turbo Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 Excellent John! Will watch with interest as I'm thinking of tackling my first Japanese subject for my next build... Thunnus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out2gtcha Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 Nice! No rest for the motivated modeler! Cant wait to see more Thunnus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunnus Posted June 23, 2020 Author Share Posted June 23, 2020 Thanks for checking in! I spent the day wiping off my first paint job on those landing gear legs. Didn't like a number of things so I decided to wipe the paint off, clean up the legs a little more and try again. After that, I start putting together the kit cockpit to see how she looks. It's pretty complete but I have the Brengun photoetch that proposes to replace a lot of this stuff. I haven't put everything into place but the major components have been tacked into position either by friction or Blue Tack. When the other sidewall is put into place, you get the sobering reality of a very limited view into that spacious cockpit. I'll have to think about the Brengun photoetch and any other additions that I had in the back of my mind like more wiring. F-4Phanwell, Paul in Napier, Doctorgaz and 6 others 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn M Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 looking good! the wiring behind the IP "should" be visible on the completed cockpit, quick easy addition Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunnus Posted June 23, 2020 Author Share Posted June 23, 2020 On 6/22/2020 at 12:30 AM, MikeMaben said: Hey John , there appears to be a flap that curves over the opening so I doubt the gun would be visible. Looks like one side might be open Thanks Mike! That's what I wanted to confirm. So it looks like the view into the chutes might be blocked off so I'm going to repair the hole I drilled and spray the openings a dark color... that should be sufficient. F-4Phanwell, Landrotten Highlander, scvrobeson and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunnus Posted June 24, 2020 Author Share Posted June 24, 2020 I've glued in the wing inserts. When the glue is dry, I'll fill the joints with CA glue since they do not correspond to any panel lines. I was curious about the fit of the major components so I cut the pieces out for a dry fit. The tail unit features an internal baffle, presumably to help align the horizontal stabilizers correctly. Fit is very good but again, the joint does not correspond to any panel lines so the joint needs to be totally smoothed out. Instead of gluing the tail assembly as a unit, I will glue the left tail to the left fuselage and right to right first. This will ease the cleanup process and help facilitate the riveting that will occur later. I placed the fuselage with engine cowling onto the lower wings to get a sense of the size of the model. It is a big bird. The sprue attachment for the one-piece cowling is in the most obvious and visible of places so I took a lot of care to trim away the remnants as well as mold line. It doesn't have the most graceful lines for a WW2 fighter but there is something appealing and purposeful in its chunkiness. Uncarina, F-4Phanwell, Rocat and 8 others 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunnus Posted June 24, 2020 Author Share Posted June 24, 2020 Hasegawa not only molds brake lines onto the landing gear legs, they provide a separate piece for the brake line half loop at the scissors link. But curiously, it stops short of the wheel. Based on my references, the brake line goes all the way to rear wheel cover and Hasegawa, if they are gonna go through the trouble of representing the brake line, should've completed the connection. Using lead wire and short sections of brass tubing, I've extended the brake line in a much simplified fashion. But at least it's not just hanging out there, open-ended. I've also created a strap using foil tape to cover the joint between the two brake lines. Alex, Paul in Napier, Scale32 and 12 others 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scale32 Posted June 24, 2020 Share Posted June 24, 2020 Wish they had of done that on their 109 kits! Nice simple effective fix there John. Cheers Bevan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted June 24, 2020 Share Posted June 24, 2020 Excellent work, John! Kev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dodgem37 Posted June 24, 2020 Share Posted June 24, 2020 Good show. Sincerely, Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunnus Posted June 26, 2020 Author Share Posted June 26, 2020 Thanks guys! Instead of a metallic finish, I elected to paint my landing gear legs a light grey. I don't know why... I just like the look better than what I was getting with a dull aluminum finish. The wheels were painted in a mixture of black and brown and then the contact areas were lightened with a sandy color. I'll weather these more with pastels. Here's what the gear looks like after the details have been painted and given a dark wash. I filled the joints of the wing inserts with black rubberized CA glue. I like this as a filler because it is easy to see and it sands a little easier than regular CA glue. You can see where the filler gets really close to some of the raised details. I'll have be very careful when sanding not to lose this detail. I'm pretty frugal and like to re-use my sandpaper. I keep the pieces in a small cup. But when dealing with CA glue that's close to details that you want to avoid, it's essential to use fresh pieces of sandpaper. The bite of fresh sandpaper is needed to cut down the ridge of CA glue without wearing down the surrounding surface. Plus it is stiff enough to be able to be made into a narrow sanding tool when folded. After the CA glue is sanded down, I treat the joints with Mr Surfacer 1000, sand that down and then give it a spray of primer to check my work. It looks ok from this perspective but from certain angles you can see where putty has not been blended in perfectly. There are also some slight elevation differences between the insert and surrounding wing areas as well a few slightly jagged panel lines. I have the time and inclination to fix these issues so one more round of Mr Surfacer 1000 to see if we can make those imperfections go away. Wackyracer, Lothar, VintageEagle and 12 others 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 Superb and exacting work, John! Kev Thunnus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dodgem37 Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 Good work. Sincerely, Mark Thunnus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dennismcc Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 Nice work, I particularly like the gear legs they look sharp, I will have to try and copy them. Cheers Dennis Thunnus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 Beautiful job on the main gear legs! What size brass tubing did you use? Thunnus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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