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

[rochie]

Back to the Toryu... I made an executive decision to mask the closed canopy pieces and put them in place. I really like the lines of the Toryu and may end up keeping it buttoned up.

I glued on the engine cowlings without the exhaust stacks in place. I'll pop them off and re-attach after the camo goes on.

The landing gear wells have been stuffed with tissue. To compress the tissue into shape, I wet it with water. Once dry, it's nice and stiff and stays in place much better than dry. I'm ready for painting!

The model is wiped off carefully using a dampened cotton rag (old piece of t-shirt in this case) to remove the dust and finger prints/oils. The panel lines are then highlighted with a highly thinned black. The canopy frames are also given a spray of black to help prevent light from shining through the frames. And yes, I first gave the frames a coat of the interior color before the black.

To give some depth to the camo, I scribble fine black lines all over the model. Based on past experiences, this is a good way to add some visual interest to a big area of single color but it will all but disappear under a mottled finish. So the entire bottom gets the scribble but not the whole topside. I scribble the area where I will be putting the white bands though.

The white bands are added using a highly thinned mixture of Tamiya White acrylic. Depending on the specific color, I am thinning this paint to about a 4:1 thinner-to-paint ratio. This helps modulate the coverage so that I don't obliterate the pre-shading and also helps to ensure the smoothest finish possible. Patience is needed when using highly thinned paint because multiple coats are necessary.

Here's a closeup of the white area on the wings to show the effect that I am trying to achieve. I'll set aside the white to dry before having a go at the red hinomarus.

I received a card from Karl (Rochie) this week with some very key decals! The "18" for the tail looks to be the perfect size... thank you very much Karl!

Excellent, glad they arrived and even better that they are a good enough match to be used.

Your welcome John, anytime my friend

I do like the effect your pre shading achieves, certainly adds depth to the paint job, well done.

 

[fubar57]

Agree with Karl. How long do you wait between coats of white John? Still waiting to start practicing with my airbrush(can't find a connector from the compressor hose to airbrush hose. Going to PG after the holidays to look around) and am amassing as much info as I can.



Geo

 

[JKim]

Thanks again Karl! Very much appreciated! Geo... the multiple coats are done in one session so maybe that's not the right terminology. Using highly thinned paint, the color is built up very slowly over multiple passes of the airbrush. Yes, I think that's a better way to describe it. Multiple passes to build up the coat, keeping the airbrush moving so you don't pool the paint which can cause runs... easy to do with thinned paint. You definitely are NOT trying to achieve a one-stroke finish with the airbrush as you might with brush painting. Build it up nice and slow!

 

[Airframes]

Nice work John, and well done Karl. Got to love the help, assistance and sharing on this forum !

 

[Wayne Little]

Excellent !

 

[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

Great stuff guys. On your way t another beauty John.

I might add to your response to Geo that the gradual build up of paint is easier (I think) with acrylics as they dry almost instantly. Enamels might behave differently.

 

[JKim]

Great stuff guys. On your way t another beauty John.

I might add to your response to Geo that the gradual build up of paint is easier (I think) with acrylics as they dry almost instantly. Enamels might behave differently.

Very good point! I use primarily acrylics (Tamiya, Gunze and some Testors) and my comments about airbrushing should be taken in that context.

Time to paint some red circles on my Toryu! The masks that I had cut from Badger Frisket Paper were very easy to position since I cut them into manageable squares. I masked beyond the edges of the frisket with post-it notes.

Since the white covered the pre-shading, I "refreshed" the pre-shading within the circle of the mask.

The red was a mix of Tamiya Red with a little bit of brown to match the Aeroscale decals. Upon shooting the red, it became apparent that this is one of those colors that doesn't cover well. Some blues are like this too... very transparent and requiring a light base coat. I stopped after a certain point, not wanting to develop a noticeable ridge between the red and the white at the edge of the mask. The mask pulled up some of the white paint too.

After several attempts at re-establishing a lighter base by spraying some grey over the red, I decided to wipe it all off and start over. I wiped off everything from the top side of the wings, re-did the pre-shading and put on the white again. Since removal of the mask pulled up some white paint, I sealed the white with a coat of Alclad Aqua Gloss.

The only preshading that I did within the masks this time was going over the panel lines with a light brown color. The scribbling effect was left off.

The masks performed very well. There were some places that needed touch-up and some white paint was still pulled up by the mask even though it was clear-coated.

 

[Crimea_River]

Looks good though. The clear coating does little to help the paint lifting. If you think about it, the problem is the bond between the base layer and the plastic. Putting more coats over that layer does not improve the bond and any lifting force will most probably still result in it pulling up.

 

[JKim]

Your comments are always prophetic Andy! Yes, the white still lifted even with the clear coat! But only in a couple spots. After that was fixed, I masked the white bands off and painted the entire aircraft IJA Grey.

Instead of masking the mottle or freehanding it, I chose a method 1/2 between the two. Using a watercolor colored pencil, I drew the mottles by comparing them to photos. The pencil did a good job of scratching off the grey paint in many areas but I'm hoping that this won't be noticeable after the mottles are sprayed.

The result? Interesting. I need to look at this a little further. The green color of the mottles is very irregular and I'm hoping that the irregularity settles down with a clear coat.

 

[javlin]

The result? Interesting. I need to look at this a little further. The green color of the mottles is very irregular and I'm hoping that the irregularity settles down with a clear coat.

No No No!!I think it looks perfect John You already have shading for age and depth the irregularities one would think would only add to the perception.Wayno is the PTO guy on these Japanese crates

 

[fubar57]

Yep, agree with Kevin...

Geo

 

[rochie]

I think it looks bloody good from here John !

 

[JKim]

Thanks guys! It's taking a bit of time to do this but I'm creeping along with the mottling.

Ideally, I shouldn't have to draw the outlines of the mottles but it helped me to get the shapes in line with what I was seeing in the photographs in terms of shape and scale. I didn't want to do just random blotches but wanted to capture the look of the Japanese style mottling on the Toryu by basing it on photographs.

Hopefully, the effort is worthwhile. I may be able to finish the rest without the pencil marks but we'll see.

I hope everyone is having a very joyous Holiday season! Merry Christmas everyone!

 

[Wurger]

 

[Airframes]

Very nicely done John, and have a great Christmas.

 

[Gnomey]

Lovely work so far John!

 

[JKim]

Didn't get much time in on the bench due to the holiday festivities. But I managed to knock off the mottles this morning. After the wings and front fuselage, I was able to forgo the penciling in of the mottles and went at it free-hand.

The main issue with this mottling was paint consistency. It was hard keeping the paint within the gravity cup at the right consistency throughout the shoot. A tad too thick and the paint would sputter and a tad too thin, it would pool and run and the paint would composition would change over time as the thinner and paint would begin to separate. After it was all done, I removed the masking from the white ID bands. Luckily, I didn't experience hardly any lifting of the white and only had to touch up one or two small spots. After the touch-ups, I sealed the camo with a coat of Alclad Aqua Gloss.

I knocked off the engine cowlings to glue in the exhaust pipes. The yellow ID panels still needed to masked and painted so this was done when the cowlings were still off.

With some yellow still left in the airbrush, I masked off a ring around the nose cannon and sprayed it yellow.

Decaling and weathering is next!

 

[JKim]

Ooh and look what Santa dropped for me today!

My last book on plastic modeling was by a guy named Verlinden... remember him? I've wanted a more current reference for some time and I really like the scope of this one.

 

[Torch]

Looks great....