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Ki-45 Toryu - Kai-Ko - 53rd Sentai, Matsudo AB, 1944 - DONE!


Out2gtcha

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I broke one of the super micro MLED light leads on my F-104D, and had to order a replacement, which the wait for, promptly killed all motivation for the build and subsequently a lot of modeling MoJo in general.

 

In hopes of rekindling some modeling fire in anticipation of my normal Christmas into New Years work period where I work from home for two weeks, and generally its a time of light work, with lots of fun modeling if I have a good subject, I have busted out onto the bench my latest acquisition, the 1/32nd ZM Ki-45 Kai Ko:

 

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I've heard such rave reviews of how well the newest gen ZM kits fit, and having talked to the "old man" and his son several times, I was thinking this may very well be the good fitting fun to build kit that could get some of my modeling MoJo back on track.  The box is thick, and come absolutely stuffed with plastic. 

 

I've really only got a few AM parts to go with it, but I did get the Master barrel set, the ZM weighted wheels and an IP from Yahu:

 

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The scheme I have chosen is fairly well known in pictures, but its quite unusual in its equipment make up. This particular Kai-Ko, has the short nose like all Kai-Ko, but the landing light is covered over and painted in camo colors, as well as the fact that unlike most Kai-Ko, it has the fuselage mounted oblique firing guns as well:

 

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Ive ordered in some MRP colors and approximated them as best I could from photos. I think all will work for its intended purpose with the exception of the light grey. Im still up in the air about that one. The grey in the photos is obviously very light, but white is still a very visibly different shade. The MRP grey I have gotten may be too light. I wont know until I do some test spraying later. I may have to switch out to an ever so slightly darker shade of gray. 

 

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Now the ZM Kai-Ko kit does not come with the oblique firing guns, parts nor the correct cover to allow the guns through the top of the fuselage, but thanks to our own Andy/Kagemusha I've got that covered too, as he is sending me the correct fuselage upward firing guns that will replace the fuel tank that is supposed to sit  in that same spot.

 

Its snowing very lightly here on this Sunday afternoon as I write this, Ive only gotten just a ways on the engines and engine stands so far:

 

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All for now lads, as I hope to start ramping up progress quickly on this one so I can get back in the swing of things!

 

Cheers, 

 

 

 

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Thanks Jan!

 

AVIPrint did a profile of this aircraft in 48th (3rd one down), but they missed the oblique guns:

 

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I executed to good effect (at least IMHO) a similar patterned type camo on my HKM Do-335, and did it all free-hand. That camo was an what-if with no restrictions as I was not going for anything real.

This camo however while similar, fits tighter together, and as you can see from the above 1:1 pics, the camo edge is not soft, but very evidently a hard edge camo. 

 

I imported some of the camo profiles into my Silhouette cutter, and then traced them out after cutting the camo splotches themselves out of the profiles. This worked really well actually, and I think will work to great effect to create this camo with a hard edge instead of a soft one. I like the effect the ZM guys got on their demo kit, but its very evident it was free-handed (nothing wrong with that!) and in the case of my scheme, there is no "greening out" of the base color in between the interlocking-ish green splotches.

 

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I also did one for the fuselage too:

 

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These will be tweaked I'm sure as I go along to keep things random, but will I think get me the hard edge camo I'm looking for.  I plan on spraying all the uppers with the green, then laying on the camo pattern splotches, then spraying the over all grey.  First however, I plan on spraying the home defense bands and Hinomaru, as well as yellow leading edge areas. 

 

All for now

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Thanks boys!

 

10 minutes ago, Thunnus said:

Awesome!  Looking forward to this latest project!  The masks for the mottles are a great idea but I don't envy you on the application and removal of all of those little buggers!  But the results should be stunning!

 

 

Thanks John, and yes, that wont particularly be a joy to remove! Although I probably could do this scheme free-handed, with the pics of the real deal Ive seen I think the masks are probably the best way to go to keep the demark lines crisp and hard like the 1:1 pics.

 

Those little splotches wont be too much of a joy to apply either, but it some sick way, I kind of enjoy masking and painting like this. 

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10 minutes ago, Out2gtcha said:

Thanks boys!

 

 

 

Thanks John, and yes, that wont particularly be a joy to remove! Although I probably could do this scheme free-handed, with the pics of the real deal Ive seen I think the masks are probably the best way to go to keep the demark lines crisp and hard like the 1:1 pics.

 

Those little splotches wont be too much of a joy to apply either, but it some sick way, I kind of enjoy masking and painting like this. 

 

Yeah, kinda therapeutic like a puzzle!

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