cute brunette and a Sherman! 

I'm going to try to finish the models I started in GB II (it looks really bad for the host of a GB not to finish his own entries...) and then I'm thinking of doing FineMolds Type 4:

I know Tasca/Asuka Model makes a very nice JSDF Sherman but I don't have it yet and the only female figure I can find anything like that is this WWII one from Aurora Model Japan...

GAF

Thanks, Gamera!  Now to knock out my other GBs and I'll be set...

Gamera

BTW: I stumbled across this pretty cool photo of a JSDF Sherman M4A3E8....

At least I think so- the foreground is kinda distracting!

And here I thought it was a cosplay of "Girls und Panzer"!  

http://animeflow.net/files/K_folder3/akiyama%20yukari,%20girls%20und%20panzer,%20isuzu%20hana,%20nishizumi%20miho,%20predatorss,%20reizei%20mako,%20takebe%20saori.png

Gary

Oh she looks better than any anime girl...  Very distracting indeed...

If there's still place for one more, I'd like to enter with Zoukei Mura's  J7W1 Shinden (the big one of course ) I was only able to get that manga special edition because the normal one was sold out, but it looks like it can be built as a normal Shinden as well (just with all the parts in white styrene).

Omg, I'd love to see you build that beauty up Clemons!

Shouldn't be too hard to cobble up some markings for her since they didn't carry all that complex other than the hinomaru, stripes, and numbers.

Ok, now to badges...

Waynec did this gorgeous badge here based on the painting 'The Great Wave':

I'd just roll with it but I previously had a friend who does illustrations for comics to do a little mascot. I fooled around a little with it but wasn't too happy with my results. I'm going to post this original work here and if you artistic guys want to play around with them I'm sure you'll do a much better job than I did...

I really like that bagde, but the illustrations look fantastic as well! It would be awesome if someone could try to create a badge using one of them (how about having 2 Badges to choose from?)

Hi-

I'm back into the hobby after a 20 year layoff and would like to join this build. I just finished a P-26 for the Pearl Harbor Build and am about to start an F-102A for the Vietnam Build. Can I get in on this build? I'll be doing a plane for sure, just gotta go in the stash and find one.

Thanks

GAF

Thanks, Gamera!  Now to knock out my other GBs and I'll be set...

Gamera

BTW: I stumbled across this pretty cool photo of a JSDF Sherman M4A3E8....

At least I think so- the foreground is kinda distracting!

And here I thought it was a cosplay of "Girls und Panzer"!  

http://animeflow.net/files/K_folder3/akiyama%20yukari,%20girls%20und%20panzer,%20isuzu%20hana,%20nishizumi%20miho,%20predatorss,%20reizei%20mako,%20takebe%20saori.png

Gary

Since we are talking 'bout animes already, I thought I'll just show you some pics of my Shinden:

How about that for a box art?

I had a close look at all the stuff in the box and it looks liek ZM supplied everything needed to build a normal Shinden:

Standard ZM instructions (they make the best instruction booklets I've ever seen):

The decal sheet from the normal kit:

Some canopy masks that seem to be made of vinyl (also supplied in the normal kit):

And now to the "special edition" stuff:

An additional sprue with a new nose section (without openings for the guns) and a different IP for the anime version:

A small instruction sheet with all the steps different from the standard instructions:

Painting guide:

And a decal sheet for the special version:

This kit has a big advantage compared to the standard edition even if you don't want to build the anime plane. The special decals include individual instrument dials which are a standard feature with all the other ZM kits. The normal shinden boxing is missing them though... 

Pete: Welcome back! We'd love to have you. As long as it fits the rules on page one you're in like Flint. Just as long as the plane is unassembled or light assembly and Japanese- WWII, Cold War, or modern you're good!

Clemons: Fantastic! I knew the 1/32nd kit comes with a lot of cool stuff the 1/48 doesn't- though I'm not complaining! That scheme is pretty cool too, does the Shinden appear in that anime? I've seen a little but don't know much about the genre. Still the blue and white scheme looks almost as nice as the real scheme.

BTW: We'd always had two badges. I was going with Wayne's entry and one with the mascot too.

Let me get straight to where I am at the moment with my other GB entry – the Tamiya Dinah. First let me say that i`m only using the True Details resin set №48462, all other additions to the model will be scratched.

I`ve glued the resin inserts by TD and put some different gauge wires on the right side of the pit. I`ve scratched the missing rear section of the main fuel tank, replaced the moulded hydraulic pipes, also made the reserve hydraulic pipe from fine solder. In the observers compartment i`ve erased the moulded pipes and wires and started replacing them with wire, fine solder and bras pipes from Albion alloys. Then I turned my attention to the main wheel wells. There`s a nasty seam right in the middle of the wells which I tried my best to erase but it`s not perfect. The wells are completely empty while there should be a whole bunch of details so i`ve started adding the piping and actuators that are clearly visible on the real plane. The other major detail that`s missing in the kit is the back of the engines which are visible from the wells. I`ve tried to replicate some of the details using different materials. The end result isn`t close to the original but is better than nothing. I also made some adjustments to the wells which were open from behind but actually they were boxed so I replicated this using leftovers from vac plastic sheets. Everything on the photos is primed with Alclad black primer.

That is all for now, hopefully there will be an update on the models soon. Now for some pics!

Oooops, that post should have been in the Japanese Group Build Part II! I`ll repost it there, sorry folks.

Ok this plane doesn't count but I thought I'd post it anyway, then I can start my A6m5.  This is also posted over in the Pegasus thread for snap together models.

just practice for the next one.

John

Hey John, that's beautiful work, I think I saw her over on the Pegasus thread while on my phone and then forgot to comment when I got an actual keyboard in front of me.

Only complaint is you're setting the bar pretty high there- note to everyone else you don't have to be that talented to join the GB! 

Gamera-Thanks for the warm welcome. Count me in. I've narrowed my choices down to two kits. One is a Ki-84 -IA (Frank) from Tamiya and the other is the 1/32 Oscar from Hasegawa. I'd like to stick with 1/48 (Tamiya), but I'm not finding any after market PE etc. Eduard does have stuff for a 1/48 Hasegawa. Does anyone reading this think I could grab that and use it on the Tamiya kit? If no aftermarket is available for the 1/48 Tamiya, then I'll go with the 1/32 Hasegawa.

First world problems, right?

Cheers,

Pete

John: Looking great!

Pete: I wasn't able to find any AM parts for the Tamiya kit either, but you might want to consider buying this resin set. It's designed to be used with the Hasegawa kit, but it should fit the Tamiya kit as well (with a bit of trimming). I have the Tamiya Hayate in my stash myself (i got the motorized version at 50% off) and the molded cockpit details look horrible IMO. There is also a pretty large gap at both sides of the cockpit floor and the seat looks really bad (wrong shape, no lightening holes). Replacing the thick clear parts of the kit with a vacuformed canopy is probably a good idea as well. The overall fit of this kit is pretty good though... Just my 2 cents...

The Tamiya Frank is a pretty old kit. The only AM available will be for the newer Hasegawa kit. I would say they could be made to fit the Tamiya kit pretty well with a little trimming and sanding. Most Aires sets fit like crap even in the kit they are designed for, lol!

Thanks for input. I'm going to grab the resin kit for the Tamiya 1/48. Once I get started, I'm sure I'll have tons of questions. Right now I'm getting started on the Encore version of the F-102A for the Vietnam Group Build. I may just have to try and work on both kits.

Gamera,

Sorry about the bar,  but I can blame the 190 group build and the WWI GB, I never built anything like this until I went into those GB's. And everyone can be in this GB

John

Pete, the only thing I would worry about the Tamiya Ki-84 and using anything designed for a hasegawa kit is that the Tamiya Ki-84 actually scales out to like 1/50-1/51 scale. I read that somewhere and had to see for myself, and lo and behold when I pulled mine out of the stash, it doesn't measure up to exactly 1/48. I don't know how much of a difference that would ACTUALLY make with parts that small, but it is something to keep in mind.

Yeah, Ajd3530 is right here, I've never built the Tamiya Ki-84 but I've seen on several websites that it's closer to 1/50th. I'm not sure either how much work it would be to get the parts to fit.