Thunnus

One of many idiosyncrasies that I'm discovering about this manufacturer. At first I wondered if I had picked out the wrong part but after a few times, I realized what was happening. This occurs on the really small parts. Maybe they captured more detail on their renders than they were able to implement into their molds? Another strange thing is that many of their 2-part box structures aren't square but trapezoidal. I've selected a dark RAF green (Mr Hobby Aqueous H-73) for the cockpit, based on various discussions and blog posts on the subject. I used it on the instrument panel parts. Compared to the color swatches shown on the Aviation of Japan blog about the D3A interior colors... Thanks Matt! The PE bits are included on the kit's PE fret. Thanks Jay! Unlikely subject for me as I'm more of a single-engine fighter type of person. The film Tora Tora Tora made a great impression on me as a child and led to my interest in WW2 aircraft so I thought this kit would be a great homage to that inspiration.

Thanks guys! Appreciate the comments! Haven't decided on the exterior color yet but have been leaning towards the 50/50 Mr Hobby Aqueous mix myself. I'm pumping the brakes on this one as I start looking at the cockpit. Trying to figure out where I can add some wiring. With a ton of small individual parts to be added to the cockpit floor and sides, it's difficult to visualize how it will all fit together. I am putting together as many of the sub-components together but it's still just a mass of separate parts. Pet peeve... Infinity often puts an ejector pin in the worst possible place. For example, right in the middle of a stepped edge. This part will not seat correctly unless this ejector pin mark is removed. It would be a non-issue if it was placed a few millimeters higher. Interestingly, the instructions exaggerate the detail found on the smaller parts. Assembly #23 looks impressive on paper. In reality, not so much! I replaced one of the knobs on the throttle quadrant. The rear gun was enhanced with included PE parts and a section of brass tube. The prop blades need to be cleaned up and thinned down. The blades have a satisfyingly snug fit into the prop hub. Expecting a similar fit between the hub and engine, I was disappointed to find that the hub hangs very loosely on the prop shaft. Will have to make adjustments as I want a snug fit here for a removable prop.

Beautiful work, Tolga! I love the finish! It looks like the Revell Hurricane is a solid kit.

Wow! Such sublime work on the instruments. The passion behind the technique is what takes your work to that next level. Bravo Peter!

Thanks Kev! I thought about using a thin sheet of brass but I thought this might be easier. Thank you so much Peter! I like when my builds look a bit different from everyone else's but this is an extreme example. Testing out some exterior colors for the D3A1. On the left hand side of the wing is AK Real Colors IJN Amber Grey (RC 303) and on the right is a 50/50 mix of Mr Hobby Aqueous RLM 02 (H70) and Hemp (H336). I scanned the Infinity decal sheet so that I can create as many paint masks for the markings. I wanted to test the aircraft code of the machine that I'll be building. The decal scan was traced in AutoCAD, exported to a DXF file and printed out as a mask on the Silhouette Portrait cutter. Mr Color IJN Markings Red (C385) was used. Infinity molds the prop spinner in three separate parts but it is still overly simplified. Using photo references, I dressed up the hub a bit.

Thanks Matt! The exhaust pipes were airbrushed. A mixture of Alclad Steel and Polished Aluminum for the main body of the exhaust structure. The ends were highlighted with Alclad Exhaust Manifold. Black was sprayed into the hollow end as well as the outer tips to finish the look. There was something that I noticed on the archive photo of the Pearl Harbor D3A1 that I wanted to address. Note the two square hatches on the top of the fuselage behind the engine. Compare with the photo of the Pearl Harbor D3A1... It's obviously a single rectangular hatch with rounded corners and not two square ones. Big raised rivets on it too. I don't know enough about this aircraft to know if there was any variation in these hatches but the photo is clear. I decided to try and convert the double hatches to a single one. It's trickier than a normal scribed panel because panel is slightly raised. I had scribed the outline of the two squares previously. First, I drilled out the hole in front of the hatch, which is also noticeable in the photo. I think it is a vent for the cowling gun. Plastic is pretty thick here so I thinned the plastic around the hole with a rotary tool. The vertical boundary of the hatch was marked off using tape. I used black CA glue to fill the gap between the two square hatches. It is viscous enough to retain its height and I don't have to deal with the waiting and shrinkage issues if I used a liquid putty like Mr Surfacer. An oscillating sander like the D400 is helpful in leveling off the black CA glue after I've zapped it with activator. The tape is removed and the final sanding is done by hand. A scribing template and needle was used to round off the corners of the hatch. The Infinity plastic is very soft and it's possible that the plastic can be pushed during the corner scribing and closing the sharp corner without further work. I got lucky on a few corners but had to fill the others with micro applications of Mr Surfacer. To top off the hatch, I applied raised rivet decals from Archers. A coat of Mr Primer Surfacer 1000 to reveal the finished hatch. This work is being repeated on the other side. A few more views of the finished engine. Some of the ignition wiring and exhaust manifold pipe connections needed to be touched up with fresh paint. Engine is kinda shiny... I may shoot with a bit more flat.

That's exactly what I'm doing. I'm taking a Trumpeter kit and turning it into a Hasegawa molding! Looking at the pillowed look, I get the feeling that it may been unintentional on Infinity's part. It looks a lot like the Italeri F-86 wings and I've read that the pillowed look on those wings were a result of insufficient molding pressure? Yes, it's a very sharp and revealing photo and I was struck by the integrity of the fuselage panels compared to what is presented in the Infinity moldings. It gave me the idea to try something different with this build than I normally do. Cuz I'm the guy who is usually ADDING rivets to my aircraft! Yeah, it's tiresome but I'm liking the result so I'll try to keep going! The BSI works really well... I think you'll like it Kevin! Jumping over to the engine, I've painted the components separately. The main shades were airbrushed and then details were picked out with brush painting. The parts were covered with a clear gloss, given a pastel wash and then sealed with a flat coat. Before I assemble the engine, I use short strands of lead wire for the ignition wires. These will be painted brown and then oriented to the back of the cylinders. Since the view is blocked, I won't go through the trouble of connecting the terminal ends to the ignition ring in the rear of the engine. The engine components are glued together. It took a bit of futzing to get the exhaust tubing to attach to the back of the cylinders but the glue joints were soft enough to gently adjust the stems to fit. I want to check the position of the engine to the fuselage. It looks ok so far but care will be need to taken when gluing the engine in place since orientation is not rock solid. I plan on gluing the engine after the painting stage. The engine cowling attaches to the bottom of the fuselage so I checked that fit as well. Luckily, the exhaust stubs exit in the correct location. The cowling opening is very big so there is a nice view into the engine compartment from the front.

I've spent the last two days filling the rivets on the starboard wing. It's not as hard as the fuselage because it is such a flat surface but still takes some time since I'm also trying to preserve SOME of the rivet lines. After the rivets are filled, I freshen up the panel lines and also try to identify any saved rivet lines that need to be deepened. The sanding process inevitably clogs up the recessed details so it's considerable work to bring the panel lines and rivets back to snuff. After that is done, I give the wing a coat of Mr Primer Surfacer. This reveals some flaws that need to be corrected. These areas are re-sprayed with the primer. This is what the wing now looks like after the rivet removal process. Compared to how the wing was molded. Some comparison shots to show the difference. Whew... lots of hours on one wing half. Three more to go!

Paint looks good and congrats on your first paint mask! Looks just almost perfect. Another step that you might want to add right before you paint the black is to seal the joints between the four corner pieces and the outline mask to prevent paint leakage. Depending on the shape, you can use either tape or liquid mask.

As a general fan of Japanese sci-fi, I like this kind of stuff! So yeah, let's see it! Is there a way to get an overall view of what this project entails? How many parts are we talking about here? Three versions... which one are you going to build? Is it a snap-together kit or glue required? Once built, will it have posable or movable features? Pilot figure included and is he/she anime-styled?

Thanks Ray! Liking it so far. I've not yet attached any of the major components together so my opinion is not fully formed. Pretty good fit for a short run kit... it can be vague without alignment pins or tabs but when you figure it out, things seem to go together reasonably well. The rivet removal work has been very time consuming. I almost regret going down this road but I'm almost halfway there so I'll keep chugging on. I'm way past the point of return anyway. Almost done with one of the upper wings. which I think will summarize, good or bad, the main point of this exercise.

Thanks Alex! Some detail painting was added to the instrument panel parts. The panels were then shot with a 50/50 mix of flat and clear to give a satin finish. A drop of Future was placed into each instrument face. Some of the multi-part assemblies look big in the instructions but in reality, are really tiny. A flat spot was added to the tires.

Looks great Alex! Can't wait to see her with paint. It looks like you painted the spats already!

Thanks guys! I personally don't like the stressed-skin or oil-canning effect that Infinity Models applied with the riveting. So I wanted to see what the model would look like if I removed the oil-canning and most of the rivets. I used this photo of a shot down D3A1 to illustrate my rationale... Back to the instrument panel... I had a set of Airscale 1/32 Instrument Panel Bezels so I thought I'd use them to dress up some, not all, of the instruments. The instrument panel was painted in the cockpit color, which I've chosen to be Dark Green RAF (Mr Hobby Aqueous H-73). The instruments were punched individually from the decal sheet. I'll do a bit of detail painting on the IP before I call it done. Interestingly, fuselage interiors are dressed up with spars and trusses. You don't see this approach on many kits and yes, it is a bit tedious but you DO get a nice 3-D effect. The instructions aren't clear but I found the best fit when the little tabs on the vertical spar pieces hang right above the corresponding horizontal spar on the fuselage. Why oh why did Infinity mold the seats in two pieces? Totally unnecessary, IMO.

Thank you Dennis and Andy! Sanding is performed right after the black CA is applied. I use CA activator to harden the glue instantly. The rivet removal process was performed on the starboard fuselage half. I figured that if I get both fuselage halves complete, I can at least move on to the complex cockpit assembly. After the filling process, the panel lines and remaining rivets were cleaned up. They were then sprayed with a light coat of Mr Primer Surfacer 1000. My natural tendency is to apply more rivets, which I think would look ok without the kit's built-in oil-canning effect but I'm still in Costanza mode and will resist the urge. Taking an initial look at the instrument panel parts. It's hard to see but there is some weird surface striations on the panels. At first, I thought they were raised bezels but they are random marks... minor defects from the molding process. The panels are black so I'm pretty sure it won't be an issue. Again, no aftermarket... I'm going to use the kit decals for the instrument faces. In case I mess up, I do have a copy of Airscale Japanese instruments to fall back on.

Here's some additional clean-up on the engine cowling. I'm removing most of the wing and fuselage rivets but I've elected to keep the riveting on the cowling and forward fuselage area intact because there is no oil-canning effect there. The center wing part is next on the rivet removal schedule. I do this a small section at a time. Fresh sandpaper is key to keep the process from bogging down. The center wing is done. I'll cover this with some primer and then touch up the panel lines and remaining rivets. There are some parts that attach to the bottom wing. One looks like some sort of observation or camera port? I don't know what the bulbous thing is. The port part needs adjustment on the bottom as it does not fit the curvature of the wing very well as is. Here is the kit bomb. As far as I know, the Pearl Harbor D3A1's did not carry any wing bombs so this the only bomb that I'm mounting. Instead of the kit plastic for the bracing around the fins, I elected to use sheet brass and bits of sheet styrene instead. There are PE parts for the spinner things on the front and back. I added a row of raised rivets courtesy of Archer's decals.

There is another Italian seller on Ebay that lists estimated delivery between July 11 and July 26 but if you read the product description, it says, "Expected release of the kit at the end of July". Don't know too much about Italeri's recent releases but is July realistic given that we've not seen a test shot or any sprues? Just CAD renders?

Excellent! It looks like you tamed that beast very well. I think patience and an iterative mindset is important for this type of correction and it looks like you used both on this one.

Just curious Matt... do you have Walthers Solvaset in your arsenal of decal softeners? That's my go-to for tough decals. It's definitely hotter than Micro Sol and it will even soften paint if you let it pool and sit.

Thanks John! The price of 1/32 scale aircraft is definitely on the rise and this one, especially being a short-run one, is no exception. I am still in the process of removing rivets on the major components but I am squeezing in work on other areas whenever possible. Incidentally, I just received a late Fathers Day gift in the post today... This is in anticipation of the future Z-M kit of the Ki-100 which I am eagerly waiting for. Apparently, the Ki-100 used a version of the same Mitsuibishi Kinsei engine used in the D3A1. Based on the nice pictures and drawings of the Kinsei engine in this book, I THINK I've confirmed that ignition wiring harness is indeed located in the back of the engine and not the front.

Another question, Alex... what does the cowling attach to? The engine? Or the bottom fuselage near the exhaust stacks? I'm still bogged down in the tedious removal of rivets... there's LOTS of them!

That corrugated wing surface is the ultimate decaling challenge. Did you score each corrugation with a sharp x-acto blade? You could try that or I would consider scoring around the entire square of clear carrier and trying to remove it. Coincidentally, I saw that Will Pattison on Facebook is dealing with the exact seam issue on his PZL build. I hope you find an acceptable course of action Matt, the model looks lovely so far!

Beautiful paintwork there! Be careful with the Montex black vinyl masks. I've had multiple cases where the masks lifted during the painting process. A combination of the stiffness of the vinyl material and weak adhesive make them a questionable choice on curved surfaces. At least for me.

The M in MSRP stands for Manufacturer. I assumed that Squadron received some information regarding the MSRP of $178.99US from Italeri?

If I am to assume that the ignition ring for the spark plug wires is located in the back, It will make wiring of the engine a little bit easier. I'm just going to add wiring to the front of each cylinder head and I am not going to bother connecting it to the ignition ring since the rear of the engine won't be visible. I conducted a simple test with a single copper wire to see how the wiring would clear the forest of push rods in the front. The two-piece exhaust tips have been cleaned up. They are supposed to butt against the thick end of the exhaust manifold part. I ended up slicing off the raised portion of the manifold and drilling a hole there to make a better illusion of a hollow exhaust. This is the seam after gluing the cowling halves together, which fit very well. Without alignment pins, you can fine tune the fit of parts like these before the glue dries. The seam was touched up with a combination of black CA glue and Mr Primer Surfacer 1000. Once the rivets and panel lines were restored, I sprayed the cowling with a thin coat of Mr Primer Surfacer.