Nakajima Ki-44 Shoki

Roberto Rocat A real beauty. Bravo.!

Cuajete Nice work. Congratulations!

KollHBM Thanks for the compliments

Bill Davis That looks very good.

Roberto Rocat Well done.

Ulf Petersen Nice work, Paul!

Calvin Gifford

Bill Davis I 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.

Choppa Nutta sweet

Stephan Ryll very nice work

Benoit Mathier 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

Bill Davis Thanks 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.

Bill Davis I 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.

Clifford Keesler Very nice job.

Thomas Bischoff Bill - 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!

Jeremy Stuckey I am amazed at the number of us that have returned to modeling now that we are in our 50s.

Gary Nice work. Waiting for a finish, Gary

Bill Davis It's done!

Bart Goesaert very nice one... splendid job...

Soeren . Another wonderful build Roland!
Always great to see such great IJN/IJA planes here!

Roland Sachsenhofer You are making me happy guys! Thank you for comments!

Roberto Rocat Beautiful work!

Stefan Fraundorfer Perfekte Lackierung und eine dezente Alterung. Gefällt mir sehr gut. Und eine tolle Werbung für den Wettbewerb - danke dafür!

Matthias Weiss Very nice model, excellent!

Eelco Gregoire Looks really great!

Roland Sachsenhofer That´s very motivating, mates- thank you!
Hallo Stefan, freut mich, dass Dir die Ki-44 auch hinsichtlich Wettbewerb gefällt!

Choppa Nutta I like it

Soeren . Awesome work!

Jordan Thanks a lot! I finished this a few months ago but forgot that I never finished posting the album.

Kerry COX There is some serious fine detailing here.
Just wonderful to see Jordan.

Colin Phillips Love the bare metal finish nice work

Dieter Bihlmaier Jordan, for such a short time in the model making branch, your Shoki looks absolut fantastic!

Holger Kranich Wonderful bare metal look!!!

Roberto Rocat The paintjob is absolutely stunning.

Jordan Thanks, I used regular Alclad 101 on top of a Tamiya X-1 gloss coat to achieve the finish.

Roberto Rocat ...the Tamiya, was it a lacquer paint? Thanks!

Jordan @Roberto Rocat - Nope, I used straight up Tamiya acrylic X-1 as a base for alclad, and it works pretty well.

I prefer using an acrylic base, even though it's not something people recommend, as it dries very quickly. I use Mr. Hobby lacquer thinner to about 30% paint:70% thinner and spray it on in very thin coats to slowly build up a high gloss shine.

Roberto Rocat Good info, thank you!

Art Seipel not a bad build for an older kit, just a few issues with molding from the factory. injector pin spots throughout kit, worst was on upper half of wings that actually deformed the surface detail that had to be sanded smooth and then rescribed (close to wing roots)

Mike Grant That's really nice Chris. The overhead views show off the different metallic shades very well.

scalemates Great!

Markus Kutsch The Plastic Bench Shiny Bird!Like Mike said the different metallic shades are looking great!

Steve Wilson Chris that's brilliant, well done

Chris W Thanks guys!!

Holger Kranich Wow, what a wonderful effect on this Tojo! Here was a master at work!