Alain Gadbois

It’s going to be nice and different to see a Spit with a modern touch! Alain

Hi all! Back to the Ki-44! Cockpit has a coat of blue and props and spinner are painted. Colors used are shown. With wash will appear darker and should be ok. Basic coat here again. On the right side the parts are for my Ki-64, that I should get back to! The color is a mix about 1:1 of each. Also, I am making by own masks for the two « 25 » on the gear covers. By making my own I mean taking an X-Acto and cutting Tamiya tape. The originals are hand painted and somewhat irregular. We’ll see how these turn out! Next more cockpit updates. Alain

The central instrument panel, side consoles, floor and stick are green. Looks like the olive green of army tanks! The seat, cockpit sides and the lateral sections of the panel are aluminum. Seat cushion is black.

Weird but cool aircraft! Great choice! I have the Kagero book on the Yak-23, should you need any info on any part of this aircraft. Alain

Hi! Since the last update I got busy again with a new miniature to print and paint up for the promo photos. If it can be moved over to the 25th anniversary GB, I would appreciate it. This is aircraft #25, isn’t it? To me it seems as the 25% threshold is not attained yet. I have not been able to paint the cockpit yet, just some of the bits in the trays shown above. Thanks, Alain

Cool! Might be fun to paint with the pre-war splinter camo in gray, green and brown. Alain

The bigger shock was the realization of the mistake, but fixing it turned out to be quite straightforward. Luckily I had the thick CA which I had purchased for the miniature shown above. Also, the finished model is black, so that should help hidding imperfections!

So here’s the paint test for the cockpit and and fabric surfaces. The blue looks a bit darker than it is in reality, but I will still add a bit of white as the cockpit has a very small opening and it may end up being too dark. The cowl section. It is a beautiful single piece casting with the inner top intake and bottom oil radiator (4 parts) to add. I painted the ducting for the radiator with Citadel paint. Love this paint for little details as it is formulated for brush application. Going to paint the cockpit this afternoon. Alain

Good progress, looks great!

It’s definitely around 1/20-1/22 scale. Tamiya F-1 drivers appear to fit quite well if the seats and floor of the kit are modified. The kit gnomes are best thrown away! Didn’t know it was reissued. Any corrected parts for the interior by any chance?

How time flies! Drilled the holes out with the help of this nice drill set. Next I spent 17 hrs 3d printing and painting this miniature for work! About 5cm in height but a mass of individual parts to assemble and create a nice pose for the box. I don’t have any information on the pilot, but here’s an interesting comparison of the wings surfaces of different aircraft. Top is a Bf 109 G (Hasegawa) Middle the Ki-44 Bottom a Ki-43 (Revell) Fully loaded weights of each in the same order: ‘109: 3 148kg Ki-44: 2 764kg Ki-43: 2 590kg So a much lower wing loading for the Ki-43! The Maru Mechanic had this great rivet plan for the aircraft. I followed that for the most part, but simplifying in places. The flaps are separate parts but they were glued in the closed position as that is the way they always are on the ground. They stand a bit proud from the wing surface but I couldn’t find out if that is correct. Anyway this does not look obviously wrong. Does look better compared to the unmodified parts. The fuselage has inserts but I thought I could add them later without any problems… But was I wrong! Somehow I though the doors (for loading the cowl guns) would fill the openings but they are smaller and the riveting should continue on the inserts. Also the fit was not so good as the surface ended being a bit lower than the surrounding surface. Didn’t notice that until the glue had set solidly. The edges were filled with thick CA. Then scraped and sanded flush. The concave fuselage at this spot made it possible to get a pretty smooth surface, at the expense of the rivetting but this will be done again using the still remaining bits. Most parts have been cleaned up with some subassemblies complete. Parts of the fuselage and cockpit are ready for primer, and others are sorted in two trays, one for silver, the other for black. Doing paint tests today for the fabric surfaces (visible on the underside) and the cockpit interior which will be in dark blue. More tomorrow! Alain

Very good finish! I like the oil and dirt stains under the fuselage and wings. Alain

Camouflage looks perfect! If it worked in the end, then all is good! Alain

I trying to stay OOB, but this seat is crying for it’s holes to be drilled out! I must resist the chants of the super detailling sirens! The Ki-44 is a really beautiful looking kit. Just starting to assemble cockpit and wing parts and fit is excellent so far. Very good detailing all around. Alain

In with this entry! Captain Hideaki Inayama was flying this striking Ki-44 in the 87th Sentai that was part of the 10th Hikodan of the Japanese home islands’ Eastern Defense Sector. He was credited with 5+ victories (Osprey’s Japanese Army Air Force Aces 1937-1945). This is the very nice Hasegawa kit, which is a nicely detailed yet simple kit. I intend to build essentially straight from the box. Some references: The aircraft in question: The link with this GB is that this aircraft has the number 25, hand painted, on its main gear covers. Stay tuned! Alain

Great photos! I like the hut, it’s where P/O Brooker is taking a quick nap waiting for the phone call to scramble! Man, the greenest grass I have ever seen! Glad the windscreen adjustment wasn’t too much trouble! Looked like a custom attempt to get a couple extra miles per hour on the ‘plane! Alain

Fantastic looking Hurricane Max! Love the realistic weathering. Might the windscreen be a bit too angled backwards? Alain

Here’s a 17 minute great instrumental piece from the seventies. Harmonium is a group from Quebec, Canada. Alain

If we are talking about completely new kits, I think that a Fw 190 D-9 would be the best seller for Kotare, even before a P-51 B. But having just released a Luftwaffe type, they might go for an American aircraft next. As I am writing this, looking at parts of an old Revell P-38, I realize it’s not so big even as a twin. No engines would keep the number of parts down. So I would not rule out a P-38 as the next Kotare kit. As WNW before, the quality of the product will create the market, so I believe anything they release will be successful. Typhoons maybe? I would be definitely go for a Ki-43 myself! Alain

The weathering on the underside is excellent! The flow of the stains stretching backwards is highly realistic. Alain

Great to see it on its wheels! Satisfying milestone attained! Tire pressure seems a bit high, beware of a blowout! Those stencils are absolutely the most convincing as they are, after all, applied just like the real ones! Now imagine these on any bare metal finish: no silvering or even visible decal film to be wary of! Alain

Excellent results when reproducing the finish on the exhausts. They look just like the prototype. Alain

Not a massive update, but here’s the progress before Christmas. I am planning more work on the Snowspeeder later this month. So, first I glued styrene rings to the brass cylinder replacements, so as to be able to glue the rear kit bit on with just Tamiya Ultra thin. Also detailed the underside of the lower control surfaces. Here’s the final look eventually… But before gluing anything, I will fit some foam bits so the control surfaces have some poseability. As is, they just float around very loosely. More foam to help hold the top control surfaces. There a bit of ajusting to do so it is not too tight for movement. Also have started to redo part of the canopy with thin clear styrene, as the kit parts are thick. But no photo yet, will have to add some to explain better! Thanks for your interest! Alain

I guessed at least one was a Hurricane, as shown on the cover! Sad for the Tiger Moth, wonder how he managed that! As for the money, I agree with you. But what I have to be careful about is sneaking the new kits through the garage door.

Max, did you really needed to spend 200£ to model six holes in the ground?