You sure? No problem just to stick the in an envelop and put them in our mailbox before tomorrow's mail. 

Steve: That looks good, you're making fantastic progress! 

Gary: Super nice work there, she looks fine to me! Going to put her down now. Hopefully I'll have a badge before much longer- again I wasn't expecting anyone to be finished this early. 

And cool looking A6M5. I've got a bunch of extra decals too but looks like Steve and Jeaton have you covered. 

Been making a good bit of progress here- I've got a Hasegawa 1/48th A6M3 Type 22. I'll post a photo of the box ASAP. I've ordered a new set of stencils and am using replacement hinomaru because I simply cannot ever get Hasegawa decals to work well for me.  

Steve> Thanks!  If what I've got doesn't work out, I may hit you up for those.  I think I can make what I've got work after some research on Japanese tail codes.  Still got almost a full year. 

Gamera> Thanks, sir!  I'm not worried about a badge as most of this model was done for JGB VIII!  Doesn't seem fitting to get one for an almost completed build.  Maybe after the A6M5 is done. 

Gary

Here's progress on the Tamiya G4M1.  Paintwork.  Seems like a lot of Tamiya's paint call outs in this kit are in dispute.  I went with Alclad ALC101 Aluminum on the bottom, instead of grey.  The upper colors are Tamiya XF-64 Red Brown and XF-13 Japanese Army Green.   Made some paper masks by scaling up the kit diagram and combined the two sides and the top to make wraparounds for the fuselage.  It was possible to do all the masking and painting without permanently attaching the wings, looks llike they are going to fit extremely well to the fuselage.  I haven't attached the nose and tail gun perspex yet because I'm waiting for the Gunze interior green which is supposed to get here on Friday.

Jeaton> That's looking very nice.  Almost British.  Interesting call on the lower color.  Look forward to more!  

Gary

Hi Cliff,

Congratulations on making it to the 9th episode. I feel that I should join you. I'll get back to you shortly with a subject.

Cheers

Tony

John, looks good.

I never cared for the Japanese brown/green scheme while painting it, but it always looks good when done.

Jeaton: Looks good! Nice work masking, I've tried that with the photocopier like that- it seems the best way to get the masks right. 

Tony: Thanks! And thanks for reminding me- nine years- has it really been that long!?!?

Anyway a couple of shots of my Zero. Boxtop: 

I finshed up the cockpit last weekend. Going to try to get it inside the plane tonight. Lawdog isn't going to lose any sleep to any challenge from me but it's good enough considering how little can be seen from the cockpit hole. 

Yep, that's a Zero

The pit looks great Gam, I just love those belts.

Nice work on the Zero cockpit, Gamera.

Got the markings on the Betty, except for the white command stripe on the aft fuselage.  I thought I would need white under the hinomarous and all it did was put me through a lot of work to end up with a red that is brighter than I would have liked.  I guess the crew just touched them up.  I understand the the rising sun was a mark of pride and no matter the rest of the paint, the hinomarus were kept in good condition.  I made a stencil for the tail marking.  I'm betting that those who say that Haruki Ito's number was K-331 instead of K-310 as the kit decals depict are correct.  Going to let it set for a day or two, until the paints arrive for the nose and tail glasswork.

Thanks guys. The cockpit is a little sloppy, but again it's not all that visible. 

Steve: Just plain Eduard coloured PE seatbelts. I've got some more for the F-51 for the Korean GB. Love these things, so much easier to work with than the masking tape seatbelts. 

Jeaton: Not sure if I've ever seen a photo of an aircraft with badly chipped or beaten up hinomaru. I think as you said that the ground crews kept them freshly painted and in good repair. The camo looks really good, looking forward to some more work on her! 

Well, Sprue Bros. came through again, the paint I needed came a day early and it was off to the races.  I even did some weathering on this one, some oils and a silver Prismacolor pencil, along with rubbed in aluminum powder in places.  The whole thing got rubbed down with a Q-tip followed by damp paper towels, all in the direction of airflow  That subdued the white some because the rubbings from the dark green and red brown carried across them.  I like that.  There are no clear coats on this model, as there are no decals. 

I had on hand some of the Uschi thread and I used the super fine on the antenna above the cockpit.  It's probably just about scale thickness, and therefore its also almost invisible.  I can only see it against the blue background in the photos, and I don't think anyone will be able to see it in the display case.

I think I will build a stand or a trolley for the torpedo, as no one will see it tucked up in the bomb bay.  Anyone know what that should look like?   Needs a Kurogane and some figures, too, I think.  Shudder, figures do not come easy in my workshop.

Wow, John!  That's impressive!  You're already finished and I haven't even started removing parts from the sprues yet!

Gary

There are nothing but nice builds in here so far, and you guys are screaming through them too. I hope to open my kit in the next few days. I don't think I'll get mine done quite this fast. Well done, gents.

BK

Got the AK IJN paint set...only thing missing is what hasegawa only calls out as "propeller color".  Got a bottle of MM dunkel braun, in the neighborhood I think.  Unless someone has a thought.  Planning on starting the Myrt this week depending on workload at the shop.

Got the canopy frames done on the Betty, just some cleanup, attach them and install the props.

Jeaton: That looks fantastic! I'm not sure about the torpedo trolly? Maybe you could put her on a base like Lawdog does and leave the torpedo on the ground there? And I love Sprue Brothers, I ordered some stuff last Sat. and it was in hands Wed. Three business days- that's crazy fast- at least for me!

Brandon: Sounds cool. And no worries you've only got eleven and a half months to go...

GH: Love the AK paint line. The propeller colour is a kinda rust red-brown. I wouldn't worry much beyond using something close to that.

Also grabbed a bottle of Tamiya lino brown.  I'll see what both look like when dry.  Plenty of time to play with it.

I've heard the prop color described as Mahogany.  I use Gunze Mr Color 131.

Mahogany sounds about right. Thanks Jeaton and looking forward to how it comes out GH.

Hi,

My buddy didn't quite make it to the class of 2019.

Anyone who needs a Wingman in an A6M5 type 52 in 2020? 

With regards

Svenne

Svenne Duva

Hi,

My buddy didn't quite make it to the class of 2019.

Anyone who needs a Wingman in an A6M5 type 52 in 2020? 

With regards

Svenne

 

Looks like the poor guy has been 'dis-armed'... 

Sorry... 

Svenne: Would love to have you join us!

Well he ain't no "Wingman" until I get his "Hayabusa" up  and armed again... 

Thanks Gamera!

With regards
Svenne

jeaton01

I've heard the prop color described as Mahogany.  I use Gunze Mr Color 131.

 

BK

Hey John/Jeaton just put your Betty up. If you want to add a trolly for the torpeto or anything yell at me and I'll change out the photo. 

Gamera

Hey John/Jeaton just put your Betty up. If you want to add a trolly for the torpeto or anything yell at me and I'll change out the photo. 

 

Thanks Tony! 

Jeaton: And a beauty that F-84 is. 

I got the Zero sealed up. The joint line on the bottom where the wing joins the fuselage as usual is being a butt though... 

Gamera,

The Zero's coming along fine.  I too had trouble with that seam, though the wings fit snuggly everywhere else.  I will try to watch that on this one and do a better job.  I've finally got the cockpit parts separated and have begun construction on that.  No different from the A6M2b, so should go together pretty quickly.

I also went by Lowes and picked up some IJN Green.  Well... it's actually Rust-Oleum "Dark Hunter Green" spray paint (since I cannot find any rattle can IJN Green), but I used my phone to bring up an image of IJN Green and this was so close as to be unnoticeable. We'll see what it looks like after I apply it over a light grey coat.

Gary