My 1/24 Trumpeter Rufe has received a few coats of Future, followed by the decals. The floats are just dryfitted (hence the gap between the fuselage & main float), and the trolly (actually a poor representation of a trolly) isn’t finished. The red of the Hinomarus (“meatballs”) is too bright for my taste, but since this build is for a review, I had to know how they are. The yellow I.D. bands on the wings are decals. Hope you like it so far, and thanks for letting me share the build with you !
I’m going to add another coat of Chrome Silver to the prop, as I want it to be more reflective.
Thank you so much, ghettochild, shrikes, wibhi2, saltydog, rjkplasticmod, falcon039, st_gorder, Woody, Keyworth, Dave, & Frank !
shrikes - I just used Model Master Chrome Silver on the prop. The blades & spinner on the actual aircraft were polished aluminum. I just want it to be a bit more reflective before I add the prop decals.
saltydog - you’re welcome !
Woody - this one will be EASY to put in flight. There are no landing gear to “eliminate,” and the canopy doesn’t need to be glued. I’ll have to see if I can find an appropriate tropical lagoon pic to set her in the water.
Here’s another shot, this time from behind. I forgot to mention that the cowl/engine/prop aren’t glued in place yet. It doesn’t fit snugly enough to dry fit it, so I cheated and used a piece of frosty tape to hold it in place.
Now I have to mix a couple of quarts of paint for the washes ! (I mix the base colors with black, so I need the underside gray, topside green, red & white for the decals) There are about a MILLION recessed rivets !
Looking sharp Pix…just curious, did you touch some silver on some of those rivets, or is it just the reflection of the light (since it’s futured). Now that I asked that, I seem to think I just answered my own question!!! How long did it take you to build that bad boy? Keep us updated.
Looks mighty nice Pix. Who are you doing the review for?
I think a great in flight pic would be it just coming down for a landing and the back half of the float is halfway in, kicking up a big wake and rooster tail. Might be too tough with all the flying water though.
kik36 - I haven’t done any washes to the airframe yet. You’re right, those are reflections of light in the rivets. I won’t be “chipping” this bird, as seaplanes of the IJN received a primer undercoat. I’ve got about 20 hours in the cockpit, another 20 in the engine, so I figure about 60 or so total hours on the build so far.
