I finished this puppy up yesterday for the Imperial Japanese GB. It is an old kit and has no real problems in building. There were a few gaps here and there, but nothing major. The cockpit and engine are certainly on the spartan side and reflect their 1972 vintage. I replaced the kit seat with a PE one from an Air Waves set and ended up scratch building a new gun sight after my tweezers launched the kit part into the twilight zone as I was about to install it. I used Tamiya Flat Aluminum and IJA Light Gray on the lowers, and Aeromaster Warbird Acrylics IJAAF Nakajima Dark Green on the uppers. Other Japanese colors used from Polly Scale and Gunze. Decals are from Superscale. Markings are for the 11th Air Brigade late 1944, Formosa & the Phillipines.
Weathering includes Mig pigments on the landing gear, Tamiya weathering compact’s soot stains, various washes, and drybrushing with Testors square bottle Aluminum.
Thanks for looking.
Comments and critiques welcome [blndfld]
Very nice build, stik! It really has the look of a war weary bird that’s seen plenty of action. Did you paint the yellow on the wing leading edges or is that decals? Looks amazing!
That is somebody’s pretty Warbird Mustang there. The 23rd FG markings were done well enough, but no real attempt was made to make her look war weary at all. You can only see the lightest exhaust staining on that close up. And seeing how CBI was at the farthest end and lowest priority of the US supply chain for anything, those D model Mustangs would have likely been fairly new in summer 1945 in China.
Nice build there. For me the Frank is the best looking Japanese fighter of WWII and those yellow decals on the leading edges of the wings really do look great.
Thank you all for the kind words. for a build that started out with such a simple kit and goals, this one turned out far batter than intended or anticipated. And lots of inspiration and a bit of help from folks here along the way, especially regarding the finish & weathering.
Blitz, I gotta mostly agree on your assessment of the looks of this bird. Probably the most sleek and elegant, yet still powerful, of the IJAAF’s fighters. No fragility in the looks unlike the Ki-43. I think I like the lines of the Ki-61 and Ki-100 a bit better, but this one is a beauty that matches style, performance, and strength for sure.
Law, I am sure that your Hasegawa kit will be a better build, especially considering that it is at last a generation or so newer in mold technology. I look forward to seeing yours’ built up here!
Tex, thank you for the compliments. I do wish that I had an airfield nearby where I could attempt to match your photo backgrounds and techniques.
You’re welcome stik! I guess I do take that airport for granted. The close proximity does make it nice for photo shoots. I really want to try out our new camera soon, maybe take out some models that I’ve never “shot” before. I’m thinking a few pics with a great sunrise in the background might be cool. But again, you sure build some nice model planes dude!
On side note, I realized that none of the photos showed the tail markings properly. There is some sort of stylized medal/decoration marking that is below and behind the horizontal stabilizers
The poly caps don’t seem to be aligned that well so when you insert the landing gear, they cant outwards a bit. The simple solution would be to just bend them but they snapped of very easily and it was a real bugger trying to glue it in because it just didn’t want to stay.
