Piers: Love how she's coming along. Looks perfect except for yeah that slighty lopsided black cap on the front of the sponson.

And thanks, wasn't sure it was obvious what the melons were supposed to be...

LA, that will be full orange, it's an opportunity to deviate from the typical green/gray/brown themes.

I tried to do everything on a fast track basis, cockpit, major assembly, etc. Unfortunatelly my planned todays day-off was cancelled by circumstances at work, so there isn't much hope of finishing by tonight. Nevertheless, the kit is a joy to build.

Zvezda: Sorry about not being able to finish on time but nice work there on the cockpit. You want to move over to JGB VIII and be the first to finish there? Sorry, still working on the badges, didn't figure anyone would finish this early. 

Zvezda,

Bit of bad luch there. Work - always in the way. Nice choice with the orange, as yousay good for a change of pace.

Got the black tidied up, a gloss coat on and stated decalling:

And this is where we were at the end of the year:

Happy New Year everyone

The black caps look perfect now. Didn't notice the face on the front till now, that's pretty wild looking!

Ok, I'm going to squeek under the line here with two hours to go in 2018 under EST.

I picked out TWO FRIGGIN' FIGURES build for this GB since I hadn't finished the models I choose for my two last GBs. And it took me A EVER-LOVIN' YEAR TO FINISH TWO FRIGGIN' FIGURES...

Shhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.............

Anyway here they are to prove that I did finish before the end of the year. It's was rainy and overcast today as usual for the last month or so - the photos aren't the greatest. I'll get some more up over the weekend if we get at least a little sun.

LOL I wondered where those ladies went off to. 

Hey Cliff,

Great work with the ladies there, certainly different but 1000% Japanese! Nice highlights and shadows on the clothes and faces there too. And you have done well with the base - looks like the fake food you can get in Japan!

And I am calling the KV107 complete - a day late, but there you go. Here a few finished photos, I will get some good ones in daylight tomorrow. Good kit, interesting scheme and all the little details added to the experience.

Cliff thanksagain for another great Japanese GB, I have my subject chosen for VIII, but it is 4th in the queue, won't get to it until the back part of the year...

Piers: Ohhh, I love that! All those colours, white, yellow, day-glow orange I tend to avoid since I have a lot of problems painting them. But she looks perfect!!! 

Do you want me to go ahead and post you or did you want me to wait for non workshop photos? 

Yeah, I was sitting on those figures with no idea what to do with them till I found the ceramic watermelon slice paperweight on vacation/holiday. Inspired I repainted the gals dresses red and green, made the melons from putty and threw the whole thing together to beat the deadline. 

Thanks Cliff, I am pretty happy with the paint job - I had been having troubles with gloss finishes not drying - got some advice from the LHS which slowed down my painting but has left me with good hard gloss colour coats that I can put tape onto without leaving marks.

Here are the better photos taken outside this evening. You could use the second one - theyellow looks the best there...

Thanks again for the Group Build!

Piers

Piers: Ohhhhh love those! We're running around like crazy at work due catching up for New Year's Day so I'm probably going to take a nap when I get home. Will get you posted sometime on or before the weekend though. 

If you haven't taken the badge grab it now! 

Absolutely gorgeous Piers!  Makes me wish someone did the same chopper and markings in 1/32!

Ted

Thanks very much Ted, it would be one huge eggbeater in 1/32!

Cliff, no rush to get the photo up mate. Not sure when I can get the badge on, I am having technical difficulties and cannot change my signature due to a "validation error".

Scratch that, worked it out a different way - see below!

I can only log into FSM through Edge - Firefox, Chrome, Internet explorer and my phone all prevent me from logging in, saying the site isn't safe...

LA that's one beautiful chopper - I'm a real sucker for bright, shiney aircraft! Will you share the drying tip with us?

This site is dangerous. It makes me neglect real life obligations and forces me to buy more kits!

Piers: Glad to see you were able to get the badge to work! 

And Mike is right, this site is dangerous- to my bank account.  Google Ads keeps popping up ads from HobbyLink Japan for new Hasegawa kits I want!!! 

Thanks for the kind words mrmike, getting that level of finish was satisfying.

Basically Max's tip was to build up colour with multiple light coats and generous drying time in between. Each coat was a bit more than a mist coat, with 5 minutes to the second coat, then 10 minutes to the third, 20 to the next. It's pretty warm here so I was adding a few more drops of thinner into the cup in between coats. At the end a gloss coat unifies the level of sheen over the model.

Some bits (the fluoro orange) ended up a bit rough. I was worried about sanding it back though.

Max did also say the extreme was people doing 7 or more coats, increasingly mixing gloss in with the colour. Sanding between coats as they go. I'm not close to that yet...,

Piers: My apologies but somehow I missed adding you to the roster when you joined us. In any case it's fixed now and I just put up the finished photo of your beautiful chopper. Thanks again for joining us.

And thanks for the low down on how you did the paint work. As I said I've never had luck with those colours, I'm going to try multiple coats and a good long drying time next time I try something like that.

LA: The painting reaches perfection, ultra clean lines and magnificent finish.

Gamera: Your little ladies are so well painted that I'd like to meet them . I especially admire the result on the white areas, can I ask what colors did you use?

I think it's time to roll over to the part VIII for my little Nanzan, which is ready for painting. I'll see you all there. Pity I lost this pretty jap badge and sorry for any inconvenience.

Zvezda, you are too kind, I can't claim perfection but I am very happy with this paint job and the model overall.

And looking forward to seeing the Nanzan in GB VIII - it has started off really well.

Just to share a couple of other 日本 builds from the past year...  

1.  Mio from the Anime Walkure Romanze  

2. Platz F-15J

3. Tamiya Bf.109E7 with my own masks for the markings, and borrowed stencils decals. 

Wrinkledm, WOW! great work, especially on the figure.

Wrinkledm,

They are fantastic models.

Mio looks super, great work all round, skin, fabric and armour.

Love the Tengu warriors scheme too. Platz also did a Mt Fuji F15 that I still lust after...

Good to see a different look to the 109 too.

Well done!

Sorry guys, I been trying to stay off the PC a little more on the weekends since once I get on I boot up a game and BOOM it's 5-6 hours later and no modeling done... 

Zvezda: Thanks! The white I painted with a very pale grey, it's Vallejo Model Colour but I don't remember the number, I'll have to look. Then I highlighted with just plain white. Hopefully I'll have an even better badge for JGB VIII, my friend is still working on it. 

WrinkledM: Wow those look awesome! Esp love the armour on the Mio figure, I'd love to see more photos! Why don't post them in their respective forums? Or did I miss them? In any case thanks for sharing with us! I'll put your Nanzan done for the next GB.

And sorry, I did get the new photos of my cafe gals taken, hopefully will have them up a little later this week.  

Happy new yera guys, finally able to login again in the forum!

Good looking girls Cliff, i have teh same under work but not yet finished :)

lostagain

Thanks Cliff, I am pretty happy with the paint job - I had been having troubles with gloss finishes not drying - got some advice from the LHS which slowed down my painting but has left me with good hard gloss colour coats that I can put tape onto without leaving marks.

Here are the better photos taken outside this evening. You could use the second one - theyellow looks the best there...

Thanks again for the Group Build!

Piers

 

 

Excellent build Piers with these hard colors , i hope to find the same kit , i need one 

Bsyamato: Thanks! I'd love to see yours.

Thanks Bsyamato,

I picked it up in a second hand model shop in Tokyo. I could have spent a fortune in there....

Well, guess I'll take us out with the last posted model here. Hope these came out better than my quick, cheap, and dirty shots to get under the deadline:

Hi Cliff, nicely done those pair of figures.

Was wondering what the watermelons were for when they were posted alone.  The whole concept shows you put thought into the final presentation.

regards,

Jack

Gamera: Your idea and execution are a joy to watch. And your approach for the white worths experimenting with, it turned out really nice .

Thanks guys!

It's one of those things I had no idea where it going to end when I started- when I saw the watermelon paperweight something just clicked in my tiny little brain... 

I have to add I've tried sculpting lots of stuff out of putty with mixed results but watermelons are one of the easiest!