What's on The Workbench

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Lovely models Jessie. I must admit I have no knowledge of most of your collection. In the case of Japanese aircraft my knowledge ends for the most at Jack and Jill, Betty and Oscar, Tony and Sally, Val and Judy. I know the US nickname and not the manufacturer or the nomenclature. Well the Zero is a Mitsubishi A6M and it get confusing from there as to Zero Zeke Rufe etc…..
 
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When I started building the stash, I had to research many different aspects of the IJA and IJN air forces. One of the most difficult was the color schemes. The navy was easy after 1942 because they had that deep dark green that's almost on everything they used. The army, on the other hand, has more variety in their colors used. Then you have those tail IDs, here the IJA tends to use fancy designs for their aircraft. The IJN was constantly changing their IDs, which can get confusing and make it difficult to build specific aircraft.
 
Here is an awesome IJA aircraft example. The camouflage to where the unit is based. A symbol instead of a unit number. This is the ancient Hasegawa (of course Mania molds) and decals from the Rising Decals Donated Birds. This is a Mitsubishi Ki-51 'Aikoku 727' Hokota Rikugun Hiko Gakko 1942.
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This one I really like. Originally I had planned on making this a 'Houkoku', but messed it up and did that for one of the two B5N1s from the 2020 batch. I had to reprime it and make it something different altogether. It ended up being this.
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This is a Nakajima B5N1 14th Ku, Sanzao Dao South China 1938-1939.
 
Running outta lil bits to install, just the the gear door actuators, pitot tube wing tip lights, and clear parts. About the clear parts, Hasegawa makes the underwing ID lights as 1mm round clear parts. I'm thinking the ultimate exercise in the pings and fit but I gotta try so I paint the backs in the appropriate clear colours and when dry, I hoped for the best. When dry, I wrapped the forward red light in tape and managed to saw it off and clean up the wee little nub. As expected, I couldn't get the light to seat. I tried to sand some off but ended up sanding off more skin that plastic......on to Plan B. I sharpened the tip of a round toothpick, lightly dipped it in aluminum and painted the recesses. When dry, I again used a toothpick and dabbed in the clear colours. Once dry, I filled the rest of the recesses with Lepages Clear using the toothpick. Not perfect but I'm happy

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Final little bits attachments and completed are two Tachikawa Ki-55s, both from Fujimi. The decals are from Rising Decals. The decals for the Ki-55 from the 34th Kyoiku Hikotai were easy to apply. The ones for the Ki-55 from the 34th Kyoiku Hikotai were more difficult since the Lightning on the tail had a yellow piece placed first and then the red one went right on top of it. It was difficult to get it to fit correctly. The end result is a pretty flashy marking. First up is the Tachikawa Ki-55 34th Kyoiku Hikotai, Kemayoran Air Field Java 1945.
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The second one is a Tachikawa Ki-55 3rd Kyoiku Hikotai Special Attack Unit, Malaya 1945.
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