spacewolf Posted October 22, 2009 Share Posted October 22, 2009 Perhaps you could paint it orange and have tropical fruit advertisement stickers on it ?... Seriously, that sucks (and not well either)... any chance you can sand it down a bit and re-coat ? Cheers Vaughn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Mike Posted October 22, 2009 Share Posted October 22, 2009 The round blobby thing in front of the engine is an oil cooler, and is actually a series of concentric rings. Good luck fixing the paint! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wingman777 Posted October 28, 2009 Author Share Posted October 28, 2009 I decided to work on the pilot figure since I was getting depressed with the disgusting paint situation. This image shows a Japanes army pilot climbing into a Ki-45. His uniform differs from the Japanese naval pilot in that his gloves are not the long gauntlet type but are more like work gloves. He isn't wearing a floatation vest and his boots are a bit different. That being the case I couldn't use the excellent figures from the Tamiya A6M5 and had to gack to robbing parts from the stash of pilot bodies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wingman777 Posted October 28, 2009 Author Share Posted October 28, 2009 I used one of the two heads that come with the Tamiya Zero, they look more Europeans than oriental in appearance so I used a grinding wheel and took the face out of the helmet piece. I chose a donor Japanese solcier from that old familiar pile and cut away everything that wouldn't fit into the helmet. I borrowed the gloves from the same Tamiya crew and came up with this for starters. I'll have to tweak it some more to get the right look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wingman777 Posted October 28, 2009 Author Share Posted October 28, 2009 Curiosity was getting the best of me so I put a little paint on it and came up with this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wingman777 Posted October 28, 2009 Author Share Posted October 28, 2009 Got my courage back up and continued with painting. I won't be using any decals on this one so what you see was done using paint and plenty of masking tape. I'm starting to think I"ll be able to recover from the paint snafu and bring this one to a satisfactory level once completed. All I have to do now is apply the splotchy green and blend it with some weathering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wingman777 Posted October 28, 2009 Author Share Posted October 28, 2009 In this view of the front, the radiator and gun barrels are noticeable but the missing kit engine isn't. Once the battery is mounted and the prop starts to turn I don't think it'll be an issue and you'll be the only ones that know the engine isn't there so keep it under your hat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wingman777 Posted October 28, 2009 Author Share Posted October 28, 2009 A quick shot of the bottom reveals the painted on hinomarus and the aotake in the landing gear bay. I have my own home brew version for the bluish / translucent protective coating used on these Japanese planes, it's a mixture of blue and green food coloring applied to Future floor polish. You can spray it or brush it on, easy and looks the part to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacewolf Posted October 29, 2009 Share Posted October 29, 2009 Awesome work, though your pilot looks a bit like Homer Simpson..right down to the color ! The painting is looking great and I don't think the missing engine is going to be an issue at all. Great work ! Cheers Vaughn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out2gtcha Posted October 29, 2009 Share Posted October 29, 2009 .............you'll be the only ones that know the engine isn't there so keep it under your hat. Just kiddn! Its looking great! Cheers Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wingman777 Posted October 30, 2009 Author Share Posted October 30, 2009 "m progressing with the paint scheme and this image shows the aircraft I"m trying to duplicate. The green camo scheme is scabbed up pretty bad and the metl finish looks pretty dull as far as I can tell with a b&w photo. Notice the pilot is wearing a light colored shirt / uniform. My guess is that he's wearing light weight clothing instead of the typical baggy flight suit which is usually seen in darker colors. I imagine Burma can get pretty hot during the summer months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wingman777 Posted October 30, 2009 Author Share Posted October 30, 2009 I don't know about you but I love box art and this one is pretty good. I used it for color reference since its very similar to the previous shot. I can imagine there would be several greens used on these aircraft depending on what they had available on their particular island. They probably had to mix or thin paints at times just to make their supply last. I used Kawanishi army green from my Polyscale stash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wingman777 Posted October 30, 2009 Author Share Posted October 30, 2009 I used pieces of sponge and a small brush to come up with this paint job. It has that well worn look of the original paint patterns that have been disrupted by wind, rain, sun and heat. I didn't want this paint scheme to look anything close to what I've done on my Ki-84 or the N1K2 so I didn't use the airbrush or the same color as used on them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wingman777 Posted October 30, 2009 Author Share Posted October 30, 2009 I'm not finished wth the painting or weathering but its starting to come together... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wingman777 Posted October 30, 2009 Author Share Posted October 30, 2009 As done on the George I'm doing gradual weathering so that it doesn't look like it all happened at one time and though the Japanese paint jobs could look rough at times I still don't want to over do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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