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 :)

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!

Works of last night, cockpit almost ready for the paint

At the next!

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 :)

At the next 

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?

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.

Those interior frames look terrific!

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 

At the next!

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! 

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, 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.

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

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:

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 :)

At the next

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.

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

At the next!

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)

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!

Panzer - I like the way you did your Alclad - gonna have to try that technique.  Love the camo!

Steve

Got the camouflage done today. Tamiya XF-13 IJA Green. Thanks for looking.

Quick update on the little Claude:

Interior done and fuselage halves joined.  Added a strip of plastic on the bottom that still needs to be cut and sanded - this should give a proper flush fit when the wings is attached.

A couple strips of masking tape for the seatbelts.  Could not find actual period photo examples, but the pilot harness included a single belt hanging down the center of the backrest - not sure how that worked? 

The instrument panel decal broke in two, so have taken the precautionary measure and sprayed some clear  future over the whole decal sheet.

regards,

Jack

Lol, very true! The pitot tube I did leave off!!!

I see on HLJ that there is a metal replacement set for the cannons and pitot tube- but I'm too cheap to buy them!

Cliff... if I were to put the guns on and that &*$#@pitot tube, before final touches it would only be the first time that I would have to do it! (Lol) I would knock them off at least 3 times if I were so lucky! Ha...

Doug

Well, the Shiden is (mostly) together. Normally I leave the landing gear off but since it's all NM I figure I'll paint the whole darn thing at once and then mask off, add the salt, and then spray the upper surfaces. 

I hate to attach small parts like the cannons but before I start the NM I'm going to spray the yellow leading edges and I need the cannon fairings in place. 

johnsan

Looking good, Panzerpilot. How are you going to paint her?

Ka-14 is finished.

Great kit.

Perfect clean finish Johnsan 

Johnsan: I'd love to see those Zeros or the F-1 or anything else you'd like to contribute here!

Panzerpilot: I've never tried for an intentional rough undercoat for the Alclad but it makes a great deal of sense. Looking forward to seeing how things come out.  

I agree about the effect Panzerpilot. I've actually done a few NMF just like that, intentionally leaving my primer unsanded.  I like the way it creates a 'weathered' NMF look. it all depends on what you are going for.

Panzerpilot, that is an interesting effect.

Johnsan... What more is there to say... Beautiful!

PanzerPilot... I've never built a KI 61 before and am really enjoying seeing yours come together!

Here's the alclad finish of my Ki-61. As previously shown, I had an uneven primer coat. This resulted in an uneven alclad finish, both in finish tint and texture. This is duraluminum. I must say the amount of surface prep necessary for a nice even, shiny coat, far exceeds what I put into it.