b757captain

More pics: Thanks for looking!

Hi guys, Well, this is the last one in the series of "built in a tiny hotel room in Japan". I have finally moved from the "torpedo tube" hotel room to a real apartment, so I now officially have no more excuses for any boo-boos! I really wondered what the maid thought I was doing building and displaying models in the room. At least I never had a paint spill - that might have been hard to explain! On to the subject - I have had a consistently hard time finding any of the P-40 series from Hasegawa. I never seem to be looking when they are in production, but I finally snagged this one. I have figured out the model/paint/supplies thing here in Japan but still haven't cracked the code for AM, so she's built straight from the box, except for seat belts from Finemold. I like the belts better than PE but haven't figured out a good way to pose then realistically yet. Still working on that. Construction is usual modern Hasegawa, no fuss, very little filler except on the seam for the tail section but that's to be expected. Paints are a combo of Tamiya and Mr. Color and the washes are Vallejo. I tried to not over-weather, I wanted a used but not abused look. Some of the weathering doesn't show well in the photos, that's me learning the new camera. I did finally upgrade cameras from the phone to a Canon EOS T6 with all the bells and whistles but it's a steep learning curve for a camera dummy. Without further ado: More pics to follow, Cheers, Mark

Thanks Kevin!

The markings are straight from the box. One of the few things Italeri did right in the kit. One of the things horribly wrong with the kit is the canopy fit. Basically, it doesn't! I painted everything with the canopy off so I had some touch-up required on the canopy rails. I was hesitant to tape the rails - knowing my luck I would hit and lift a decal with tape - so I hand painted the rails. Only excuse - my eyesight isn't what it used to be! Cheers, Mark

Thanks Sean!

Already done! https://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=57130&hl=

Ouch! Talk about cruel and unusual punishment Can I plea that down to making me build a Tamiya Zero, like the one I have in the stash? Please??

Thanks Rod! Thanks Anthony! Thanks Marcel!

Thanks (!!!) but I sure don't belong in the category of the guys with "it"! I see builds that make my jaw drop. I just build for fun

I'm going off a semi-fuzzy memory here, I built the Hasegawa kit many years ago. As I remember the Hase is an F-86F-40 so it does not have the 6+3 wing, rather the wide-chord slatted wing with the longer span. I remember seeing a few articles about how the convert the wing, both the right way and the quick and dirty way. The Hase kit is raised panel lines like all their kits of that era but pretty good surface detail otherwise. Basic cockpit, WW and speedbrake cavities. Probably would need the same AM treatment to bring it up to a good standard. I'm sure there are lots of other issues with the Hasegawa kit but that's all I can remember. Just like most of Hasegawa's early kits (of all scales) a really good modern kit is necessary.

Thanks!

I'd even settle for Trumpeter, as long as the A team did it. My first model was a 1/72 F-101 Voodoo. Same soft spot but no options in 1/32. Someday I might scratch-build one. That will guarantee a 1/32 release! Thanks!

Thanks Barry! Thanks Peter! My multi-shade NMF in the past have all failed at the clearcoat stage because I didn't vary the Al contrast enough. Learned my lessons for this one Thanks Dave! I used the decals. Like I said earlier, they were great. Only part of the kit I can recommend.

Holy **** on a cracker, Batman! I am a raging moron Just scrolling through the thread I happen to glance at my photos and - there it is, staring at me, proof of my moron status: I misplaced the stars-n-bars decals on both speedbrakes. Please comment on the appropriate punishment - anything ranging from Catholic school nun ruler-smack-to-the-wrist to hari-kari. Mark

I have a love/hate relationship with Aires - sometimes they hit one out of the ballpark, and sometimes they drop the ball so spectacularly it boggles the mind. Kinda like Trumpeter However, sometimes they are the only game in town so I still roll the dice with them. Many thanks! I'm not holding my breath for Tamiya or a re-tool from Hasegawa. I remember reading Paul Fisher's blog on Korean-era jets and I think he's right - the market just isn't there, they get lost between WWII and Vietnam subjects. Mark

Thanks Alan! JCAB check finished, doing line training now. Tedious! Mark

More pics: Photos were taken with my phone so apologies there. As a final note, I realize that the Korean era jets probably don't have enough of a following to justify Tamiya doing a kit, but Hobby Boss has a pretty good F-84 - it puts this kit to shame. HB, how about it? Mark

Hi fellas, I should subtitle this as "Next in the series of hotel room builds". Sitting (living) in a hotel room for months on end sucks! So to alleviate the boredom I build models (the good news is hotel living ends next week - I finally get to move into an apartment. Yay!) The other good news about living in Japan is easy access to some damn good hobby shops. They may be a dying breed elsewhere but here the stores are fantastic! So, on to the Sabre - This is the Italeri re-boxing (I think) of the Kinetic F-86. I remember being somewhat disappointed when I bought the kit a few years ago so I went on an AM buying spree to try to spruce it up some. Didn't work - it wound up on the Japanese hotel shelf-of-doom. Frankly not impressed with the kit at all. It reminds me of mid-70s Revell fit but with pretty good surface detail and really poor internal detail. So the cockpit was replaced with the Aires pit. Don't waste your time - bad fit and lots and lots of trimming to make all the parts fit. And the Aires seat looks like a carbon copy of the kit seat. My recommendation is spiff up the kit parts with some Eduard PE instead. I went with the CMK seat - better. Next up for AM was the Aires wheel wells and speedbrakes. Better, at least the wheel wells, detail-wise. The fit, well - that's what put the kit on the SOD! But I perservered. One note about the speedbrakes - the Aires installation will position the open speedbrakes at the wrong angle - I didn't notice until it was too late to fix, or at least by that time I lost interest in fixing them . Where was I? Oh, yeah, AM to fix the kit issues. I used the AMS intake and gun ports, and gear doors from somewhere, can't remember now. Using the AMS intake fixes the nose but prevents the kit intake from lining up. Good thing the kit provides intake and exhaust covers. The alignment issue might also be the interaction with all the resin stuffed into the nose Spoiler alert - NOTHING on this kit fits worth a damn! After all the AM got installed, time for some glue. Then back to the SOD. And a trip to the hobby shop for more putty. I think every single seam needed putty! Then she got black primer - Mr. Surfacer 1500, really impressed there, and finally I was absolutely going to figure out how to do a varied aluminum panel jet! I used Mr. Color Aluminum, , Super Metallic Titanium and Stainless Steel to get the panel shades. Looks good to me, so a couple of coats of clear and time for decals. The bright shining spot for the whole enterprise, the decals are superb! All the picks I could find of this bird showed it to be pretty clean so I just did a wash of the wheel wells and gear and called it good. I was shooting for a semi-gloss finish but it came out more satin. Too late, I'm tired of messing with it! So here she is: More pics to follow, Cheers, Mark

Thanks guys! Good news! The Skymaster survived the trip from the shoebox hotel room in Tokyo to the (slightly larger but still) shoebox hotel in Narita. I was sweating the train ride because I had to travel during morning rush hour - never seen people stuffed so tightly into a train car like that before! Only broke the nose gear and gear door off, Easy repairs. Now for the search for more substantial accommodations so I have room to breathe. Mark

6 months? Ha! They say that but the average time to a JCAB license is usually 9 months to a year Cheers, Mark

Thanks Alan! Nope, I left the 767 finally, it just holds too much gas! I hate long-haul flying so I moved back to the 737NG a few years ago - I went back and forth between the types for a few years but my last jet will be the 737. Plus, and I hate to say this because the 757/767 is my favorite to fly, but the platform is dying/dead and the airframes are being converted to cargo or scrapped at an accelerating rate. I'm with Spring Airlines Japan, seems ok so far, I like the country much better than some of the "garden spots" I have been the last few years! My next flying job, if there is one, will be very part time in a light twin or turboprop on a remote tropical island where I spend most of my time hanging out on my sailboat and only fly to cover my bar tab. Hopefully. Cheers, Mark

A shoe-box would have been luxurious compared to this place! Thanks guys!

Thanks guys!

Thanks guys!

Thanks Brian! Cabin not modified, it's all OOB. The rear radio rack and boxes are all in the kit (and fit surprisingly well too!). I decided on only 2 seats based on a passage from a book I read many years ago where an O-2 pilot was getting a checkride in theater (Thailand I presume). After takeoff the examiner pulled an engine to idle and said what are you gonna do? Piot calmly reached behind his seat, grabbed his parachute and started putting it on. Examiner says what are you doing? Pilot says this airplane will not maintain altitude on one engine with both of us on board and you outrank me, so I guess I have to jump! The book went on to say the O-2 was overweight with all the radio gear and weapons mounted so I presumed that all unnecessary weight such as extra seats would have been removed. Not much photo documentation around for the O-2 interiors. I did make a boo-boo with the shoulder harnesses though - they should have attached to the cabin roof. Mark