**** DONE: 1/48 Ki-45 Toryu Kai Tei - Night War of WWII

[rochie]

Nothing in my Japanese decals but i have these, they are from a royal navy sheet i have.
What size do you need, these are for 4, 8 or 12"seriel numbers

I also have some from a modern BEA Hawk sheet that are 7mm in size

Any good ?

 

[Wurger]

 

[JKim]

The canopy stuff was harmless unless I change my mind and want to depict the pilot canopy closed but even then I could probably make the separate windscreen and cut canopy work pretty seamlessly. And it's nice to have a spare in case I botch the two-part setup somehow.

Nothing in my Japanese decals but i have these, they are from a royal navy sheet i have.
What size do you need, these are for 4, 8 or 12"seriel numbers

I also have some from a modern BEA Hawk sheet that are 7mm in size

View attachment 307407

Any good ?

Possibly! Let me check out the kit when I get home tonight to see what size would be suitable. Thanks Karl!

 

[Gnomey]

Looking good so far John!

 

[JKim]

Nothing in my Japanese decals but i have these, they are from a royal navy sheet i have.
What size do you need, these are for 4, 8 or 12"seriel numbers

I also have some from a modern BEA Hawk sheet that are 7mm in size

View attachment 307407

Any good ?

Karl... I think these would work for me, if its not too much trouble. The tail numbers on my kit are 3/16" and 5/16", which correspond to between 9" and 15" in 1/48 scale. So 12" lettering, which would be about 1/4" high on the decal sheet, would work great. I would need a couple of 1's and a couple of 8's (the rounded ones on the left hand side of the picture). Maybe a spare of each to be safe. I'll PM you my address.

 

[Wayne Little]

Very nice cockpit John!

 

[rochie]

Karl... I think these would work for me, if its not too much trouble. The tail numbers on my kit are 3/16" and 5/16", which correspond to between 9" and 15" in 1/48 scale. So 12" lettering, which would be about 1/4" high on the decal sheet, would work great. I would need a couple of 1's and a couple of 8's (the rounded ones on the left hand side of the picture). Maybe a spare of each to be safe. I'll PM you my address.

Will get them sorted John !

 

[Crimea_River]

Good stuff Karl and nice work John.

By the way, I bought myself some larger punches at a relatively low price. Leather punches.... Ovals shown but you can get round ones but don't buy on E-Bay. Go to a craft store like Michael's and they should be cheaper - I think I paid 16 bucks for mine. These will be too dull to make sharp cuts in plastic so the edges will need to be sharpened and this can be done with a file.

 

[Airframes]

Like Andy, I have a couple of sets of various sizes of the leather punches, and they were only a few Pounds/Dollars per set.
As Andy mentioned, they're not as sharp, or precise, as the much more expensive miniature punch sets from such as Waldron, but can be sharpened with a file, and allow larger holes, discs, or rings to be made.
Depending on the size of a disc being punched, and the surface beneath the material being used, the plastic may sometimes 'dish', particularly when using clear sheet, but this can be an advantage if making items such as lamp lenses. A quick test will establish the best 'punching surface' to use (hard, pliable etc etc) to avoid the 'dishing' effect.
It's sometimes better to use the punch in a circular motion, to 'cut' the disc, rather than punch it out and, given that the punch is kept sharp, this is fairly easy to do, especially on thinner material.

 

[JKim]

Thanks for the comments and punch ideas... I'll keep em in mind!

Some more work has been done but I've lost a few of the pictures by formatting my card inadvertently. Mostly small detail stuff like cleaning up small parts and putting a clear piece in the fuselage as a landing light.

The oil cooler intakes are made of three components: left, right and the top edge of the intake. The one on the left has had its intake edges thinned out.

Here is the bottom fuselage piece. The ventral cannon wasn't used on aircraft with the nose cannon but the fairing and gun trough are still in place. I was curious about the blocked off opening... would the real plane have it blocked off like this or would it be open but empty?

This photo is from a Japanese text and clearly shows that the opening is closed off so I'll leave it as is.

The last of the fuselage components is put into place, the rear bulkhead, which will be all but invisible once the fuselage is closed up.

The fuselage is fused together using Tamiya liquid cement.

The shelf right behind the rear gunner was presented a little bit differently with the kit parts than the CMK resin upgrade. The kit version has a different looking parachute and a small instrument panel that shows up on my sources so I'm going with the kit parts.

The pilot gunsight from the CMK set has no optical glass but instead a crosshair-type sight. Keep in mind that the CMK set is not type-specific so the crosshair-type sight could be appropriate for certain versions. I have a picture from a mottled interceptor version of the Toryu which shows a reflector sight so that's what I'm going with.

Using the CMK resin piece, I scooped out the circular portion with a small drill bit. I'm going to paint it and use a dab of White Glue to represent the optical lens.

We'll see what it looks like after the glue dries. A piece of clear acetate will be used to represent the reflector glass.

I put some black base on some metal components including the engine blocks, the rear gun and the exhaust pipes.

The exhausts were painted in various shades of Alclad metallics. Afterwards, I drybrushed black, brown and rust colors on them. The oil cooler intakes have been glued together and cleaned up.

I'm going to replace the nose cannon with a piece of steel tubing. Mainly to address the seam inside of the gun opening.

The plastic gun barrel is cut off the backing plate. An appropriate size hole is drilled into the backing plate to accept the new steel barrel. I can stick the barrel onto a toothpick and guide it into position after painting.

The nose cone is put together without the gun barrel. You can see the seam that I want to take care of.

 

[fubar57]

Great stuff John.



Geo

 

[rochie]

Yep nice job, John

 

[le_steph40]

Great stuff John.



Geo

I agree :

 

[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

Likin' it.

 

[T Bolt]

wonderful looking interior John

 

[Airframes]

Nice work John, an yes, i think the 'empty' gun fairing would probably be blanked-off to lessen drag.

 

[javlin]

Your kill'in me John

 

[JKim]

Thanks for looking and commenting guys! The Toryu continues. It's interesting to have so many multi-engine aircraft in this GB going on at the same time. I've definitely noticed things taking longer because most things come in pairs but I'm committed to taking the necessary time to do things right. I'm not in a rush even though I tend to be a fast builder. And forgive me for jumping around. I tend to use the kit instruction sequence as a general guide and will often skip steps to pre-build various sub-assemblies as the inclination strikes me.

There are optional clear pieces for the wing lights. "Optional" meaning you have to cut out the necessary notches in the wing tips to use them.

I drilled a hole into the backs of the clear light pieces and then dipped paint into the holes. This is an easy way to represent colored light bulbs if you have a good way of holding onto the small pieces.

I carved the notches out with a photoetch razor saw. The clear parts were glued into place using Tamiya Extra Thin cement. It looks messy now but once the glue dries, I'll sand it down and give it a polish.

Here is the nose cone again. There is a small square panel that needs to be glued in... it's carries the very end of the gun trough. This is done to accommodate different versions of the Toryu.

After the nose cone is cleaned (including that seam on the inside of the gun port), I do a test fit with the cannon barrel put into place.

I have some available time to mask the cockpit canopies. Once again the Eduard masks are a flawless fit.

The little bulb of white glue has dried on the gun sight. So I cut a tiny rectangular piece of acetate and attach it with a dab of white glue... voila... a gun sight.

The bottom fuselage piece was not seating completely so I shaved down the lowermost edges of the CMK resin cockpit tub and sidewalls.

The bottom is on. I'll have to devote some time on getting that connecting seam tamed down. And no, you are not seeing things... the bottom piece, among others, is molded in a slightly different colored grey than the fuselage halves.

Onto the engine assemblies... the cowlings are comprised of three pieces each: two halves and the front ring. Fit is good so no concern there. The backs of the cowlings are thick and blunt. I can only dry-fit so much and I can't tell if this is going to make any difference but since the back of the cowling doesn't butt up directly against the wing nacelles, I've decided to thin the cowling flaps.

I used a curved x-acto for the majority of the shaving and then some sandpaper to finish it off. Hopefully we'll be able to see this improvement a little later when the engine cowlings are mounted. The engine blocks have been painted Dark Aluminum.

The engine parts are fairly well hidden by the tight cowling, the prop spinner and that round oil cooler so I'm not going to bother putting any extra detail on the engine. A good paint job and a pastel wash should yield an acceptable result.

After the glue securing the wing lights is given ample time to dry, I file, sand and polish them in place. They'll be masked off prior to painting.

There is a small "optional" tail light. I seriously considered just leaving it and painting it white... who'd notice?

Of course I had to put the clear part on. I wouldn't have done this a year ago but now it's automatic. First the molded light is cut off. I've left some excess plastic in place just in case and will remove as necessary depending on the clear part.

And of course I have to go all the way and drill a little light bulb into the clear piece. Easier said than done... this took me a while because I couldn't find a good way to hold such a small piece in my fingers.

After a bit of micro-wrestling under the magnifier, I got my cramping index finger and thumb to hold the speck long enough to a few turns on the drill bit. A drop of white was put in to represent a clear bulb. The piece was secured into place again using Tamiya Extra Thin cement. It should look okay after I clean it up.

The cowling is glued together and cleaned up. You can see the thinned area behind the cowling flaps a little better.

 

[Wurger]

Nicely done.