1/32 Hasegawa Ki-61 Tei Hien

[jeroen_R90S]

Yes, never fun when that happens...

Good luck fixing it, and fingers crossed more doesn't pull off when you maske the rest off!

[Thunnus]

On 7/21/2023 at 5:05 PM, scvrobeson said:

Sorry about the paint lift, that's always a bummer.  I'm guessing that you scanned the kit decal sheet to do those tiny stars around the gun ports?

 

 

 

Matt 

Yes, paint lift is always a bummer!  And yes, I used the decals of those red stars to create masks.

 

 

On 7/22/2023 at 12:13 AM, jeroen_R90S said:

Yes, never fun when that happens...

Good luck fixing it, and fingers crossed more doesn't pull off when you maske the rest off!

If you think about, it's actually paint chipping and if it was smaller, I could've just used it as such!  And yes, I did experience some additional paint pull when I was trying to fix the first one.  But I've got it handled finally.

 

Some more painting on the Hien.  I did the wing stencils in red...

 

 

The wing hinomarus were next.

 

 

For primary colors like red, yellow and blue, I like to put down a base coat of white first.  I keep it uneven to provide some tonal variation.

 

 

For the red color, I am using Mr Color IJN Aircraft Marking Red, C-385.

 

 

I've repaired the paint lift on the starboard wing leading edge.  Some chipping was added using a sponge.

 

[scvrobeson]

Good job on the repairs and extra markings John.  Might want to check the wing stencils, I think that there was some white overspray on a couple of the characters.

 

 

 

Matt 

[zaxos345]

Really amazing John!! 

[Thunnus]

On 7/24/2023 at 10:12 AM, scvrobeson said:

Good job on the repairs and extra markings John.  Might want to check the wing stencils, I think that there was some white overspray on a couple of the characters.

 

 

 

Matt 

Thanks Matt!  There might be slivers of white on the hinomarus and stencils but I don't think they are very noticeable.  Gonna move on... very difficult to correct, especially the characters.

 

 

On 7/24/2023 at 12:19 PM, zaxos345 said:

Really amazing John!! 

Thank you John!

 

Plodding onward with this... masking and painting the 55th Sentai tail markings.  Very fiddly to work these types of thin borders. It's one of the reasons for leaving off the horizontal stabilizers.  The vertical component of the stabilizers still bends the mask so that some distortion is unavoidable.  The blue is a 4:1 mixture of Tamiya Sky Blue X-14 and Blue X-4.

 

 

A pretty ragged result.  I was close to wiping this off and re-grouping but I decided to see if I could touch it up.  So I sprayed it with a gloss coat and sat on it for a while.

 

 

In the meantime, I painted the fuselage hinomarus.

 

 

Over the next couple of days, I touched up the Sentai marking, primarily by carefully masking and spraying ultra small portions of corrective paint with the airbrush.  It's far from perfect but I think I'm going to accept it and move forward.

 

[Citadelgrad]

Nice save on the tail markings, John.  Looking very nice.  Can't wait for weathering.  

[scvrobeson]

Good corrections with the markings.  Definitely something that could have been left alone as weathering, but it looks good fixed and intact.  Looking forward to the next steps

 

 

Matt 

[John Stambaugh]

Dedication of a professional. 

[SwissFighters]

I very much admire your work, John. It's way more helpful to see the process unfold rather than simply view the final product, brilliant as it is. So, thank you. Tony.

[Troy Molitor]

Love it John.  

 

P.S.  The fishing has been good from Wisconsin toTennessee (HOME) and down in Florida.  Catch and release.  Great times as usual.  

[Alain Gadbois]

Excellent work here!

I think the Sentai markings turned out nicely. I believe all these were hand painted and closeup examination usually shows some irregularities.

 

Alain

[Thunnus]

18 hours ago, Citadelgrad said:

Nice save on the tail markings, John.  Looking very nice.  Can't wait for weathering.  

Thank you Bill!  Getting close to the decal stage and then the weathering will begin!

 

 

17 hours ago, scvrobeson said:

Good corrections with the markings.  Definitely something that could have been left alone as weathering, but it looks good fixed and intact.  Looking forward to the next steps

 

 

Matt 

Thanks Matt!  I've become quite adept at these micro-corrections using small bits of tape and the airbrush.  More seamless than trying to brush paint the corrections.

 

 

16 hours ago, John Stambaugh said:

Dedication of a professional. 

 

15 hours ago, SwissFighters said:

I very much admire your work, John. It's way more helpful to see the process unfold rather than simply view the final product, brilliant as it is. So, thank you. Tony.

Thanks guys!  Things don't always turn out well on the first attempt and I find that, in most cases, messy paint work like this can be salvageable.

 

 

15 hours ago, Troy Molitor said:

Love it John.  

 

P.S.  The fishing has been good from Wisconsin toTennessee (HOME) and down in Florida.  Catch and release.  Great times as usual.  

Thanks Troy! I was able to pull on a few this weekend...

 

 

 

 

 

25 minutes ago, Alain Gadbois said:

Excellent work here!

I think the Sentai markings turned out nicely. I believe all these were hand painted and closeup examination usually shows some irregularities.

 

Alain

Thanks Alain!  Yes, I think they'll work just fine!

[scvrobeson]

33 minutes ago, Thunnus said:

 

Thanks Matt!  I've become quite adept at these micro-corrections using small bits of tape and the airbrush.  More seamless than trying to brush paint the corrections.

 

I'll have to try it more often. I went and made a bunch of corrections on the P.11, but that was definitely a new and nerve-wracking experience. Just another example of what I learned from your builds

 

 

Matt 

[JayW]

20 hours ago, Thunnus said:

 It's far from perfect

 

Uh - NOT far from perfect.  Only to the best model painter in the world (or in the top five!). 

[Thunnus]

2 hours ago, scvrobeson said:

 

I'll have to try it more often. I went and made a bunch of corrections on the P.11, but that was definitely a new and nerve-wracking experience. Just another example of what I learned from your builds

 

 

Matt 

Thanks Matt!  LSP is a great source for new ideas and techniques.  Almost everything that I do here has been learned from someone else's expertise.

 

 

1 hour ago, JayW said:

 

Uh - NOT far from perfect.  Only to the best model painter in the world (or in the top five!). 

Thanks so much Jay!  I wish we could get paid for slinging paint like NFL quarterbacks get for throwing footballs! 

 

Some lessons learned from the port side, I went ahead and tried the Sentai markings on the starboard side of the tail.  The most critical thing was getting the dangling portions of the mask into the correct position.  The Oramask material can stretch and distort, especially on uneven surfaces, so I'm trying to minimize the distortion.

 

 

Once the main mask is secured into place, the white is sprayed.

 

 

The thin outline mask is then put into position.  The inner mask has two parts and I use tape to keep those two parts together.  It's easier to place these two into place than the skinny border only.  After positioning the two parts within the outline mask, the inner mask is removed, leaving just the border piece.  Micro Mask is used to seal any gaps between the two mask parts.

 

 

Then the blue is sprayed.  It's important to give adequate time for the paint to dry between mask applications.  That was probably one of the reasons the port side came out a little ragged. I'm always fighting my inclination to move quickly but luckily, these acrylic-lacquers dry quickly.

 

 

Patience netted a much cleaner result on the starboard side.

 

 

A white stripe was added between the tail and hinomaru.

 

 

The last major marking to be painted is the blue/white diagonal sash.  Instead of pre-cut masks, I used strips of Tamiya tape to establish the outline of the sash.  This is painted white.

 

 

After the white is dry, I cut thin strips of Tamiya tape and masked the borders of the stripe.  Instead of Micro Mask, it was easier to seal the joints with more strips of tape.  The blue is then sprayed.

 

 

Ok... so the major markings are just about done.  

 

 

I'm going to do some touch-up work and then we'll seal the markings with a gloss coat and apply some small decals.