Starting 2011 Off Right

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
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Hi all, It’s been a long time since I posted anything here, mostly because I haven’t had anything to post. 2010 was a busy year for me, and most of the little free time I had was spent doing something other than modeling. Living in the dorms at my university didn’t help much, so I could only work on things during the few short breaks I got. However, this year, my friend and I decided to start living in an apartment near campus, so I have much more space and time to myself. Because of this, I decided to pack up my modeling stuff and take it with me after staying at home over Christmas break.

Long story short, I’ve started modeling again. Of course, I completely forgot to grab even one of my unfinished kits when I was packing up all of my tools, paints, and whatnot, but fortunately there is a small hobby shop less than a block from my apartment, so I ran down there and picked a couple of kits from their sale bin, namely Hasegawa’s A6M3 and A6M5. So, I started right off on the A6M3, and here’s what I’ve gotten so far: I decided to add some detail to the kit, and considered buying the eduard photoetch set, but couldn’t afford it, so everything I add will be scratchbuilt.

I started by adding some framing and CO2 bottles to the rear fuselage, which will be visible from the cockpit.

I also added the pilot’s oxygen bottles, some other cockpit sidewall details, and some wiring to the cockpit. Most of these are not 100% accurate, but I wanted something to represent what was really there, and to spice up the kit’s detail somewhat.

Since these photos were taken, I’ve started the detail painting for the cockpit, but haven’t had the chance to take any pictures. I’ve also been struggling with the kit’s instrument panel decals. I’m on my sixth or seventh application of micro-sol, and they still won’t settle down. Hopefully this isn’t the case with the rest of the decals…

Anyway, just thought I’d post these and say how glad I am to be able to do some building again. I’ll try to keep this thread updated with my build progress as much as possible, so watch this space if you’re interested. Thanks for looking!

*edit- just thought I’d add a couple photos of everything I accomplished in 2010:

Academy P-40B with eduard pe cockpit and wheel wells:

AccMin B-25s:

Hasegawa Bf-109E:

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That pit is shaping up to be sharp, keep us updated!!

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Looking good. These are shaping up to be some nice builds when completed.

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jaypack55,

excellent work so far, good you have more room / time to build. Keep posting!

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Looks like a great start. Happy New Year.

Regards, Rick

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Like that 109 pit. Great work.

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Hi all, it’s been awhile, so I guess it’s about time for update #1. I haven’t made much progress since classes started back up again, but I wanted to get some pictures posted before I closed everything up. As it sits now, the cockpit is painted and ready to be assembled, and everything should start progressing quickly once that’s taken care of. Anyway, enough talk, here are the pics:

Cockpit Sidewalls:

The rest of the 'pit:

Fuselage Interior:

And that’s all for this update- sorry I didn’t have more photos, but my roommate’s camera is really only useful for taking medium-range shots, and I don’t have a camera of my own.

As always, any feedback, good or bad (though preferably constructive) is quite welcome. Thanks for looking!

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Keeps getting better.

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Worth the wait!! [Y][Y]

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Looks good. Nice work so far.

Regards, Rick

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Nice job scratchbuilding all those details! [:D[ Keep up the good work!

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Thanks again for your replies and interest guys! :smiley:

I thought I’d pop in and give y’all another little update. As of this moment, the A6M3 is about 75% finished, but is stalled for the time being until I can get myself home to use my airbrush (I didn’t bring it up to school with the rest of my modeling stuff). All of the major assembly has been finished , but work can’t really progress any further until I get the chance to do a little painting. Here’s my “Hamp” as it sits now:

And since the A6M is stalled for awhile, I’ve got a couple more projects in the works:

(this is my Hasegawa 1:48th Ki-61. I’ve added some scratchbuilt detail and made a few modifications, including hollowing out the area in front of the instrument panel and adding a scratchbuilt gun deck. It’s not meant to be crazy detailed, I just wanted a representation of what was there on the real thing.

And finally, I’ve managed to snag a few decent deals on eBay in the last couple of weeks, and these two just arrived in the mail yesterday:

I’m hoping to get a start on both sometime soon.

Anyway, that’s all for now, stay tuned, and thanks for looking!

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Dude! Awewsome work! Wish I could scratch build like that (working on it). Youre also a man of good taste...something about Japanese A/C...love to build them. My avatar is a Nichimo Ki-45. Dont know how many of those Val kits I built over the years…lol. Keep up the excellent work!

Len

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Nice work. Looking forward to the paint job.

Regards, Rick

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*Update: just found a couple better pictures of the assembled A6M3 cockpit laying around on my memory card and thought I’d post them: