This was a fun build of a colorfull bird that I wanted to build since picking it up at the local show last October. this one is my second entry to the IJN/IJA Planes the Rarely Get Built GB. It’s filled with a great cast of members and some astonishing work. Check it out if you get a chance.
The build was interrupted by work, a stomach virus and nice weather after I had gotten off to a fast, smooth start! Then, I sort of lost my mojo and overlooked a few things. The easy one was the tail strut, which is supposed to be “wood”. I’ve since coorected this. The bonehead move of the build was that I skipped the pre-shading stage, which would have helped tremendously on this light colored bird. The pictures make the weathering look too heavy. It’s probably a little too heavy but not as bad as the pictures show.
If I could do it over again, I would definately paint the white homeland defense bands. The declas were OK, but overlapped something aweful, as can be seen in the underside shot. I also lost a lot of the rivet detail due to the thick decals.
Despite the age, the kit is very nice. My only quibble is that they don’t supply you with enough Hinomarus to complete the kit, so I had to steal from my stash.
Definately not my best work, but thanks for looking anyways!
Looks good Charles, though as you say in the pictures the weathering looks a bit heavy. Maybe if you try softer lighting or reduce the contrast a bit it will help. Always liked the Ki-27, it would make a great sport plane I think.
Looks fine to me, Charles! I see what you mean about the wash, though. My first thought when I saw that was “good Lord, that must have taken him forever to do!”. Still, a fine looking build of an unusual and colorful aircraft! Display it proudly, my friend! [tup]
That is a beautiful aircraft. Really like the colourful markings and it turned out well. By the way, what is that item on the top of the port wing, cant figure out what it is. Very nice build
Steve: THanks for the comments. I believe that is a gun camera mounted on top of the port wing.
Also, thank you Alfredo, Harv, Frank and Rick
My lesson learned in this one is to consider the number of lines and rivets before applying the wash. In retrospect, a toned down color for the wash would be less overbearing on a plane with so many recesses to fill.
No one is better qualified to answer an ingnorant question that me![;)]
The Nates were lightly armed with two 7.7mm cowl mounted syncronized guns. I remember seeing a Dogfights episode with the Ki-27 facing off against the P-40’s of the AVG. The P-40’s were able to absorb a lot of damage from the lightly armed Nates
Wonderful work, Charles! Did you rivit the kit or does it come with all those crazy divits? If you have Photoshop or some other image-modification program (like what comes with the average digital camera), you can uise it to adjust the “Levels” of your pics. That would brighten up the lighting and let us see this little gem in a, well, whole new light! ;D
Chukw: The kit comes with all of those nice little rivets! I managed to mangle some during seam repair and the decals neutralized some of the others. I appreciate the photo tips. I may re-shoot some photos. This should help a little.
