Looking great Doug! It gets better as we move along. I have some pictures to download and post on my build so I will do that soon.

duke...looks like god progress on your build.

Doug: Wow, that's friggin'  perfect! Heck, you're almost done already.

Craig: Looking good! That's a kit you might as well build out of the box since it's so good I'm not sure there's much you can add to it.

Clemons: Thanks for helping him with the photos - I'm not that good at explaining things.  

Doug, I'm amazed at the camo on that Oscar!

flyerduke, looking good so far.

I finally started on my build last night. Thought I'd share the box art with everyone. For whatever reason it has to be my favorite box art.

Glued a few pieces of the cockpit together and painted it. Sorry for the bad pictures

That's all I've got for right now. Letting the cockpit dry for now and maybe I'll do some painting tomorrow evening.

David

David... you will enjoy that kit! Very nicely done.

Doug

Well , heres a little more from me...

OK, Shes not long from finish now, Maybe this weekend?

Doug

Doug, thanks. And I know I've said it a lot that Oscar is awesome! Hoping my Zero will come out half as good as your build.

David

Some nice looking work so far here. Whoa, Doug. That's really cool. Great job!

Day one for me!

Snake...Great start on that office.

Doug... fantastic paint job my brother

My George is almost done. I've been rushing to finish it and the Do335 from the Arrow GB for a show coming up  by the end of the month!! I was also working on two commissions. I had documented the steps as I normally do but with the confusion managed to accidentally delete some pictures. I painted the George Tamiya aluminum all over then took fine table salt and dampened the areas where I wanted the salt to remain. After it dried, I removed some salt grains to fine tune the chipping effect. Then the Tamiya green was sprayed. Once it dried, I removed the salt with a toothpick, then added the decals and shot everything clear flat.

First off, I'd like to apologize for the poor pics.  I'm not a photographer. Secondly, you guys can build some really nice models.  I'd like to be half as good some day.

Here are a couple progress pics.  I wasn't very happy the way the wash turned out.  It really darkened the interior.  I dry brushed the frame and some of the other components.  Also pictured is the canopy after its Future bath, and I painted the tips of the props instead of using the decals.  It was pretty fun doing that.  Now I gotta figure out what I'm going to do about the seat harness.  I don't want to use the decal.  When I get that done I can button up the fuselage and the rest is all down hill from there.  This kit has been fun.  I would recommend for anyone starting out on aircraft.

Craig

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David: You're off to a good start!

Doug: Your work is simply amazing, brother! The camo just looks spot-on!

PJ: Looking great! I have to give that salt-chipping a try at some point!

Craig: I think the wash looks really nice. The ainted prop tips look very good as well.

Regarding your seatbelt problem: You can either scratchbuild some belts out of masking tape or buy some AM seatbelts. I really like HGW's fabric seatbelts. They look awesome and are quite easy to assemble (although some parts are really small)

I'm not sure if they have japanese belts though...

My wife is going into town today, so I think I'll have her stop by the LHS.  Last time I checked, they had Eduard 1/48 IJA seatbelts.  If not, I'll make some with masking tape.  Thanks for the tip.

PJ... Your painting detail really captures the essence of the Japanese aircraft of the era! I have several books dealing with the aircraft of that time, and the best I can gleen from the writings are that the metals that they used were not properly treated before top coats were applied, and several other issues including the humidity and such enter into the final results. They used prescious little lead and zinc in the paints which resulted in (at times) sheets of paint peeling and flaking off!

Kudos on the paint work! The "Stubby one" is coming along beautifully!

Clemens... I can see why you like those belts! Very nice... I will have to look into some some day.

Thank you all for the compliments.... She will be done by this weekend I think.

Take care...

Doug

Wow, I go away for a few days...

Doug, PJ, Craig, all of those look fantastic guys!!!

Clemons: Those are just plain cool, if and when I ever get around to the 1/32nd P-47 I must pick up a set of those.

Thanks guys!

Cliff: I have the 1/32 belts as well and they look just as nice. They should be a bit less fiddly though. I have to admit that I "cheated" a bit. I just assembled the small straps and the buckles and glued them to the large straps instead of trying to get everything through the holes of the buckes. It looks the same once the belts are in place and it makes things a whole lot easier...

Wow! You guys are turnin' and burnin'. I never seem to work so quickly.

Started painting the little tank. The brown is Tamiya acrylic #72 Brown (JGSDF) and the green is #73 Dark Green (JGSDF). Both thinned with GSI Mr Leveling Thinner.

These Tamiya acrylics are pretty good matches for weathered JGSDF shades. Newly applied they are a bit more semi-gloss in appearance. GSI makes very good matches for new paint.

Looking very nice!

OK my friends... I stayed up late and finished up.

This is an aircraft of the 54th Sentai, 3rd Chutai a Ki-43-II and the personal mount of WO Akira Sugimoto. I had no idea if he or his aircraft had survived the war until I recently ran across this article. 

On Jan. 7th 1945 he (Sugimoto) was flying solo from Fabrica, Negros Island in the Philippines when he spotted a flight of P-38s from the 475th fighter group patroling near the Japanese base of Manpata. The P-38s were piloted by Maj. Thomas McGuire the 2nd highest scoring P-38 ace (38 kills) and his wingman Capt.Edwin Weaver, and a third, Lt. Douglas Thorpp. (It should be told that this was an unauthorised flight meant to raise his tally) Sugimoto immediately attacked Capt. Weaver, damaging his plane, causing him to withdraw from the fight. While trying to manoeuvre behind Sugimoto at tree top level, and still carrying the nearly full long range external fuel tanks, Maj. McGuire's plane suddenly snap rolled onto its back and crashed into the jungle. Lt. Douglas Thorpp then caught Sugimoto in his sights and fired a burst into his "Oscar" damaging it sufficiently for the Japanese pilot to make a forced landing in the jungle just a few miles from where Maj. McGuire had crashed. WO Sugimoto survived the crash, but was set upon by the Filipino people they had brutilized since their occupation, and was hacked and shot to death while still strapped into his aircraft.

Thought this was an interesting story, and I had no idea it existed until I just happened across it while reading from a web page I found while researching the aircraft.

I hope I've done a good job to honor this pilot, and his mount, even though at the time the enemy of our country, it took alot of courgage to climb into the cockpit time after time, never knowing if it would be your last time, or if you would ever see your home and family again.

Thanks all...

Doug

Thanks guys for the positive comments! There's quite a lot of excellent entries in this GB! Great work.

Doug.. Tommy McGuire (38 kills) was a legend and I had no idea that your Oscar was involved in the fight. He did that dangerous maneuver at 300 ft with both exterior tanks attached which was a no no. They say the tanks contributed to the snap roll. He probably would have surpassed Richard Bong's record since he was pulled stateside in January of 1945. He too was killed while testing the early P-80 in August of 1945. Your Oscar's paint, attention to detail and base are super!

I was up till 3am last night plumbing up my Do 335 (Arrow GB) and  assembling the OOB George which is almost done. Will take some pictures later and will post. I want to enter both in a show next weekend so  better pour on the coal!

Doug - a very flamboyant finish on this one, beautiful job!  

An equally colourful ending to the pilot, albeit gruesome, thanks for digging up the history.

regards,

Jack

Jack... Thank you much, I used to just build models as best as I could and stick on what ever decals they sent, As of the last ten or so years I've found a great deal more pleasure researching, and building as close to the actual aircraft as I possibly can. I sometimes get confused by the conflicting detail and writings, and at that point just make a best effort guess! (ha)

PJ... Neither did I! Isnt it amazing what can be found now... So much good info out there if we just know where to look. Yes, I believe that Maj. McGuier would have been the leading ace too, but was his demise brought on by his ego?, a simple but costly mistake?, or just a desire to be the best? Hard to tell and defenately not belittling him,or his amazing abilities, but it was an unautherised flight just to raise his score. Either way, a tragic loss.  Looking forward to your George! I will likely do another here, but after another commitment. Take care...

Doug

Doug: What an fantastic build! Your Oscar really is a piece of art! The story behind it is very interesting as well.

What show are you going too?

John

falconmod

What show are you going too?

John

Jaxcon at Jacksonville next Saturday

Very nice Oscar. I can't believe you finished it so quickly. Nice display base, too.

Yes, there is so much information available these days.

There's also a great deal of misinformation out there as well. A major problem for me in researching Japanese subjects is the the language barrier. There's the difficulty with the language itself, but also usage, language, and characters have changed from the archaic to the present modern usage. There is also the barrier of idiom. Many things just don't translate well because Nihongo is so idiomatic culturally and usage presupposes knowledge of the culture. This past weekend I visited the temple housing the graves of the 47 Ronin. The small museum there has films produced by NHK explaining the importance of the site and the action for which these ronin are revered. The English version of the film is almost defies understanding. The translation and pronunciation is very good, but the ideas behind don't translate even if you know the story.

PJ... Good Luck with the show!

Johnsan... I agree... my wife is asian and speaks Japanese, and sometimes has a time of it trying to translate a word or more so a concept into English, some times she just tells me in a kind of parable way and I have to figure it out myself using the over all idea. (lol)

Doug: The mottling and sprayed-on markings are perfect! Fantastic job!!! Will get you posted on the front page this evening. Hope you go ahead with the second build- I want to see you work some more magic!

Yeah, know what you guys mean about the language and culture barrier- heck I've had to get something explained to me about the difference between US and UK culture before and we're a heck a lot closer in language and outlook.

You bet Cliff... I have a few more in stash calling my name, and will do another shortly. Thank you all so much for the kudos... I just love building here with so many great builders.

Doug

Hey Doug, just posted you- and on top of an excellent model a big congrads on being the first completed!!!

Thanks! Always enjoy a change of pace building something out of my "Comfort Zone" (ha) , I will have another starting in a short.

Doug

Hi all

I did start to build again, but nothing for this GB yet. I allmost finished a statue of sir Winston Churchill "Never Surrender". I'll show the pics later...

I yust foud out that I forgot to enter my supreme project, Tamiya 1:350 Yamato harbour/dock diorama.

By accident I bought a 3D printer so it is very easy to make the harbourbourstuff (workplace, kranes a.s.o.). I only need a better CAD-program as Sketchup. Any tips? The cheapest good ones I find are still around €1000,-...

Cheers for now, and keep on the beautiful work I see!!