In With a Hasegawa Ki-61 I

[Greif8]

39 minutes ago, dennismcc said:

Coming along nicely, I like the little touches they make all the difference, the Ki-61 is one of my favourites as it is so different from other WW2 Japanese aircraft, I can remember building one in 1/72 when I ws a nipper.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

 

Thank you Dennis!  Hopefully everything that I have either modified or scratchbuilt will look ok when it gets primed and painted.  Keeping my fingers crossed!

 

Ernest

[Greif8]

After spending a significant amount of time buffing plastic I was ready to prime the model.  I am planning to try to airbrush an NMF for the first time and did quite a bit of learning how best to bring that off.  Step one was doing my best to buff the plastic to a smooth finish, hopefully removing any sanding or other marks.  Step two was priming the model with a very high gloss primer.  I chose MRP's 2K Black High Gloss primer.  This is a two part paint, one part being the gloss black and the other being the hardner.  MRP instructions say to mix the parts at a 1:1 ratio which I did with two seperate droppers.  I then sprayed the primer on in three thin coats; coverage was quite good.  I managed to get the entire airframe sprayed with no runs and I think I managed to mostly get even coverage, though I couple of spots are a bit thin.  This stuff really reflects! 

 

As you can see in the photos the finish is very glossy.  THe good news is that it looks like I managed to buff the plastic well enough that there are no imperfections when viewed with the eyes - my eyes at least.  Under the extreme macro there are a couple of locations that look like they still have micro scratching, but the surface looks very smooth to the eye.  I also managed to get a good clean spray for the most part; only a few spots will need to be cleaned up by either removing a dust particle or tiny thread; a surprise that to be honest.  

 

The potential bad news is that after 30 minutes the surface is still quite tacky.  I have covered the model to protect it while it drys.  This particular MRP paint is enamel and I am guessing (hoping really) that is will dry slowly like enamel paints tend to do and harden up after a few days.  We shall see!

 

 

Thankfully it looks like I was able to get a very clean join of the upper engine/weapons cover, something I was worried about.  The photo focuses on what was the most problematic area, and it looks pretty decent.

 

The wing/fuselage joints were another area of concern.  Again, the macro photo shows one of the two spots that took the most work to get fitted and smooth.  I was again 

happy that it appears to have turned out ok. 

 

The second area I was worried about was the port wing/fuselage leading edge.  It looks ok under the extreme macro shot so I think I'll be ok.  You also see

one of the areas I was a bit too light with the primer.  

 

[LSP_Kevin]

Fantastic gloss black finish, Ernest!

 

Kev

[Out2gtcha]

Indeed, really well done on the gloss black!

[Greif8]

14 hours ago, LSP_Kevin said:

Fantastic gloss black finish, Ernest!

 

Kev

 

14 hours ago, Out2gtcha said:

Indeed, really well done on the gloss black!

 

 

Thank you guys!  The paint is drying well (a relief that!) and I should be able to correct a couple of spots that either need I bit of smoothing or a blemish removed and smoothed out.  I can never seem to get a 100% error free primer coat, though this one was close.

 

Ernest

[Gazzas]

Nice finish, Ernest!  You've been smashing it while I've been in a four-day mojo-less funk inspired by long boring workdays.

[Greif8]

13 hours ago, Gazzas said:

Nice finish, Ernest!  You've been smashing it while I've been in a four-day mojo-less funk inspired by long boring workdays.

 

Thank you Gary!

 

Ernest

[Greif8]

After quite a bit of additional surface prep I sprayed the Natural Metal Finish today.  This is the first time I have attempted to airbrush an NMF and it turned out to be somewhat of a mixed bag.  At first I wanted to spray Alclad II Aluminium and started on one of the lower wings spraying light coats.  After the third coat a few spots looked like there was some sort of reaction with the paint.  I immediately stopped and after assessing the situation decided to switch to MRP Super Silver.  Given that the gloss black is also an MRP product I should have went with the Super Silver from the start.  I sprayed the rest of the model with it; also spraying thin coats and had zero issues.  I'm a bit vexed with myself that I did not think through the right course of action from the beginning as it is pretty obvious what right looks like in this case.  Stupid of me!  

 

Fortunately the upper surface and fuselage sides turned out pretty good.  The finish is smooth in all but a couple of small spots where it is very slightly rough; something which should be easy to buff out once the paint cures overnight.  I tried to vary the coverage slightly to make it less uniform in appearance.  I considering masking some panels and spraying them a slightly different shade/tone, but I don't think NMF Japanese WW2 aircraft had that sort of look.  At least the many photos I looked at did not look like it. 

 

Tomorrow I will see what I can do to fix the areas that reacted with the Alclad II, and a couple of other small blemishes.  If any of you have any suggestions how best to do that I am all ears!

 

Overall shot of the upper surface.  I noticed that the reflections change the look much more sharply than a non-NMF depending on the lighting and angle, not surprising I guess.

 

I forgot to mention that I sprayed the fabric surfaces a grey-green color and masked them after a few hours.  Hopefully, I will not have any issues when I remove

the tape!   

 

The fuselage turned out pretty good overall, smooth and reflective.  It also looks like it has a static effect as the damn dust is already getting attracted to it.

Fortunately the MRP paint drys within 30 seconds are less so.

 

Given the amount of sanding and filling I did in the nose, I was concerned about how it would look.  This is one area I managed to get it right the first time;

very relieved about that!

 

Here you can see a couple of the spots that reacted to the Alclad II.  Keeping my fingers crossed that I can clean this up decently. 

 

And here you can see the poor areas much better.  Man I wish I had been smart enough to use the MRP paint right from the start - live and learn!  On the 

plus side I managed to get the wing joins right at least.

 

Though overall, the bottom of the aircraft looks ok.

 

The lower fuselage turned out pretty good as well.  I bit of polishing and it will be fit to fight!

 

[Gazzas]

Nice looking work with the NMF paint, Ernest.   In my experience, Alclad paints are sometimes inconsistently made.  I had some of their gloss black which never, ever dried.  Same thing with their aqua clear coat.  Nothing worse than grabbing a tacky model, eh?

 

 

[dmthamade]

3 minutes ago, Gazzas said:

  Nothing worse than grabbing a tacky model, eh?

 

 

[Greif8]

15 minutes ago, Gazzas said:

Nice looking work with the NMF paint, Ernest.   In my experience, Alclad paints are sometimes inconsistently made.  I had some of their gloss black which never, ever dried.  Same thing with their aqua clear coat.  Nothing worse than grabbing a tacky model, eh?

 

 

 

You are so right Gary!  I'm not sure why the Alclad reacted in only a few areas, but I am glad I decided to try it on the underwing area.

 

Ernest

[Gazzas]

40 minutes ago, Greif8 said:

 

You are so right Gary!  I'm not sure why the Alclad reacted in only a few areas, but I am glad I decided to try it on the underwing area.

 

Ernest

 

Have you ever watched Alclad swirling around in your paint cup?  There has to be places where solvent gets thicker than pigments...  or vice versa.  Some metallics are just weird.

[Juggernut]

This is just my experience but I've never been able to successfully shoot alclad II over any black base, even with their own version of it.  Something always negatively affects the finish.  Others may have no issues with the black but I only get good results using the Alclad grey or white primer.

[D.B. Andrus]

Well played, Ernest!

 

Cheers,

Damian

[Greif8]

10 hours ago, Gazzas said:

 

Have you ever watched Alclad swirling around in your paint cup?  There has to be places where solvent gets thicker than pigments...  or vice versa.  Some metallics are just weird.

 

I admit that I have never looked closely at Alclad in an airbrush cup Gary, but I will take your word that it looks wierd.  I am still kicking myself for not using the MRP Super Silver straight away.

 

Ernest