Hello all…check this out!. I bought a Hasegawa FW 190 A-5 off Ebay and this kit showed up instead. When I brought it to their attention, The kind seller sent me the correct kit and told me to keep this one. Now thats what I call customer service (Thanks Omni Models). I’ve always found the stubby “Fat Jack B-29 killer” rather intriging so I was anxious to build it. From what I understand, its wasn’t worth a [cnsod] in a dogfight, but it ran like the dickens and was one of the few fighters that could reach the B-29 stream with any success.
I started with the cockpit which seemed fairly nice as is. With all the levers and such it reminded me of their Ki-84 a little. I discovered that the canopy is one piece, which is a shame. I painted everything XF-1 Flat Black them mixed up XF-71 Cockpit Green with a tad of XF-49 Khaki to brown it up. To my eye, it match the pictures of the Jack’s interior green I saw on the jaircraft website. Well, close enough fo me. This was sprayed then I picked out a few boxes and such in Flat Black. I drybrushed everything with Floquil Old Silver and paint some dials various colors. I did thin out the seat to scale and added some old Eduard Photoetch seatbelts from my spare box, I think they were from my Hellcat. I’ve never been a fan of Hasegawa’s seats so this added a bit more realism. Everything got a Testor’s Gloss Coat and I then added the instrument panel decal. This snuggled right down with Micro Sol. Once dry, I added 5 minute clear epoxy to simulate glass dials. Everything got a Detailer wash and a Testor’s Dull Coat to seal it up. Here is an evening’s worth of work.
As I waited for the clear coat and such to dry on the cockpit, I figured I would fiddle a bit with the air frame. I did a dry run and it appears that everything will fit fine. It also seems that the famous Hasgawa wing root gaps are on coffee break, but we will see.
Ha! Everything’s fitting A-okay?!? That’s amazing. I’m happy to see you doing this kit. I’ve been deciding which one I’d like to do between the Tamiya and the Hasegawa. Some of those cheaper Tamiya kits can be pretty sparse although fairly accurate and they fit great. Soooo…what do you trade on ya know…?
Thanks Bvallot. Yep, this kit looks like it will go together nice, but I haven’t added the cockpit yet so we shall see. Funny you mentioned the Tamiya kit. There doesn’t seem to be any aftermarket decals for the Jack, so I’m actually considering buying the Tamiya ki so I can get Sadaaki Akamatsu’s decals, which come in that kit. They can be found pretty cheap on E-bay, as much as an aftermarket set of decals. I’m just concerned about the quality of the decals since Tamiya’s are notoriously lousy and I hear this kit is actually 1/50th scale. I’ll probably just try one of those Montex masks I’ve been itching to try.
I’ve done the Tamiya kit, if you are talking about the markings with the thunderbolts, I wouldn’t bother buying it and try to do something else… I tried to use them on my Raiden and they just ripped apart when trying to apply them, despite being very careful since they’re already quite large.
Bvallot, If I had the choice between the Tamiya and Hasegawa kit I’d go for the Hasegawa one.
Hence, Im actually planning to build another Hasegawa Raiden sometime since the Tamiya one isn’t that great. The tamiya kit are rather older molds and they’re great as they are, but they can’t stand up to the Hasegawa kit detail at all. Especially when it comes to the detail inside of the cockpit (which you’ll rather like to have because you can see a lot of the detail through the giant clear part).
Just my thoughts on the matter
Pretty sure you’ll make something nice of this ‘free’ kit Lawdog, it couldn’t have found many other better places to wind up
Thanks for the kind works guys. Johnny, I checked these out. I got excited until I saw the price. At $30.00 a piece, I think I’ll pass. They’re nuttier than a fruitcake thinking someone would pay that kind of money for either of those. The closest I came to paying that kind of money for decals was Victory Productions Spitfire sheet, which has 40 Spitfire aces!
The Jack seems to be a neglected subject in decal-dom… I’ll figure something out.
Joe, are these the markings you are looking for? This is the old ARII kit, you might be able to find it cheap on e-bay. The decals were decent and actually the kit itself went together very nicely except for lacking detail in the cockpit and landing gear. Your cockpit looks awesome! Great work as usual!
Thanks for the compliment John!. Nice to have you aboard. No, those markings, or similar, came with the kit I have. I always have issues with Hasegawa decals. I’m looking for Akamatsu’s 302 NAG markings, with the tail code “3D-1195”. Its the box art subject on Tamiya’s Jack kit. I may just buy one of those for the decals.
…and nice job on that Jack. Looks great! I hope mine comes out that good…
I was gonna say…Ebay is your friend for old Aeromaster decals, along with Ecrater. Ohh, and nice start Joe. For the Canopy, you could cut it apart, but you will need a vacuform sliding part.
Thanks Gamera. Yeah, I guess it does look like a 190 that ate too much KFC and grew a fourth prop…lol.
Thanks Johnny! I snatched those up immediately. Looks like I’ll only need to find a white #5 decal to build Akamatsu’s bird.
Thanks Nathan. I have a turtorial thread in here somewhere on how I do my cockpits. Its mainly drybrushing, postshading and a wash. I was going to get the Squardon set, but I decided to just leave it as is. I’m gonna knock this one out real quick then dive into that Hasegawa FW 190 A-5.
In for a quick update. This thing has been a breeze. One of the best fitting Hasegawa kits yet. Even the wing fuselage joint was perfect. The following is one night of work over a 5 hour span (I’ll take the bench time when I can get it). A few nights ago, I managed to glue the pit into the fuselage and sealed it up. No issues…like a glove.
In the same session, I glued the wings together. I did have to shave the top of the main gear bay corners from the inside so the upper wing(s) would fit better…no biggie. I simulated the ouboard cannon muzzles with Albion Alloy brass tubing. I think it makes for a big improvement.
I assembled the airframe. No filler required and this kit was absent the Hasegawa wing root gaps. I’ve heard this kit has wing root issues but I did not experience them. I did have a small gap where the cowl piece attaches to the frame (see photo below), so I used a technique I read about recently. The line is supposed to be there, but obviously not quite that wide. 1. I held the pieces together then brushed Tenax on the gap (don’t Squeeze…just hold steady). I put my Tenax in an old Tamiya extra thin cement bottle because I love their applicator. The Tenax will melt the plastic and close the gap. The line should will still be there, . 2. Once it dry, go back and use the back side of a #11 Exacto and gently scribe the line back in. The plastic will be slightly soft here and this will be easy. I tried it and it works great.
The cowl gap is gone and a nice panel line is there now…
I preshaded the panel lines and sprayed the antiglare panel with my own mix of Mitsubishi cowl color. I mixed Flat Black XF-1 with a smidgen XF-8 Flat Blue. I then mixed up Flat Yellow XF-3 with a touch of Flat Red XF-7 and sprayed the wing ID strips and the tail ID band. These were then taped off with Tamiya tape.
Once done, I sprayed the lower surface XF-12 Japanese Navy Grey. It seems bit greenish to me, like British Duck Egg, but I wont sweat it. Once weathered and such it will be fine. I lightened it with XF-2 Flat White and added condensation streaks. I then post shaded the areas around the gear bay, engine cowl and control surfaces. I think this is about right.
I stopped here for the night. I bought an old Aeromaster sheet with 302 markings off E-bay (thanks again Johnny), so I’ll continue work when they arrive.
Looking good Joe! How long after painting the yellow did you mask over it? Did you experience any paint peel from the mask? I had this happen recently after spraying the yellow/red mix and masking 24 hours later with Tamiya tape.
Thanks Steve. Pretty much immediately. I cut my paint with 91% Isopropyl Alcohol so it dries almost on contact. I generally don’t have problems, so we’ll see when I remove it. I generally forego a primer coat on Hasegawa subjects because their panel lines tend to be shallow so I don’t fill them with paint any more than I have to. I hope this wasn’t a mistake. I don’t recall any issues on my Ki-84.
Yeah, I used 91% as well to cut mine. I have to say adding a dash of red to the yellow is a great idea! It makes the yellow look much better than just straight yellow.
I’m in for an update. The Aeromaster decals arrived yesterday which inspired me to hit the bench last night. I managed to get quite a bit of work done too. Thanks again TempestJohnny for finding these.
After I used rolled blue tac to mask off the demarcation lines, I used XF-11 IJN Green cut with Tamiya laquer thinner. This seemed to represent Mitsubishi Green fairly welI, which I believe is a bit more blue than the Nakajima Army Green. I then added XF-57 Buff and added condensation streaks across the upper wings. I intentionally went a tad overboard this time because I want these to be seen on such a dark, dare I say boring finish. I added a shade more and sprayed all control surfaces to add even more visual contrast. I added a touch of XF-1 Flat Black to my normal postshade so it could be seen on such a dark monotone color. I then added some subtle chipping with a silver pencil. Perhaps I need more. Here’s how it turned out. I’m pleased so far.
After a few hours of working on other stuff, such as masking the canopy, painting and assembling the landing gears, etc, I sprayed the frame with Alclad Gloss coat for decaling. I can’t say enough good things about this product. The picture speaks for itself and it dries in no time at all.
The kit came with two props, a normal one and a “high performance” one. I went with the latter for no particular reason. I sprayed the prop blades XF-3 Flat Yellow with a drop of XF-7 Flat Red then taped off the warning stripes. The blades were then sprayed XF-68 NATO Brown which I thought resembled the prop color on Japanese subjects fairly well. I don’t know whether I’m going to paint the hub green, brown or leave it silver. My research here is conflicting on 302 NAG planes.
I should get to decaling soon. This kit has been a dream so far. Zero issues…
