Hey MC,

Great job on the Chi Ha. Really looks good in a hull defilade position!!

Looks terrific to me! As I said before beautiful work on the camo, the weathering looks good. and nice work on the base too. I'll get you posted ASAP.

Hey Gamera,

Where do I find my badge?

Third post on the first page, congrads- well earned sir!  

Take either one you want, your choice. 

Thank you.

Steve: Just posted you to the front page- of course if you'd rather I used another photo just let me know and I'll change it out.

That's perfect.  It's the one I would have chosen.  Thank you sir.

Hope it's not too late to jump in with a Tamiya A6M3.  I've just started it over the last few days.  I think I can finish it in time.

Fuselage and cockpit started.  The cockpit is so bland I think I'll probably build it closed.

Hey Tom, it's never too late! Welcome!

She looks good so far.

Well I'm  considering my Ki-84 Frank as finished.

I'll try to get some better pictures than these at 12am.

John

Nice John, she's sharp!

Seems like everyone is finishing up! Waiting on a nice sunny day to grab the photos of my Shiden.

John,

Nice Frank. I really like that fighter. Thankfully for us, the Japanese didn't have a reliable engine to put in it.

Can't wait to see your new pics.

Steve

Falconmod, how did you do your paint chipping.  It looks great.

Question: The Tamiya kit I'm building comes with decals for 4 planes.  I've searched and can't find any info on one of them, tail number T2-197.  I'm leaning towards the challenging "blotchy" paint scheme.

Anyone know anything about it?  I've seen the same tail number in other scale kits, so it's seems like it might be a well known aircraft;  I just can't find anything about it.

Tom: I'll try to remember to look though some reference books tonight and see what I can root up.

Thanks.

Tom68

Falconmod, how did you do your paint chipping.  It looks great.

Question: The Tamiya kit I'm building comes with decals for 4 planes.  I've searched and can't find any info on one of them, tail number T2-197.  I'm leaning towards the challenging "blotchy" paint scheme.

Anyone know anything about it?  I've seen the same tail number in other scale kits, so it's seems like it might be a well known aircraft;  I just can't find anything about it.

  I used hairspray over the silver base coat then put the green on and then used tape, sandpaper and X-acto blades to remove the paint.

John

Tom: Seems this aircraft belonged to Air Group 204 based at Rabaul in May 1943. They were most known for their involvement in the Battle of Guadalcanal.

Hope this helps.

Tom, if I am not mistaken, that aircraft was based at Rabaul and was teh mount of one of the Yamamoto escort pilots during his ill fated flight of April 1943. There is info on it in the Osprey book IJNAF Aces and I will have to look it up for confirmation.

Falcon, your Frank looks great! Beautiful build!!!

OK, time for some overdue updates on my I-19. I dont recall exactly where I left off photowise but here is what I have. I added a couple more layers of black wash to the deck planking to darken it up more. Teh camera flash burns thru it a bit, but under normal vision it looks right to me

1st layer

second layer

then once I was satisfied with the decking, I wnet back with a fine tipped brush and touched up the flat black where needed, and added the conning tower 25mm AA gun and deck mount 10.5cm gun. I also finally glued the upper hull to the lower hull

more to come soon...

Hi Jack,

Great work on the Spruce, it looks excellent.

I have the Nichomo kit and have been ploughing through the translation for a while, although it is sitting at about 5th in the build list, so it will be some time yet. The Nichomo kit is good with plenty of detail given its age, not sure about the fit yet.

I would like to know which paints/colours you used or the instructions give as I am not sure what is the right orange colour - certainly not happy with the off the shelf solutions I have looked at to date. According to the Nichomo instructions, the brown on the spats/landing gear is a hull red, but seems it should be more brown - the literal translation was a red grape brown!

Again great build - your progress has given me more info and tips to ease my path when I start on it.

Piers

Hello Piers,

I've seen a number of different shades used for the trainer orange- most seem to be a sorta 'pumpkin' colour. The hull red is probably close to the propeller colour, a brown a with reddish shade to it.

I haven't actually painted anything in the trainer orange myself but a couple of the other members of the GB have, maybe you guys can give him some more useful advice?

Cliff

PS: Yeap, looks good SP, very stealthy! 

Looking pretty sinister there, Stick!! Makes me think of the pier side scene from the movie "1941,"   "Whooahhhhh!!!!!  Jap sub!!  Is he heading to bomb John Wayne's house????

lostagain - thanks, glad you enjoyed the Spruce and look forward to seeing yours.

For colour inspiration,  I had found this painting:

Nick Millman's blog, Aviation of Japan,  has a write up on Japanese trainer colour.  There doesn't seem to be a clear shade, but after reading it, I came away thinking it should probably be lighter (towards the yellow spectrum) compared to how most people interpret it.   He also has a free pdf file dealing with the subject, but he never got back to me with an email response.  All of that can be found here:

http://www.aviationofjapan.com/2012_02_01_archive.html

In the end, I just eyeballed a 50/50 acrylic mix using the paints below:

For the brown portions, I relied on Tamiya's XF-10 brown.  It's possible, as Cliff mentions, that it matched the brown used on propellers.  I didn't find any info at all for a suggested brown.

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This group continues to produce very fine work on the Japanese theme.  My compliments to all the latest finishes. 

regards,

Jack

Hey Jack, thanks, I figured someone knew more about this than I did!

For some reason I keep thinking of a more 'pumpkin' shade like the Bell X-1 but what you've got there looks much, much closer to what I've seen.

Dave, looking at my sub in black and knowing the history of that boat, I thought of that movie more than once myself. "Horrywood!"

Jack, your Spruce looks great. That color looks perfect to me. I was gonna suggest that Gunze shade, but I see that you used that and modified it. For Japanese propellors, Gunze makes, get this- "Propellor Color" in their Mr Color line. Polly Scale and Aeromaster also made the appropriate shade of Japanese Red Brown in their line ups. Tamyia's Red Brown will also work for props.

I airbrushed on a coat of Future on my sub getting her ready for decals. More photos once I get them on.

Stikpusher/Gamera,  Thanks for the info.  I ordered up a copy of the Osprey book.

Here is the latest work... nothing too exciting

Future coat on in preperation for decals

decals on

and a close up...

SP: Hope you didn't burn out applying all those decals!!! Really, looks good and nice to see you almost done.

BTW: FINALLY got some sunny weather this weekend and got the photos of the Shiden. My first attempt at the salt weathering technique and not totally happy with the results, I like the hairspray technique much more. Still she's done.

And yes they had round bale technology in Japan in the '40s... really...

Hi Jack,

Thanks for the info and the further references. Unusually, the references are narrowing down my choices, not confusing me more. I was heading down a much too orange path, as Cliff was saying.

That Ron Cole picture is really good, had not seen it before. A few more extra details to add...

Thanks

Piers

Thanks Gamera, it's nice to get something nearly done. I have been sidetracked on too many projects this year and last year...

Gamera - beautiful work there   , I like how both topside and underside came out. 

I've never really closely studied the peculiar paint wear of Japanese aircraft.   I do notice there is a different look between hairspray and salt techniques, where the latter provides  some soft edges where the salt has melted.

regards,

Jack