**** DONE: GB-54 1:48 Kawasaki Ki-61 Hien - Pacific Theatre

[Vic Balshaw]

Yes, the aluiminium one, tail end looks the best.

 

[Gnomey]

Looks good so far Andy!

 

[Crimea_River]

I agree Vic and thanks Hugh. So I shot the complete model over the last two days and used the Dull Aluminum on the fabric surfaces. Seems to be a good use for it since I have to use it up anyway.

I messed up a small area on the underside of the tailplane but that's OK since this whole area will be masked and painted red anyway. Onward...

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Looks good.

 

[fubar57]

That looks really nice Andy

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Geo. 1st picture shows what I discovered after - the scratch-built rad flap wasn't able to hold the weight of the model and the attachment seam let go. Fixed now. Tomorrow, I plan to do the black anti-glare panel and the yellow ID stripes. If I have time, I will experiment with painting the Hinomarus on my mule.

 

[Crimea_River]

Lots done today as the weather was rainy, cool and windy. Before getting to today's progress, I just wanted to show how the drop tank colour turned out, just to close the loop on that:

It's actually a little bluer in real life but I'm happy with it. Next on the agenda was masking for all the black areas. I did the non-skid pads in the wing roots first as these would be tough to paint once the masks for the anti-glare panel were on. Here's the mask for the latter:

The reason there's so much masking is that I applied hairspray to this area before painting the black (below) for which I actually used Tamiya XF-85 Rubber Black.

I then removed the masks and started chipping way at the black. A little water was applied to a small area and then the black was chipped away with a toothpick. The hairspray makes for a weak bond that allows the paint to be removed easily , giving a realistic-looking effect.

Next it was on to the yellow ID panel on the wing leading edge and other areas. Tamiya actually provides decals for all these yellow areas but they would be more trouble than they are worth in my opinion so I elected to paint instead. I studied reference photos to confirm as best I could how the demarcation runs along the undercarriage cover and masked everything accordingly. The first coat was white:

I then I mixed up a cup of Tamiya XF-3 Flat Yellow and a single drop of XF-7 Red and shot that. The prop tips got the same colour. After removing the masks here's what we have:

One thing to watch if you want to do this model is that Tamiya's masks tend to peel away on their own. I noticed the one on the landing light had started and may have caught it too late but hopefully there's not much paint underneath.

With all that done and the airbrush clean, I realized that I forgot to paint the yellow on the corners of the inner gear doors. Rather than mix up a new cup of paint, I may just go ahead and use Tamiya's decals for those small areas.

All of the painted areas then got a coat of Tamiya's Semi-Gloss Clear to protect them from damage. I then noticed that the masking tape left a bit of glue residue on the silver and so I wet a towel with a bit of IPA to wipe it off. Damn - some of the yellow dissolved and bled into the silver after all that work:

This is disappointing but should be easily fixed. I'll let the yellow dry til Sunday, then mask it and try the IPA wipe again. If that doesn't remove the bled colour then I'll just shoot a bit more Alclad Aluminum over it. Oh, and I managed to squash the rad flap again so I pulled it off completely and will reinstall it once the landing gear is on.

Definitely time to call it a day! Talk soon.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

My Andy, you accomplished a lot in one day and a shame about the yellow runoff. Initially looking at it, made me wonder if you could capitalise on it by blending it in with weathering, but then again an over spray is probably better.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Vic. Overspray is simple and whatever still shows will be covered in mottles anyway.

 

[rochie]

thats really nice Andy

 

[Wurger]

 

[le_steph40]

really nice Andy

 

[fubar57]

Very slick. I'm hit or miss with hair spray; one was great, tother, not so much. How long did you wait before chipping?

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys. Geo I sprayed the black over the hair spray as soon as the spray felt dry to the touch. After spraying the black I cleaned my airbrush, maybe 5 minutes, then started wetting the black in small areas and started chipping. Small area is maybe 1 sq. cm. It took maybe 20 minutes to finish the entire area. In this case it worked well but other times I've had difficulties as well. It might depend on how smooth the base paint is as I can imagine a rougher (flat) paint under the hair spray could make for a stronger bond with the top coat. The Alclad stuff is very smooth. Just a theory.

 

[Gnomey]

Lovely work so far Andy!

 

[Totalize]

Outstanding work Andy. Looking forward to seeing more.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks all. No pics but I managed to remove the smear from the yellow ID stripe by masking the yellow and wiping with a IPA soaked towel. Unfortunately when I removed the mask some of the yellow came with it so I had to remask the stripe, remix some yellow with red to match and touch it up. All good now and ready to move on.

 

[Bustedwing]

Oh that's beautiful work ! Amazing kit as well. Love the paint work so far as well.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Thanks all. No pics but I managed to remove the smear from the yellow ID stripe by masking the yellow and wiping with a IPA soaked towel. Unfortunately when I removed the mask some of the yellow came with it so I had to remask the stripe, remix some yellow with red to match and touch it up. All good now and ready to move on.

Trials and tribulations!

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Graham and Vic.

Tamiya decals have never been known for being outstanding but I've never found them to be too bad. Until now. I don't know but maybe this relatively recent release may have had some tweaking to the formula to counter the thickness criticism. Whatever the case, I've just had two decals disintegrate on me, both small stencils. The first case was on some very fine lettering on one of the pylons that needed a bit of coaxing to settle into the tight panel lines there. I applied my usual dab of Solvaset (admittedly a very strong solution that I've never left on for long and never had a problem) but the small area caused a bit of pooling that I immediately dabbed up, or so I thought. I left the part and when I looked the next day, the stencil had completely vanished!

Yesterday, I applied some small stencils on the landing gear covers. These slid off the backing nicely but when I applied them to the part, one of them lifted off with the paper towel I used for blotting up the excess water. I put a bit more water on and reapplied the decal, setting it aside to dry. The decal film extends beyond the surface of the part so I planned to allow the decals to completely set before shaving off the excess film with a sharp scalpel. Well, one side went OK but I noticed an area with no bond that curled up as I cut the film. The other side, the one that gave me trouble yesterday, completely lifted off again with the scalpel so I reasoned that there was zero glue left on the decal. So I put the decal back in place and applied tiny amount of Solvaset to help it bond. Big mistake. The thing just started falling apart right away and I wasn't able to save much of it. A small drop of the same liquid on the other side worked fine. Below, circled at left is the destroyed decal. The one on the right survived.

I need to think hard about how I'll do the rest of the stencils. Solvavset is out and I hope the rest bond to the Alclad OK. I'm now very glad that I painted the yellow areas which, as you can see in the above pics, are very thin slivers in some areas. The decals would not have done well here I reckon.

In other news, I've been experimenting on my mule with painting the markings. I'll show some pics tomorrow. Talk soon.