Dave J

The fit on this kit is great! everything went together beautifully! The were a couple of spots that needed sanding, but that was my fault... I miss-lined the fuse halfs at the top at the rear and a couple spots where I had cut the sprue off too close to the part... The cockpit came nicely with a heavy coat of Tamiya smoke and a flat finish.. She been primed in Mr Surfacer to show all the faults...

Lovely work! What shades of silver did you use?

Its a beautiful kit! I am think of getting the next version that Hasegawa is going to release with the cannons... plus that bight red fillet down the sides looks eye-catching!

I'm a chocolate fish filleter.....

I also added some fuse wire for the control linkages and drilled out the seat. The rest of the interior details were again painted with Tamiya colour... I hoping to get a wash onto it tonight...

I was pretty lucky to be sent to Japan to the Tokyo Hobby for work the other week. While there I picked up some bargains at the Tamiya and Hasegawa stalls. Nakajima Ki44 Hei Shoki was one of the kits I returned home with. I was planning to build the kit out of the box as there no aftermarket goodies out, as its a new release but Scale Aviation had a small Eduard PE fret available for the kit in this months magazine. As per the instructions, I started off with the cockpit assembly. Some of the PE was added. I'm not a big fan of the pre-painted PE from Eduard, so it will be painted over. The next issue I had was the call out for the colour of the Cockpit, it said Khaki Green... I sprayed it and it just looked to dark... (sorry for the bad light!) After doing a little research on net and posting a couple questions, I found a colour chip for IJA Nakajima interior green... I mixed a some Tamiya colour to get a close match, but its not perfect...

They also release a 32nd RNZAF TBF Avenger sheet too. I have that so I could scan the profiles if needed

Drop Mal Mayfield a line @ miraclemasks@hotmail.co.uk He just made a set of custom paint mask's for my Trumpeter RNZAF Avenger... I have supplied him all the details for the roundals so he should be able to do another set pretty quickly! The Price is fair too I think I paid about 12 pounds for them...

I started to add the exterior PE to the fuselage halfs now, as its almost time to close them up! and just picking out the pipes wiring looms in the bomb bay with a bit of colour... I also recieved my custom made paint masks from Mal Mayfield (Miracle Masks) for the markings So everythiny is coming along nicely... Once the Fuse halfs are together, it should be a walk in park to get her done...

Wow... Its been a month since I did a update! Well... Here we go then! Cockpit details have been picked out... and silver has been added for the paint chipping.. All the parts have been glued to the bombay/floor now. Eduard PE Belts have been add too, Ins panel has been panited The bombs have been sprayed yellow, I will mask off the stripes and then paint them the colour that they need to be! The Turret has been painted... It took me about 3 hours to mask off the turret clear piece last night! still some work here to be done!

Well, I finally managed to find time to work on her today! I am planning to get the fuselage half's buttoned up by the end of the month. I have started working on the cockpit area now, I have lighten the Bronze Green with a bit of thinned down white, looks a lot better now. I have also started to pick out all the buttons and switches with Tamiya paint. Planning to get back on it tomorrow. The Engine has been glued to the bulkhead and the final PE items have been glued and painted just needs a oil wash now.

This is going to be good! I will watching this one as I will be wanting to a base for my TBf once its done!

Well just a small update for today... I have finished off the engine, I just have to add the exhaust manifolds, but instructions calls for that later on in the build... I have sprayed the cockpit ares also today with a Bronze Green. The Bronze Green was a custom mix with 75% Tamiya XF-17 Sea Blue and 25% Tamiya XF-54 Dark Sea Grey, as per Accurate Miniatures website TBF on-line build. I will weather it down tomorrow by adding a white to the mix... Plan to work on the rest of the interior tomorrow, so I can get the Fuselage all buttoned up soon!

Cheers Guys! Yea there were a few "Modeling Terms" said so far... and I'm sure that they will be a few more during the build!

Well guys, the end of last update I said that I was going to start the PE on the bomb bay... Well here we are... The PE looked a lot trickier that than I anticipated! I ordered a Etch Mate from Mission Models about 3 months ago, never used till now! Man, it makes life so much easier! All the PE bits have been fitted to the engine... Those Ignition leads were a lot of fun to fit, NOT!!!! Plan to finish up painting all the details tomorrow night. Fuselage half's and bomb bay have been primed in Tamiya Flat Black, and then given a couple of coats of Model Master Interior Green Well, I will have to try to get down the LHS tomorrow during lunch to get some paint to mix some Bronze Green for the cockpit! Well, that's it for now!

Well finally here is a update! Engine bulkhead has been painted, just need to give a wash and a flat coat and its done! Engine in-progress at the moment - This afternoon I have cracked opened the PE for the bomb bay...

I would be interested to see how you did The Joker as there is no known art work or pictures for this TBF, or do you have something that your not sharing??

I been wanting to start this kit for a while now, since my wife brought for my birthday last year... So I am going to try to turn this - into something like this..... I will be doing NZ2815 "Plonky" of 30 Squadron/30 Servicing Unit, Piva, Bougainville 1944. This is going to be a major first as well as I never have used so much PE before! There will be a few extra bits ordered along the way too... I have started off small with the Engine PE Set, which has the PE of the Engine Bulkhead.

I am about to start the same kit but with a bit of Eduard PE and couple of resin bits here and there. I am going to be doing "Plonky" NZ2815

Wow Chris, that Awesome!! I have a couple on order can't wait now after seening your work out of the box! Looking to do RNZAF E's!! Cant't wait!!

Cheers guys! My next large build is a 1/32 F-4J VMFA-235 Death Angels for the ARC US Marines Corps GB. So I will post a few pic of that too!

I been hanging around in the corners in the dark, for the past year looking at your guys builds and they have been mind blowing! So I thought that its about time I post something here! Some. of you guys will know me from ARC.... Well here's my first ever P-51D Mustang that I built and with my first ever Natural Metal Finish! Everything is out of the box, bar the wheels as I used True Details Resin ones