**** DONE: GB-59 1/48 Nakajima Ki-84 - WW2 PTO V

[Crimea_River]

Well since Geo like it I'll leave it.

 

[Crimea_River]

Masking time. This step is time consuming but necessary in the absence of decals for my chosen subject. This started with pulling up the profile posted above in Illustrator and tracing the outlines of the needed mask cuts. Obviously the important initial step is to get the scale correct and for this I used the length of the rudder leading edge

With the profile hidden, the shapes were then tweaked and a slightly smaller circle made inside the larger one to allow me to mask and paint the red with a very slight white surround - easier said than done but we'll see how it goes.

The file was then saved and sent to my ever-updating Cricut software to prepare the for the cutting task. This went reasonably well, though I always need to remove some unnecessary duplicate shapes before sending the job to the cutter. The masks were cut into Oramask 810 vinyl film and the port side went on well:

The starboard side didn't. To make the other side, I simply copied and pasted the left side but obviously Mr. Dufus forgot that the arrow/oval shape should have been mirrored rather than copied. You can see why here:

The vertical axis of the oval is on a slant so it was back to the laptop to create the proper mirror image and recut the arrow/oval. The proper version is now on the model:

So the next step is to mask the demarcation lines and paint the uppers. Might get that done today, might not. Thanks for looking.

 

[Wurger]

 

[fubar57]

Might be looking in later

 

[A4K]

Always wondered how you guys did that! Good stuff Andy.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Way beyond my pay scale and nicely done Andy.

 

[fubar57]

Way beyond my pay scale and nicely done Andy.

The Cricut cutter is way beyond my talents but that Oramask 810 vinyl film is worth the price Vic. I've had a roll of it for a few years. I love it for British camouflage on the wings and tail surfaces. Enlarge and print a diagram, cut a piece of film to size, remove the backing and lay it over the part of the diagram you want to use, cut, remove the film from the paper and lay it on the model....easy peasy

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys. Yep, one roll of that Oramask goes a long way.

Anyway, I applied a mix of 50/50 XF-51 and XF-49 which I found came out a bit too light khaki-ish to my eye so shot another very thin coat with the same mix but a brush load of XF-51 added. I then peeled the masks. I forgot to mention that there's a coat of hairspray under all this which will hopefully give us a nice chipping effect.

The lighting makes the colour look lighter again but, that said, I'm still not sure I'm happy with it. Maybe once I chip it all and apply a gloss clear it will darken up a tad. No turning back now as the masks are off.

The red part of the ring will need to wait for a bit but that will be a tricky thing when I get there. So far so good though.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Looks great Andy and I do hope your hairspray chipping works as I have covered my Blenheim with the stuff hoping to get the same effect.

 

[fubar57]

Masks turned out super Andy. I still haven't got the knack of the hairspray method

 

[Vic Balshaw]

The Cricut cutter is way beyond my talents but that Oramask 810 vinyl film is worth the price Vic. I've had a roll of it for a few years. I love it for British camouflage on the wings and tail surfaces. Enlarge and print a diagram, cut a piece of film to size, remove the backing and lay it over the part of the diagram you want to use, cut, remove the film from the paper and lay it on the model....easy peasy

I'm checking it out.

 

[A4K]

I am a digital caveman, so bear with me...
You need to download Illustrator software? And the Cutter is a physical cutter with a blade, which is guided by the computer I presume?

 

[Totalize]

Well done Andy. The tail markings came out great.

 

[Gnomey]

Good work so far Andy!

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks everyone .

I am a digital caveman, so bear with me...
You need to download Illustrator software? And the Cutter is a physical cutter with a blade, which is guided by the computer I presume?

Yes Evan, Illustrator is an Adobe subscription program (I use my wife's account) that creates graphic files that can be used by the cutter. Photoshop could also be used but it's not as flexible. The cutter I have is a Cricut Explore Air. Its basically a printer that has two interchangeable heads. You can fit pens to print onto paper or cutting heads to cut shapes into various materials. In my case I use it to just cut the vinyl masks but in theory I could also print centerlines on the vinyl along with the cuts to help me align things but I've never gone that route

 

[A4K]

Great, cheers Andy. Something like this would come in handy for some of my tricky projects.
Do you think it would be flexible enough for similar jobs to yours in 1:72 scale?

 

[Crimea_River]

There are challenges with small shapes using my machine. If I have to make cut lines that are close together then the vinyl masks tend to buckle as the cutter tries to make sharp bends. The cutting head is like a miniature xacto blade on a swivel so when it has to make a 90 degree bend it works best when there is enough mask material stuck to its backing paper for it not to lift when the cutter makes the sharp corner. A while back I made some small number 4s for a 1/48 P-40 for Steph that he used not long ago in a build and those were in my opinion beyond the limit for size using my machine. An early war 1/48 swastika with the thin black border would not be feasible.There are probably better cutters on the market but they will be pricier.

 

[A4K]

Cheers mate, thought 1:72 might be a bit too small. Great tool for larger scales though!

 

[Wayne Little]

That mask stuff worked out great Andy, well done.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Wayne. Still not keen on the khaki colour but will press on. Decided to mask and paint the Hinomarus so that's next on the agenda.