bdthoresen Posted March 8, 2020 Share Posted March 8, 2020 (edited) Howdy, all! Thought I would show one of my latest projects on the bench, Hasegawa’s 1/32 N1K2 Shiden Kai “Late Version”.......I started this some weeks back as a bit of a “pallette-cleanse” due to some heavy projects on the go. I have been “project-locked“ for some time, and decided that this kit might get me out of my own head! As always, I have started with the cockpit.... The cockpit was sprayed with a black base coat, followed by a coat of Model Master RLM82 Dunkelgrun, as I find it to be a very close match to some pictures I came across of the George that was restored by the Team at Champlin Fighter Museum. I experimented with some different painting techniques to add highlights and shadows, as I found that the cockpit, when assembled, is really dark inside the fuselage. Black components were edge-highlighted in black grey, and the natural wood knobs were painted in Model Master Radome Tan, followed by a coat of Tamiya Clear Orange. Chipping was done by hand with a fine brush, as was some of the generic placarding. I also took a page out of some armor modelers’ playbook, and also forced highlights and shadows with oils. (Martin Kovac is excellent at this.....check out his channel “Night Shift” on the ol’ YouTube!) And another. I still have to put some clear over a few instruments lenses on the radio and side consoles. I will also add some rudder pedal straps from leftovers of an HGW seatbelt set..... Seat assembly was painted as before, HGW seat harness set was installed, and draped in a bit of a haphazard manner. Still need to weather them slightly further. Another. I like the chipping on this one. Still need to add a few scratches with a silver Prismacolor pencil. I will complete this just before I install the cockpit. Right sidewall. Raised details were highlighted with a mix of the base color, and white. I then applied oils for weathering, including a washes and filters. Left Sidewall...... And lastly, the instrument panel. All dials were individually punched from the Hasegawa decal sheet, and applied. The power wire for the reflector gunsight was added from .015” lead wire. I will add the reflector glass from tinted acetate, just before installation of the canopy. I also have the fuselage halves glued together, as well as the wings. I plan to take more photos when there is something more interesting to look at. Thanks for checking in. As always, comments, critiques, and advice always welcome....Take care, until next time..... THOR Edited March 9, 2020 by bdthoresen Spelling errors......doh! Uncarina, LSP_Kevin, Francis and 10 others 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dennismcc Posted March 8, 2020 Share Posted March 8, 2020 That looks great the detail painting is superb, I'm building the same kit at the moment and enjoying it thoroughly. Cheers Dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdthoresen Posted March 8, 2020 Author Share Posted March 8, 2020 Thanks, Dennis. It is a pretty great kit. I do have some seam work on the fuselage where the tails meet up, but should not be overly complicated. I had attached the tails to their respective fuselage half, which did improve the fit some. Looking forward to what you do with yours. I still have not decided on which aircraft to model yet. Will have to see when we get closer to paint! Thanks for the reply! THOR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted March 8, 2020 Share Posted March 8, 2020 That is some mighty work, Thor! Kev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iain Posted March 8, 2020 Share Posted March 8, 2020 Beautiful Thor! Iain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdthoresen Posted March 8, 2020 Author Share Posted March 8, 2020 9 minutes ago, LSP_Kevin said: That is some mighty work, Thor! Kev Thanks Kev! Appreciate it as always! 7 minutes ago, Iain said: Beautiful Thor! Iain Thanks Ian! High praise coming from you, sir! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazzas Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 Sweet looking cockpit and IP, man! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdthoresen Posted March 10, 2020 Author Share Posted March 10, 2020 Thanks Gaz- she is coming along nicely, very happy with the kit so far. Hopefully will get some more work done over this week..... THOR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdthoresen Posted April 7, 2020 Author Share Posted April 7, 2020 (edited) Weathering of the cockpit now complete, I figured I would lay out all of the components for one last photo before final assembly and insertion into the fuselage. THOR Edited April 7, 2020 by bdthoresen dodgem37, scvrobeson, LSP_Kevin and 11 others 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMaben Posted April 8, 2020 Share Posted April 8, 2020 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dennismcc Posted April 8, 2020 Share Posted April 8, 2020 That looks great, it's a shame to hide it away but at least you have the pictures Cheers Dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdthoresen Posted April 8, 2020 Author Share Posted April 8, 2020 2 hours ago, dennismcc said: That looks great, it's a shame to hide it away but at least you have the pictures Cheers Dennis Thanks Dennis. Shortly after that pic was taken, I sneezed, and an aircraft was sitting on the bench! I was pleased at how good the fit was overall, but there were a couple of small problems I did not foresee. I will shoot some photos a bit later and explain. Thanks for stopping in! THOR coogrfan 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdthoresen Posted April 8, 2020 Author Share Posted April 8, 2020 “Meanwhile, behind the facade of this innocent looking workbench”...... As I said, I practically blinked and had an assembled airframe. The bench..... I was surprised at the wing and horizontal stabilizer fit in some locations, some for good reasons, and some for not so good reasons. Allow me to explain...... The main wing root seams were extremely tight, which was a relief because Hasegawa has some lovely molded reinforcement strips along the fuselage wing root fairings. A slight polish of 0000 steel wool along the seams will clean them up nicely. The underside trailing edge seam was fairly tight as well, with just a pinhole showing up, probably from the liberal amount of Tamiya Extra Thin. I have to study my reference materials and figure out what parts, if any, of this seam existed in reality. Also notice the slight panel line misalignment at either side of the glue joint. Another interesting thing here is the the lower wing’s meeting of the trailing edge wing root fairings on the fuselage is not precise. The lower wing half is wider than the fuselage, creating an underside step, or “underbite”..... And lastly, the horizontal stabilizers. They feature an interlocking tab system that ensures they stay perpendicular to the vertical stabilizer. However, I found that the tabs were an extremely tight fit to each other, which in turn caused them to slightly push away at the tail glue joints. You can see the slight mismatch at the “kink” in the tail fairing. Overall, I am impressed by Hasegawa’s overall fit, with just some minor annoyances to attend to. I also am fully prepared to accept that some of these minor annoyances were self-induced. I hope to get all of these scrubbed up quickly, so I can move on to the engine and gear build-up. But my plan is to tend to all these defects and rescribing now, so I can call this sub-assembly done. Comments and critiques always welcome. Thanks for looking- THOR Rocat, CZPetrP, Uncarina and 11 others 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMaben Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 Looks fine from here Thor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff T Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 Very nice work on the cockpit Thor! Cheer's, Jeff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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