Cliff & Jack... Beautiful work on your figures for the heros and villans build! Wish I could make one look presentable! LOL! Great work guys!!!

Doug

Jack: Thanks, glad you like her, still a bit of a learning experience here.

Doug: Thanks! And I have to admit this is another learning experience, just grab a figure and fool with it until either you like the results or you're sick of it!

LOLOL!!!

JGSDF TYPE 82 went a tad south so it is going in another direction which will be amusing. i have another in the stash. 1/72 TYPE 61 is done. HMG isn't mounted until i make a base. lessons learned: 1. brass ros axles for idlers and drive sprockets when using rubber band track, 2. leave the fiddly parts off until lower hull is painted, tracks are on and upper hull is attached. TAMIYA paints, black oil pin wash,  and REAL DEAL soft dirt the base may throw it into another category.

i am really getting into this scale which is scary given the 150 1/35 kits in the stash. i'll post better pics when the base is done.

ADJ: Looks great to me, I've never tried building up the stringers like that but I like what you've got there.

Wayne: Really cool! Love that camo and the wash really picked out the detail. I know what you mean about not attaching small parts- found it out the hard way myself. Do you want me to go ahead and post her or wait for more photos?  

Gamera

Wayne: Really cool! Love that camo and the wash really picked out the detail. I know what you mean about not attaching small parts- found it out the hard way myself. Do you want me to go ahead and post her or wait for more photos?  

thanks. lets call it done and we can update when i build the base. 

Sure enough!

High quality finished models guys , really well done    

falconmod

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

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

John

More pics John!! 

Looks great, love that Frank.

I haven't posted much since I signed on here, but I have been making some progress.  Here's a few update pics.

The cowl was my first attempt at salt chipping.  I plan to do more of it on the fuselage and wings, hence the silver paint.

I have a question.  I was planning to do the scheme of the field painted camouflage.  I assume there was some paint chipping just like the factory painted planes; but I don't ever see anyone modeling that and don't really see it in actual pics.

Am I wrong, or didn't the field painted Zeros didn't chip?  Anyone have any thoughts on that?

Tom: Looks good, both the NM paint and the chipped cowling.

Now that you mention it I don't think I've seen anyone add chipping to field applied camo either. Frankly I'd think it would chip more, since it was applied straight to the aluminum finish with no primer or anything under it. And I'd think the plain might not be totally clean at the time, maybe a little dusty keeping the paint from sticking all that much more. I'm not sure if maybe when the paint chipped the field crews might have repainted the areas so they didn't show the chipping???

Anyone else know more about this???

BTW: Falcon - are you still aiming to take more photos or would you like me to post that photo as your finished one?

Gamera,

  I'm  Going to get some new photos this weekend.

John

John: Sorry, not trying to rush you or anything just wanted to make sure you didn't think I'd forgotten about you. And make sure the photo on the front page is the one you want there.

Here’s what I was planning.  Since I’ve never done chipping before this may turn out to be a disaster or it could work out to be pretty cool.

First, I was going to apply salt at various places and then paint the entire plane in IJN gray.  Then, rub some (not all) of the salt off (simulating chipping while the plane was in that paint scheme).  

Then, mask the bottom since it should remain IJN gray and add salt to the topside.  This will simulate chipping of the IJN green just down to the undercoat of gray.  

Then spray a random incomplete pattern of IJN green on the top as I’ve seen in a number of pics from the south pacific.

Then if I rub all the salt off, I should end up with some chipping of the green down to just the gray; and some all the way down to the silver.

Does any of this seem to make sense or am I crazy? (Be advised, there are those who are convinced I’ve been the later for many years! )

Seems like a sound idea. I will be interested to see the end result.

Hey Tom, I love your idea but I believe I read somewhere on the J-Aircraft site that was the reason for the bad chipping on Japanese land based planes- that the paint was applied directly to the the metal skin with no primer or undercoating at all.

I'm not sure how it would work out on an aircraft with the grey on the top surfaces too. I'm wondering if the grey would chip but the green would stick to the grey paint underneath it and not come up by itself. 

Again, this is something I'm just guessing at, I'm sure there is more information on the J-Aircraft site but I'm not sure without doing more reading on it. I'll look around to see what I can root up, if anyone else wants to pitch in please do so! 

I've been looking at the J-aircraft site, but there's so much written there it takes time to get through.

I know I've read something about the pealing paint, but I can't remember what or where.  I'm not a rivet counter, but I prefer my builds to be reasonably realistic.

That's why I was asking.  I don't want to put a lot of work into something and then find out later no aircraft actually looked that way.

One of my reasons for wondering about the green chipping is that applying it in the field probably didn't happen under the cleanest circumstances.  I've painted a couple cars and know it's tough to get a surface clean enough for the paint to adhere and last.  

Although, in the case of IJN in 1943, the paint probably didn't have to last long before the aircraft was destroyed or written off.

Yea, I would definitely appreciate any info or opinions anyone can give.

Tom: This is the article I was thinking of, I started rereading it but ended up distracted and didn't finish. Maybe it's some help? I'll get back to it this weekend and see what I can find. 

Thanks Gamera.  I just finished reading it.  It’s lengthy and involved, but very informative.

The conclusion of the article is that the extensive chipping on some Japanese aircraft is due to lack of primer.  The bottom line for Zeros, as I understand it, is that they were properly primered throughout the war, unlike other versions of Japanese aircraft.

I’ve also done a lot more poking around and I’m starting to realize the extensive chipping I see is mostly in pictures of other aircraft not so much on actual pictures of operational Zeros.

So, I think I’m going to scale back on my plan and reduce the amount of chipping.

Thanks for the honest input, I think it’s going to help me get a more accurate build.

No problem, I prefer listing other sources since it seems most of the time I try to help with advice it does more harm than good!

Well, this time worked out well, thanks!

Hi Cliff,

I would like to join your group build with this:

As soon as I get my workbench cleared off, I will start on it.  Thanks!   

Ken 

Sure! Looks awesome Ken and glad to have you!

Gamera

Sure! Looks awesome Ken and glad to have you!

Thank you Cliff.  I look forward to getting started on it!   

Ken

Well, well, well........I got this feeling I've seen you around some place, Ken!! Welcome aboard!!

TAD

Tal Afar Dave

Well, well, well........I got this feeling I've seen you around some place, Ken!! Welcome aboard!!

TAD

Thank you Dave!  Now that you mention it, you seem awfully familiar too!   

Ken

Hi Everyone,

I made some serious progress on clearing off my workbench tonight.  Funny how quickly it gets cluttered between projects.

Ken

HAHAHAHAH, I haven't cleaned my bench since well, I don't even remember anymore!!!

Some archeologist could do some sort of dig separating out different strata to see what I was working on at different points of time!