1/32 Hasegawa N1K2-J Shiden Kai 343-45

[PeterOlsen]

if it’s close you could “tint” it with other colours to arrive at the correct shade. You can experiment on a piece of white paper mixing small amounts with a brush so you don’t waste to much paint. 

Cheers,

Pete

[Thunnus]

8 hours ago, PeterOlsen said:

if it’s close you could “tint” it with other colours to arrive at the correct shade. You can experiment on a piece of white paper mixing small amounts with a brush so you don’t waste to much paint. 

Cheers,

Pete

 

Looks like I won't have to because...

 

Guess what came in the mail yesterday! I was plowing ahead with work on the engines since the missing paints are necessary.

 

Actual color of the paint is very different from the Tamiya Khaki... it's more of a chromate green.  I need to test to see if I can do hairspray chipping with these Lacquer paints.  If not, I may use them as a base to mix using Tamiya and Mr Hobby Aqueous colors.

 

I've prepared the engine to accommodate some wiring.

[turbo]

7 hours ago, Thunnus said:

  I need to test to see if I can do hairspray chipping with these Lacquer paints.  If not, I may use them as a base to mix using Tamiya and Mr Hobby Aqueous colors.

 

Ah, just the question I wasted an hour googling the interwebs on last night! Mr. Color have some paint colours I need for a project I have in mind but I don't know if they can be effectively hairspray chipped like their aqueous version or Tamiya. Be very interested to see the results of your test! 

 

Great start on the engine btw!

[Thunnus]

4 hours ago, turbo said:

 

Ah, just the question I wasted an hour googling the interwebs on last night! Mr. Color have some paint colours I need for a project I have in mind but I don't know if they can be effectively hairspray chipped like their aqueous version or Tamiya. Be very interested to see the results of your test! 

 

Great start on the engine btw!

 

Thanks Kirby!  I've already set up a test with the Mr Hobby cockpit color and exterior green over Tamiya AS-12 Silver with a layer of MIG Scratches Effects and Heavy Chipping Effects in between.

 

When it rains, it pours... the day after I got my Mr Hobby N1K2 paints, I FINALLY received my new rivet tools...

 

Up until now, I've been using the RB Productions Rivet-R and Rivet-R Mini.  They've lost a bit of their sharpness but when I looked to find replacement wheels, I couldn't find any stock.  At the same time, I had seen a positive review of these new tools at The Modelling News website and thought I'd give them a try.

There three types of tools... (1) the standard wheel which is about the same size as the Rivet-R, (2) a smaller radius wheel equivalent to the Rivet-R mini, and (3) a corner tool to allow you to place rivets in tight spaces or next to a raised wall.  They offer these tools in two sets of rivet spacing.  I chose the smaller group, which offers rivet spacing at 0.55, 0.65 and 0.75mm.  One nice thing about these tools is that each wheel comes with its own mount.  The RB Riveter sells its mount separately and having just one, I would have to take the thing apart each time I wanted to use a different rivet spacing.  Now, I don't have to do that.

 

Another thing that I didn't like about the RB tool is that the Rivet-R and Rivet-R Mini rivet spacing don't match.  There is often a need to run the rivet wheel over existing rivets to clear up plugging by paint or sanding dust.  But since the 1.00mm Rivet-R doesn't match the 1.00mm Rivet-R Mini exactly, you can mess up a set of rivets pretty easily if you don't remember which tool made which line of rivets.  Hopefully, the Galaxy Tools does better in this regard. We'll see how the new riveting tool performs a little later!

[Thunnus]

Conducted a few tests today.  First was figuring out if the Mr Hobby lacquer colors that I purchased for the Shiden Kai would allow hairspray chipping.  On my paint mule, I sprayed a base coat of Tamiya AS-12 Silver.  Over the tail, put on a layer of MIG Scratches Effects liquid and forward of that I sprayed MIG Heavy Chipping Effects.  Once those dried, I sprayed the tail with the Mr Hobby Kawanishi Cockpit color and then the Mr Hobby Kawanishi Dark Green forward of that.  Just to compare the different greens that I had on hand, I also sprayed Mr Hobby Aqueous H-59 IJN Gloss Green and Tamiya XF-11 IJN Green.

 

Using a stiff paint brush dipped in water, I was able to created chips on the Mr Hobby lacquer colors fairly easily.  But I didn't quite like the way the Mr Hobby Dark Green sprayed.  For one, it was dead flat, which I'd prefer not to deal with over the whole aircraft.  Someone also question the accuracy of this particular color.  I'm no expert and doing some internet research and finding some articles on Shiden Kai colors by Nick Millman didn't clarify matters conclusively.  So... I'm decided on which green I'll be using to paint the exterior of the aircraft.  But at least I can move forward on the painting of the cockpit.

 

I conducted another test with the Galaxy Tools riveter.  Compared it with the RB Productions Rivet-R and Rivet-R Mini, all of the tools set at 0.75mm spacing.

 

Ignoring the crookedness of the lines, all of the rivets looked about the same, which is a good thing.  From top to bottom are: Galaxy Standard, Galaxy Mini, Rivet-R and Rivet-R Mini. I also confirmed that the Galaxy Standard and Mini wheels in the 0.75 spacing are exact matches.  I can re-trace the rivet line I made with the  Galaxy Mini with the Galaxy Standard and riveter will put the points exactly in the rivet holes along the entire length of the line.  The Rivet-R and Rivet-R Mini aren't exact matches.  By carefully placing a point on the Rivet-R wheel into the hole made by the Rivet-R Mini and running it along the rivet line, you are making new holes by the time you get to the halfway point.  Seems like a minor point but having exact matches eliminates at least one of the headaches I've been experiencing when riveting.

[turbo]

2 hours ago, Thunnus said:

Using a stiff paint brush dipped in water, I was able to created chips on the Mr Hobby lacquer colors fairly easily.

 

Sweet! A couple of questions if you don't mind - what thinner did you use for the Mr. Color paints and also how long were they left to dry? These variables can also affect the chipping behaviour. Thanks for sharing this test John, very useful!

[spyrosjzmichos]

Wow! That's some impressive work on the engine! 

[Thunnus]

12 hours ago, turbo said:

 

Sweet! A couple of questions if you don't mind - what thinner did you use for the Mr. Color paints and also how long were they left to dry? These variables can also affect the chipping behaviour. Thanks for sharing this test John, very useful!

 

 

I used Tamiya Lacquer Thinner to thin the Mr Hobby colors.  The chipping fluids were left to dry for about 3-4 hours.  The Mr Hobby colors were left to dry for 24 hours before I attempted chipping.

[Miloslav1956]

The problem with chipping is the long drying time of the paint. It is important to use water and a brush as quickly as possible. Then color removal goes better.
This is a big advantage of MRP colors. They are absolutely dry in 10 minutes.

[Thunnus]

1 hour ago, Miloslav1956 said:

The problem with chipping is the long drying time of the paint. It is important to use water and a brush as quickly as possible. Then color removal goes better.
This is a big advantage of MRP colors. They are absolutely dry in 10 minutes.

 

Thanks Miloslav!  I've heard a lot of good things about MRP but inventory-wise, I'm committed to the acrylic/lacquers in the Tamiya, Mr Hobby Aqueous (Gunze) and AK Real Colors lines of paint.  For the most part I've been able to perform the hairspray chipping with these paints but my results are always inconsistent and that probably has to do with the period of time I let the hairspray layer sit prior to the water application.  Based on my test, I should be able to get usable results within a 24-hour window.

[turbo]

46 minutes ago, Thunnus said:

For the most part I've been able to perform the hairspray chipping with these paints but my results are always inconsistent and that probably has to do with the period of time I let the hairspray layer sit prior to the water application.  Based on my test, I should be able to get usable results within a 24-hour window.

 

Thanks John. I usually try and chip within 1-2 hours of applying the topcoat - unfortunately not very convenient and often means painting the model in sections. Sometimes I've even noticed chipping getting more difficult as the session goes on. Good to know acceptable results can be achieved out to 24 hours.

[Thunnus]

Interesting to hear the time frames involved.  I'm very worried about the abrasive nature of the hairspray technique so I tend to wait longer for the paint to fully cure.  Sometimes I get decent results and sometimes, that topcoat just doesn't want to come off.  24 hours has been on the quick side of things when it comes to chipping so I probably need to make adjustments to my work flow.

 

Since I've started on the engine work, I've decided to complete this stage before I jump back over to the cockpit.  I've kept the components separate to make painting details easier.  Since the restored Shiden Kai's have nice shiny engines that are uniformly metallic, I've taken some liberty with my color choices.  For example the crankcase and ignition ring have been painted in a Green Gray (Tamiya XF-14), which may or may not be a match for the instruction call out of Mitsubishi Green, and the ignition wires in Brown.

 

Once the engine components have been painted, I started gluing the components together.

 

Here is a view of the engine banks from behind. You can see that they are hollow and not represented fully.

 

Once the crankcase assembly is glued onto the engine cylinders, I can complete the wiring attachment.

 

Each of the painted wires is bent and guided into place gently, trying not to put kinks into the wires or scratching off the paint.  A few more wires are added to the top and bottom of the crankcase.  This is not meant to be an accurate representation of the Homare engine but simply trying to create some plausible detail that will look good lurking behind the prop.

 

Here is the engine temporarily mounted on the fuselage.  I'll probably leave the engine detached until the very end so that I won't have to deal with masking off the exhaust tips.

 

The view into the engine compartment with the engine cowling in place.  Although much of the detail is lost, you still get a sense of busy complexity within, which was the goal.

 

A view of the exhaust tips without the engine cowling flaps in place.

 

Some views of the complete engine from my lightbox.  I played around with weathering the engine, especially the crankcase, being the most prominent.  Some of things I did besides the dark pastel wash were chipping with a sponge and flicking AK Engine Grime enamel using a stiff paint brush.  I actually had to dial back some of that splatter by going over the crankcase in the base Grey/Green.

 

The exhaust piping was sprayed using Alclad Steel and Exhaust Manifold and then dry-brushing the ends with a rust color.  As a last touch, the hollow ends were lightly darkened with a thin mixture of Flat Black through the airbrush.

 

The completed radial engine is not quite as hefty as the P&W R2800 from the Tamiya Corsair build but it is a nicely detailed powerplant that Hasegawa has provided.

[dennismcc]

That looks superb, what a nice job.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[crobinsonh]

Great looking engine with some very nice enhancements

[Miloslav1956]

20 hours ago, Thunnus said:

 

Thanks Miloslav!  I've heard a lot of good things about MRP but inventory-wise, I'm committed to the acrylic/lacquers in the Tamiya, Mr Hobby Aqueous (Gunze) and AK Real Colors lines of paint.  For the most part I've been able to perform the hairspray chipping with these paints but my results are always inconsistent and that probably has to do with the period of time I let the hairspray layer sit prior to the water application.  Based on my test, I should be able to get usable results within a 24-hour window.

 

 MR.PAINT is an acrylic colour designed for spraying with your airbrush. The colour is pre-thinned in preparation for immediate use. In case of further need, we recommend thinning the colour with our own MR. Thinner. The MR.Thinner can also clean your airbrush after use. For cleaning tools / kits we recommend our MR. Cleaner or another cleaner designed for cleaning airbrushes after using acrylic colours.

 

I usually mix these colors with Gunze C and H

 

Engine is excellent.

Edited July 10, 2020 by Miloslav1956