Greif8

Alain, Nick Millman is considered to be a subject matter expert on IJA/IJN aircraft colors. His websire/blog is well worth a visit - lots of fascinating stuff on it. Dave, I've heard the SK 3rd Gen paints are quite good and accurate. I think you won't go wrong with them. I almost followed the kit instructions calling for RLM79 as the cockpit cover. I am glad I remembered to look at Nick Millman's information. I probably did not get 100% color matching with the mix I made, but I think it is close enough given the huge range of hues and shades any WW2 paint would have been at any one time due to several factors. Damian, thank you very much for the kind compliment! Ernest

The cockpit is finished and the fuselage has been joined together and smoothed out. Getting the wires/cables threaded was a bit fiddly. While the IP does not look quite as nice as an AM IP it gets the job done when viewed a normal distances. The left sidewall turned out fairly nice. The wires and cables, and the decals add some life to it. A very poor photo of the right sidewall (I could not get the light ballance to work). The leather portions of the seat turned out well. You will notice there is no seatbelt. The AM one I wanted to install was the wrong type - very poor prep on my part. As this was planned as an OOB build I opted not to order an AM one. Should have brushed the dust off before taking the photo! The fuselage join was pretty good and mostly trouble free. However, the upper engine/gun tray cover was another story. It took quite a bit of positioning and sequential gluing to get it somewhat close to being correct. That was followed by a fair amount of sanding to get it shaped like it should be. I had to rescribe the two inner latches on the right side, and as you can see in the closeup I did not do a perfect job. The left did not require nearly as much shaping so I managed to keep the molded details intact. The front part of the cover had a gap that I filled with a small piece of plastic card and sanded into shape. I managed to save the molded details here as well, for which I was thankful as scribing is my worst modelling skill be far. You might be able to make out that the part of the cover closest to the cockpit is slightly raised. I opted not to correct this as the Ki-61 was based on the Bf-109 and it was common on those aircraft for that part of the cowling to be raised slightly - and sometimes more than slightly.

Welcome aboard Ted, glad to have you! Ernest

Fantastic work Mike! You have built a real masterpiece, much respect! Ernest

Man that oil staining looks real! Great work Jay! I used to drive Saabs before the company stopped making autos - I was always satisfied with them. Now I am a Volvo guy. Ernest

Beautiful work Tom, and very inspiring! Ernest

Paolo, I echo Tom above in saying that is always a privledge to follow your work. Brilliant job using oils for the streaking effects as well as the other weathering. I had to chuckle a bit as I use the exact same oils that you do; however, I almost only use mine when painting figures. Your build has inspired me to try them out on an aircraft in the future. Ernest

your build is looking great Dennis. You recovered from the decal issues quite nicely! I have always found the HGW wet transfers to be a bit hit and miss, especially the stenciling ones. Ernest

Absolutely beautiful work Gary! One of the best, if not the best, of your builds overall! The paint work alone is top shelf and you did an outstanding job weathering it. The vignette is also very well done, top marks my friend! How did you make the grass base? It looks really good. Ernest

Magnificent engine John and brilliant engineering using the magnets. I may have missed it, but are you planning to leave the cowl see-through? Ernest

Stunning build and very interesting back story Iain! Ernest

The Gauntlet is a real beauty Max! I echo what others have said about your photography - it is spectacular. The B&W photo suspends reality and makes the model look like the real aircraft; it doesn't get any better than that! Ernest

OOB builds can be a lot of fun and if the kit is high quality like this one AM is not really required IMHO at least. I hope you get a lot of pleasure from the build as you progress. Ernest

I missed the start of your build thread due to being on vacation Max. I just looked through it and your work overall is top shelf and very instructional as well! The finished aircraft looks fantastic! Well done!!! Ernest

First, congratulations on your retirement Chuck, I hope you have many, many happy years in front of you to enjoy it. Your work and the documentation of that work is superb as always! My oldest son finishes his apprenticship as a computer assisted graphics designer this coming summer; maybe he can teach me to do what you are able to do when it comes to documenting your build progress as it is first rate. Ernest

Forza Paolo, lavoro brillante! (Man I hope I wrote that right, I can speak Italian much better than I can read or write it.) Your combination of the salt and dot techniques is outstanding, and your use of oil paints to replicate exhaust staining is something new to me, and very well executed by you. Top quality all around my friend. Ernest

Continued great work Miloslav, the painting looks fantasitic! The Technical Museum in Sinsheim Germany has a MiG-23 ML on display that likely was donated by either Poland or the Czech Republic. Your the paint work on your build looks very much like the displayed aircraft's paint. Ernest

Magnificent work John, absolutely master class! The engine is beautiful to behold. Ernest

The IP looks great Michael, excellent progess overall! Ernest

Top painting and weathering Man! You did an outstanding job painting the shark's mouth as well. The pilot figure reminds me of the character played by Robert Duvall in the film Apocolypse Now! Ernest

Superb build as always! Ernest

Thank you Alain! As I told Gary above a almost always follow Nick Millman's views on colors. I'm glad I checked his site as the instructions got it very wrong. Ernest

Thank you Gary! The kit cockpit is just fine with a bit of scratchbuilding and work and I saw no need to go AM. I like Aotake myself, I have a mix that I made using Tamiya Acrylics (Keeping it incountry as it were), that looks either bluish-green or greenish-blue depending on how the light hits it. Very nice color! I did some research on Nick Millman's website and he mentioned the mix of Tamiya paint for the cockpit color of this aircraft. As Nick is a subject matter expert on Japanese aircraft paint colors, I went with his opinion. Ernest

Nice choice and cool scheme. Ernest

Man that is a nice looking kit Denders! Ernest