Ki-44-II Hei,29 Sentai,2nd Chutai,Anchang
I used a True Details seat.
I tried the “hair spray” method of weathering on the prop and it turned out pretty good, so I decided to do the whole airframe that way.
I sprayed the whole model with Tamiya primer so I could see the flaws in the “body work”. I had to fill and sand the wing roots three times before I got them like I wanted.
I sprayed it with Testers model master aluminum.
I used my airbrush and applied hair spray. I have been using my new Iwata Eclipse airbrush and I really like it.
Next was to spray the underside with Tamiya Japanese Army grey acrylic. After that, I then masked off the undersides. Beside masking tape, I used “blue tack” to mask the fuselage. The profile depicting this aircraft shows a slightly wavy paint line
I applied JA Army Green acrylic.
I glued the cowling on and then painted the black anti-glare panel in front and rear of the cockpit and the yellow ID stripes on the leading edge of the wings. The yellow on the leading edges was tedious and time consuming, but it came out alright.
I started scraping the paint off. This is the first time I have used hairspray as a weathering technique, and I am fairly pleased with the results. However picking the paint off with a toothpick takes a lot of time and is tedious.
These cell phone photos are not the best but it shows the finished decals
The decals are by Revi, set # 48005. Air craft depicted is from 29th Sentai, 2nd Chutai, Anchang AB, China, August 1944. This aircraft is depicted in profile in two books.
highlighted the panel lines with AK interactive panel liner. The AK products are easy to use.
The canopy masked off and painted.
The finished canopy.
The landing gear, I used .010 lead wires from my fly tying kit to make the brake lines.
Comments
31 December 2015, 03:11
Bill DavisI hope you can excuse my poor photography. I will have to do some research and find out how to get more depth of field. I have been working one this model since May 31st 2014! What is more remarkable is this is the first airplane assembly kit I have completed since the early eighties. I was in my twenty's then and I am 58 now. I learned a lot building this kit, it has some flaws but overall I am pleased.
31 December 2015, 22:19
B. M.Hello Bill. Nice to read that you're back in business 🙂 It's looking really good and quite of an achievement, since you've had a 30ish year break...
As for photography - getting more depth of field is quite easy, provided you have a camera that you can adjust it.
What works best for me:
1. Use a tripod
2. No flash (imho)
3. Adjust "A" (F) - Aperture to max (aka F/32 or sth similar)
4. Adjust "I" - ISO to the according light you have (Sun, Overcast, Lamp etc) or automatic 😉
5. Adjust "S" - Speed according to how much light you need - Here you need to test and see. It usually is something between 0.5 - 3 seconds
6. Use delayed release, otherwise it won't be sharp
I'm not a master photographer, but it turns out pretty well.
As a help for the terms: exposureguide.com/exposure.htm
Cheers
1 January 2016, 20:01
Bill DavisThanks Benoit, I have a Cannon Eos digital rebel and I should be able to adjust those settings. I will play around with it and see what I can come up with.
1 January 2016, 22:25
Bill DavisI wanted to add a radio wire from the antenna to the tail fin on my recently completed Ki-44. I had pre-drilled a .010 hole in the antenna mast before I attached it to the fuselage. I thought the EZ line worked pretty well. The only hard part was threading a limp .010 wire through a .010 hole, once through I attached a pair of tweezers to the line to put a little stretch on it and applied superglue. I had tried stretched sprue before and this works better.
23 January 2016, 20:57
Thomas BischoffBill - I use another method to get more depth. I take pictures with a 24mp camera using the standard lense from approx 1/2m distance and simply enlarge the picture on the computer. I use f11 for this. If you have a flash with moveable head and a white ceiling you can point the flash head to the ceiling - this is the cheap replacement for a soft box.
And: your pictures are very good already!
24 January 2016, 19:00
Jeremy StuckeyI am amazed at the number of us that have returned to modeling now that we are in our 50s.
24 January 2016, 19:16
Album info
I have been working on this for a long time and it is almost done.
