Nice looking builds guys. I do love me some Japanese equipment.

GS, super Type 1

Waik, gotta love the Oscar. I like the looks of the Zeke better but the Oscar was a fabulas fighter. from what I've read it could out turn everything, all be it a little lightly armed until the Ki-43-III version.

Other than that, the Akagi is finally done, time for a rest 

Actally, I need to replace one ladder, which is ready for paint (two rungs were broken off and it didn't look right), but I glued the last guy last night. I will get better pictures before calling it completely done but for now, heres what I have.

I do wish I had a better background or knew more about Photo Shop type software for the money pics.

Aircraft maint crew with the planes. Some off duty guys watching the evolution. and AA gunners.

More maint crew, off duty sailors and aircrew completing breifing and bridge crew.

AA and of duty crew as well as sailors at the "big eyes"

These guys want to watch the take offs from the bow. All airplane geeks like me.

More AA and off duty crew.

And AA crew, off duty crew and maint crew from the port side

Get that last ladder on, put the case on her and put her in a safe place before transport to Vegas.

Gam, I'll get better pics for the wall as soon as I can.

Hey Kaysee, either of those sound cool! Just put you down.

Greysnake: She's looking really good! I love the camo.

Odd about the primer not wanted to stick to the plastic. I've never had that problem with Tamiya kits. I can see fit issues with the kit, it's '70s vintage I believe. 

Nice work there Waikong! Love the cockpit and engine and the NM finish looks flawless! 

Once again Steve, that's just a tremendous carrier build.  Inspires me to do a sea dio thing - which I've never done.  The waves stuff intimidates me a bit.

Robert - nicely done on that, you just dont see Arty much here.

Ok, so I'm almost finished with my ki-43, just very lazy in taking pictures.  So here's some of the cockpit, and the initail NMF done.  Didnt go crazy with the cockpit, as the opening is really small and hard to see.  Especially with the it closed up like I wanted to do here.  Did decide to add some ignition wiring and piping to the engine though.

Looks good Robert, nice to see the hard work out of the way and the fun part ready to go!

Steve. thats one fine ship ..

Robert. looking real good.

Thanks much, the wheels are now attached and I am calling the construction phase done.

On to the detailing!

Cool Robert, looking forward to seeing what you make of her.

Those are seriously awesome builds!

Finally had decent weather for an outdoor spray session.  Laid down some Mr Surfacer and my price gouged Tamiya TS70 from a couple months back.

I think I should finish assembly tomorrow, then onto some color modulation experiments.

Thanks GH that's what I was thinking!

And I see what you mean Steve. I'd think a Ki-84 would have totally outclassed the Bf-109E. Maybe not so much a Bf-109G or K though but still somewhat. 

Yeah, I found it intresting to hear thet the Tojo was similar in performance and the Tony was almost exactly the same, not as good a climber but better turn, very Japanese.

I thought the Japanese wanting to German pilot to fly like they wanted made some since to some degree. Thay wanted to compaire what the 109 would do with Japanese tactics. They weren't planning to fight the Germans, but I also could understand the German pilot. This is how our plane was desinged and should be fought, your planes are designed to be fought your way. I was surprized, like you, that they tested the Nick instead of the Oscar. It would have been intresting to see the Frank against it. The test pilots at Wright Patterson said it was better than the Mustang

Yep, the best plan rarely survives after first contact with the opposition.

Though their gaming was close to a prewar Pearl strike wargame we ran that had striking resemblance to the actual attack on Dec 7th.

Okay just watched it and thanks! Good video! 

I was a bit confused by the Japanese not including the Ki-43 Hayabusa in the fly-offs considering it was one of the more common fighters at the time. And I would have thought the Ki-44 Shoki would have outclassed the Bf-109. 

But the Japanese attempt to give the outdated Ki-27 a better edge did seem a little odd and a bad idea to me. 

And complaining about the German pilot playing to the strengthes of his machine in hit and run attacks rather than dogfighting came off as a really bad idea.  It reminded me of when the team playing the US Navy in wargames scenerios of Midway didn't play out the way the Imperial Navy expected they were told to go back and replay the scenerio the way the Imperial Navy wanted things to go.   

Isn't it a rule in warfare the other guy isn't ever going to do what you expect???  

Steve: AH KRAP!!! I forgot. I'm going to have to start writing stuff on my hand since my tiny little brain can't seem to retain anything...

Beautiful job!!! Love the different props on the planes for them spinning at different rates.

Nice Gam.

Did you ever get a chance to look at that video?

Well I finished the 1st wave airwing. I'll go back and add just a touch of wash to each but for the most part they're done, tied down and chocked.

Now on to the crew, most of which has the first coat on and many of the pilots have most of their fight gear painted. The new Northstar figures should be here in a couple of weeks but they really won't impact much of what I have going on.

It looks like the chocks on the first Zeek came off so I'll replace those tonight.

Nick: Cool, just put you down! 

I did get the decals on the Bf-109 and applied the second gloss coat Friday. I outlined about half of the panel lines yesterday. 

Gamera. I'm in with an 1/48 Hasegawa F-104J J.A.S.D.F.

I'm with Gamera, if the judges don't spend at least an hour going over her with a magnifying glass, they've lost their minds.

I could spend a weekend looking, and still miss most of it.

Gamera

As I've said, that looks friggin' musuem quality Steve!!!

I don't know about that. Maybe I've been so intimate with it for the past year that I'm not wacked in the face with it like someone who's never seen it might be. To me it's just a jumble of very intricate tiny individual builds (the whole thig) There's so much on her that one could look for quite a while and still not see every tiny thing I included.

As I've said, that looks friggin' musuem quality Steve!!!

And thanks for the link, will check out the video this weekend!

Gam, you might find this intresting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsKZScFwXqA&ab_channel=MilitaryAviationHistory

I got all of the torpedo planes on, strapped down and will add the 15 high level bombers next. I need to apply Future to the canopies, attach the wheel chocks and add the pitot tubes before glueing them to the deck.

The rest of the Kates

They should fit upto the center elevator.

modelcrazy

Thanks guys. I attached 6 more Kates last night.

 

Ah, cool!

Thanks guys. I attached 6 more Kates last night.

Amazing work my friend.

Especially if we consider that a 1:1 Kate was 33'-9" in length, (405 inches), divided by 350 = 1.157 inches nose to tail.

Thanks Gamera, I will try to do a good job.

AND I agree, Steve you are doing an amazing job!