Instructions.

Paint scheme.  Too bad it’s not in color.

To my fellow forum members of Japanese GB VII,

I look forward and am excited to be a part of this GB.  I hope my contributions are exceptable.  I’ll start with the box art as that’s what I’m building.

Your friend, Toshi

Gamera

PJ: She looks awesome! You weren't kidding about there not being that many decals. And they all look good from here. 

Toshi-san: You're more than welcome! I'll go put you down right now. Domo arigato! 

 

Your friend, Toshi

PJ... Kate is looking great! Know the feeling with the old decals and trying to get them to slide... Have you tried heated water? I use a candle warmer I bought at second hand store awhile back, and it works beautifly. Just get a small bowl to fit it, add water, turn on and in a few moments water is getting hot. I've found that it really does aid tn decal removal from the paper. Another cool idea I read was using an aquarium heater, you just need a slightly bigger water tub.

Mr Toshi... Looking forward to seeing some more from you after that lovely Mosquito you did. Glad your feeling better...

Take care all!

Doug

Looking good PJ. Glad to have you aboard Toshi.

PJ: She looks awesome! You weren't kidding about there not being that many decals. And they all look good from here. 

Toshi-san: You're more than welcome! I'll go put you down right now. Domo arigato! 

plasticjunkie

Good to have you here Toshi. Hope you are feeling better.

 

Your friend, Toshi

Good to have you here Toshi. Hope you are feeling better.

To Gamera-san,

I would like to except your invitation of your Japanese GB VII if I may.  My entry upon exceptance will be as follows. 

Tamiya 1/48 Kawasaki Ki-61 Hien (Tony)

At your convenience, please let me know.  Thank you in advance.  Doo mo arigato Gamera-sa.  I’m most excited!  Totemo urushii desu!

Your friend, Toshi

omedetoo Miura, Toshio

All righty then, Miss Kate has her makeup on. I put 5 drops of MM Dark Sea Gloss and 4 drops pf MM Flat Black enamel in my paint cup and about 12 drops of thinner for the black/blue nose. It looks black in the picture but to the human eye there is a hint of blue in there.

Kate then received about 3 hand brushed coats of Future 10 to 15 minutes apart in prep for decals and washes.

I brushed several coats of Superfilm liquid to make sure the decals would not fracture upon separation from the paper. It takes over 10 minutes for the water to release these decals from 1972!

The Ameiro color is very attractive. Notice the colorful Aotake shade in the gear wells.

My biggest concern were the tail letters and numbers fracturing. I made a photocopy just in case I had to cut out my own masks for them but the decals held together thanks to Superfilm. Not many decals on this one , just what you see here.

Next will be more Future to protect the decals, some washes and then clear flat acrylic followed by some filters and dot weathering for tonal changes.

Forgot about masking and painting the canopy that has a ton of small panels.

Cliff... Right you are sir! But as you said, its done now. Like most I guess, here out is the best part of building. A few more days...

PJ, Thanks and I'll give that a go in the near future. I had looked but found no masking for this one unless I wasnt looking in the right spot. Thanks again...

Doug

Looks good Doug. Masking all that is the most tedious and annoying part of the build (at least to me) so glad to see you've got that out of the way. 

Looks great Doug. I try to get the Eduard masks when possible on these multi pane green houses. It makes it a lot easier.

For the black/blue paint add a few drops of dark navy blue to the black and bingo!

Morning all!

First off... PJ, Nice paint! Miss Kate looking good!

Cliff, Yup, Its hard to beat a Tamiya kit. Only complaint I have is their decals... Kinda heavy, and setting solution takes forever to work on them, if at all.

Any way, a bit more from me...

Canopies taped and in place. The stationary pieces are now permanently glued in place, and the sliding sections are held in place with a dab of white glue, for painting.

Finally ready for paint.

The first coat of the dark blue, and the engine cowling was said to be blue/black... I think NATO black will be fine.

And thats about all for now. I'll bring inside to dry due to the cold snap we're having, and try to defend and keep safe from the cats. lol... Take care and back in a bit!

Doug

Thanks Jack! 

When Bish bought up his next Star Wars GB I went and looked around Ebay and ended up picking up a 1/6th Han Solo figure. So that will probably be my next figure project in the spring. I really like your SCUBA gal and I'm going to keep poking around Ebay etc for one that I might try to start on after Han. If you start on her please let me know how it goes. 

yo Cliff (and anyone else thst was curious), but that resin figure I had ordered off ebay arrived today.  Weird thing, I was sure the vendor was from somewhere in Asia, but the return address on the parcel was Germany.

Can't say for certain if it is a knock off of the original.  Comparing it to the parts photo when it first came out, my example does have visible pour stubs, while the smaller parts are still attached to a sprue. One of the flippers was snapped, but at least it's a clean break and should be a straight forward fix.

regards,

Jack

Oh wow RiK, very cool! 

Looking great PJ. The Kate canopy really telescopes onto itself.

Jack, I'm not into "paper" builds but at $15 plus shipping I might consider it. Now if someone came up with a Ki-83 Steve that was affordable.......

Steve

Thanks Gamera. I'll shoot you a PM about the decals.

jgeratic

PJ, I too admire that mottling you have achieved.  I think I should still have a bottle of Tamiya's IJN green, but must be at least three decades old, if not more.  Hopefully it hasn't dried out yet, and their paint formula has altered over the years.  Is it considered a could match?

 

Hey thanks Jack. This is the part of the hobby I like the most. The color looks pretty close to what the IJN used and after filters, washes and grime, it really doen't make a difference so i don't sweat it. I read somewhere that Mr. Leveling Thinner makes it spary even better and smoother which id did at low PSI. Just wished Tamiya would expand their paint line.

Doug, that is shaping up nicely.

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PJ, I too admire that mottling you have achieved.  I think I should still have a bottle of Tamiya's IJN green, but must be at least three decades old, if not more.  Hopefully it hasn't dried out yet, and their paint formula has altered over the years.  Is it considered a could match?

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RiK, I think the latest 1/72 Shinden is that from Hasegawa, molded in 1996.  It has been boxed seven times, the last in 2003.  A bit of a review and sprue shots:

http://modelingmadness.com/scott/axis/j/j7w2preview.htm

https://www.super-hobby.co.uk/products/item_name-173940.html

regards,

Jack

Hey PJ, that mottled finish looks fantastic!!! \

And good call on the canopy, the replacement should really improve the kit. 

I may have some extra Kate decals around if you'd like to replace the kit ones. 

I saw a 1/32 ZM shinden at the Nats back in 2012 and it was an awesome detailed model. It looked so futuristic.

I finally was able to get the mottling done on Miss Kate yesterday evening. I used Tamiya IJN Green thinned with Mr. Color Leveling Thinner and it sprayed just like my enamels thru my xtra fine Badger ab tip so I'm very pleased with it. I was gonna use my MM enamel paint but it dried up inside the bottle.

The Ameiro changes tone and looks greenish grey once the overspray goes on.

I couldn't find a date anywhere on the Nichimo print so I did some web surfing and the kit was realeased in 1971. The decals looked ok but I figured being 47 years old something bad was gonna happen once the decal saw water. I cut out the Japanese lettering at the bottom of the sheet and dipped it water and kaboom, it desintegrated into a bizillion bits.  My next option was to attempt to save the old decals so I brushed some Superfilm on them. This product is a life saver cause it kept them together and is very thin even after 3 brush applications. I always gloss up the model prior to any decal application but I had polished out the paint getting a semi matt smooth finish and decided to add the hinomarus at this time to make sure the decals were ok.

Next step will be to spray the black/blue nose and then to gloss up the model for the rest of the decals and washes and more weathering.

Here is a picture of the Superfilm bottle and the Colorcoats Ameiro paint tin.

I used my UMM razor saw to cut the kit canopy to open up the pit but it's way too thick not allowing proper placement of the opened sections. I had the Squadron Vac formed canopy handy so I used silly putty as a filler inside the canopy to support it and sliced the sections with the UMM saw and trimmed out the rest. This vac formed canopy is very thin and will allow the canopy sections to slide over the others. This will be a hair puller trying to mask that long greenhouse.

The top one is the kit's thick canopy and the bottom one is the vac formed canopy.

Great job there Doug, you're making fine progress. You gotta love that precision Tamiya engineering. 

Morning all! Great discusion going on and good info on the various mfgs and their choices. 

Well, More from me,,,

Underside wing and wheel wells ...

Well, shes begining to look like something now.

Almost PERFECT fit. I had to make and insert one small spreader to get the wing root on the port wing to line up with fuselage, BUT, for the first time that I can remember, not even a smidge of putty. None... 

Got the gear and wheelt done...

Well, thats it for now... Next the worst part of the build... Tapeing the canopies! I'll start that wonderful task later today.

Take care all!

Doug