mywifehatesmodels

Great job and I love the choice of markings. John

Thanks for the kind words, everyone! It's good to be able to post a LSP again (although I have some Non-LSP stuff on the bench at the moment). I have some other, bigger LSP projects in the works and may even post a WIP thread again, soon. I'm planning on a He 111P build and I should have everything I need for it in the next week, or so. I think the best way for me to keep on top of it and stay motivated to document everything, would be to start a thread. Thanks again! John

Fantastic Emil!

I actually finished this model a couple/few months back, but was having trouble getting good photos, due to the metal base finish and the lighting in my shop. I kind of put the photo shoot on the back burner, but everything came together yesterday and I was able to get a good session in with some cool clouds in the background. This is a fairly basic build of another great Hasegawa kit. I added Quickboost exhausts, brake lines from wire and the antenna wire is E-Z Line. Oh, and I also riveted the entire airframe. The base finish is Testors Metalizer Aluminum Plate from the rattle can. It was buffed to a decent shine, then coated with Future. The rest of the colors are Model Master enamels. All of the national markings were masked and painted. The decals came from my spares and represent an aircraft from the IJA Akeno Flying School. Weathering was done with oils and pastels. This was also another opportunity to improve my figure painting skills. Still a long way to go, but that's why I'm practicing! Enjoy! John

Fantastic! I've wanted to do a build of this specific F-2 for a while. Didn't know anyone had done decals in 1/32. Good to know! Again, great work! John

Just WOW!

SUPERB!

Looking forward to this one! Great start, Jay! John

Amazing and inspirational! And so what if that's a kids'chair? It covers a whole card table! Thanks for posting! John

Great to see another IJA subject, alongside my own, with Olivier's fantastic Ki-61. John

Thanks, Kev. Anytime. I'm flattered to be featured. Thanks, Mike. I wish there were more good SEATED pilots and crew available. I've had an urge to include them, lately. Thanks to everyone for the kind words! John

Been a while since I posted (or even finished) a LSP build. This Ki 43 was supposed to be a quick weekend project, but it ended up taking me a couple of weeks, as I ran into some trouble. This particular boxing was one of the limited edition versions that came with a replacement resin cowl. The new cowl, while not exactly "correct", was still an improvement over the original kit part. However, that was not to be, as I found out that the resin part had either shrunk significantly, or was never quite large enough to begin with (kind of leaning toward the latter). So, I used the original plastic cowl, instead, but did a few modifications in an attempt to improve it's looks. Not sure if I accomplished that, but it made me feel better, anyway. I sanded about a millimeter off the front face of the cowl to shorten if a touch and then recontoured/opened up the opening, itself, to round it back off again. The next step was to improve the looks of the intake by building it up with Milliput and sanding it smooth. Hardly noticeable unless you're looking for it. But, again, it made me feel better. I also decided to add a pilot, but didn't want to use the "Gingerbread man" type that was originally issued with the kit (which I believe may be older than I am). I used the pilot from Hasegawa's more recent Ki 61 kit. Beyond that, I made a new pitot tube from Brass/hypodermic tubing, as well as adding brake lines made from wire. The cowl flaps are PE parts that I had left over from my last Ki-43 build, several years ago. I used mostly Model Master enamels for the main finish and took a swing at the hairspray technique to achieve the chipping I was after. I made a big painting blunder on the fuselage sides, so I ended up going over those areas again. I like the way it looked before I messed it up, even better, but it is what it is. The final step was to do some oil filters/wash. The photos don't do it justice and I found it extremely difficult to get good, representative photos of the model. It's no contest winner, but I can honestly say that it looks much better in person than in the photos (especially the depth of the finish). Oh, I also forgot to mention that all the markings were masked and painted, using the kit decals as a stencil to cut masks for the tail number. The only decals used were on the trim tab and flap warnings, which are almost invisible, anyway. A fun build, but also reinforcing my opinion that we need an updated kit of this iconic aircraft. Hope that comes soon! Thanks for looking! John

Looking GREAT! So many great paint schemes for the Ki-43. I just finished a 1/32 Oscar of my own. Will be posting pics as soon as I get some decent weather for photography. I look forward to seeing you finish! Thanks for posting, John

Great start! I'll be following this one, for sure. Lord knows I have enough 1/32 German twin projects to keep me more than busy for awhile, but I''m hoping that ICM (or somebody) decides to do a 217M. That's one 1/48 kit I could see myself buying! John