Tamiya Ki-64 Tony 1/48

[BigWall]

I'm glad you were able to get it taken care of.

[Garion77]

Hello everyone,
so the stairs being finish, I was able to squeeze a bit of at the bench between everything else. Not much... just finishing the red I had forgotten.

And then it was time for unmasking !!! Drums rolls please !

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

And then they was deception
Although the red really came out really great they're is 2 problems. The first one is with the side ones. You can see and feel the step with the red paint in comparison with the NMF
The second one is the kind of spider web of white that bleed out red, which means under the mask (but not the red ??!! )

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

I'm really disappointed ! I was more then happy on how it look before unmasking
But now how do I fix Both problems ??? I really don't know .... the spidering may be I could put back a mask a spray back the NMF...? but the step caused by the paint ? that I don't know !!
The cause of all that... well I'm pretty sure it's my inexperience with lacquer paints. As it sprays so easily, I think I spray with to much air pressure, thus to much paint.

Please give me suggestions to fix both problems ! If I've used acrylics, as I thought I should do first, I could have wipe it out.... but now it's lacquer on lacquer.

[digger303]

That's a damn pain and I feel your anguish, but on the bright side the silver worked really well.
Maybe the AB was too close and it got too heavy a layer and as you said the air pressure forced it under the tape.
I'm no guru you need a better modeler to answer this.

[Garion77]

That's a damn pain and I feel your anguish, but on the bright side the silver worked really well.
Maybe the AB was too close and it got too heavy a layer and as you said the air pressure forced it under the tape.
I'm no guru you need a better modeler to answer this.

yup ! that's pretty much it ! but my biggest concern remains the step (I'm not sure it's the right English word) between the two colors

[digger303]

That's a damn pain and I feel your anguish, but on the bright side the silver worked really well.
Maybe the AB was too close and it got too heavy a layer and as you said the air pressure forced it under the tape.
I'm no guru you need a better modeler to answer this.

yup ! that's pretty much it ! but my biggest concern remains the step (I'm not sure it's the right English word) between the two colors

Lip works too.
Did you burnish the edge of the tape down before air brushing to seal the edges ? I have remembered that some people will run some masking fluid around the edge too. For me though I find masking fluid dries too quick to get a nice edge down without it starting to dry and stick to what ever instrument I'm using and pulls up plus keeping a perfect circle is tricky or impossible for me.

[BigWall]

That's too bad! Thin paint not sprayed too heavily is the way to minimize having the step between the two colors. I don't know if it can be avoided completely.

Good luck fixing it! It looks great otherwise.

[Garion77]

Hello everyone,
not much going on lately on the modeling side as I have to much on the plate elsewhere. And to be honest, the problem with my masking kind of killed a bit of my mojo a bit.
So today, after organizing our shed I built last year so that we could hang everyone's bike, I decided to attempt correcting everything by masking all the roundels and spraying the NMF around them. Hoping It would solve much of the problems of the "overspray". And decided to live with the ridge it made on some of them.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Well it didn't actually solve the problem that good....

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
The ridge (step) on the sides is the biggest problem and it makes it worst.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
On top I could live with it as it looks more like wear... and the camouflage will help take the eyes elsewhere.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
On the bottom it made it worst a little bit but still could may be live with it.

so know what do I do ?!? I'm going to sleep on It because when I take the decision there's no coming back with the camouflage and the blue stripe in the middle on both sides... I'm tempted with these options :
- sand the area of the roundels only on the sides and spray everything again
- with either tamiya's lacquer thinner or Mr Leveling thinner, remove the paint of every roundels that aren't to my taste, sand lightly the area around them and spray them again
- leave everything as it is

Any suggestions ????

[Garion77]

Hello everyone,
it's been a while since my last post being occupied a lot by work. It's my most intense time of the years with long and intense hours, and mostly outside. And the new puppy is keeping me pretty occupied too...or should I say the 4 others in the house are keeping me occupied having to teach them how to take care of a dog.

This is going to be a long post resuming a lot of small workbench sessions and one long day, being today. And I'm going to call it MASKING INFERNO

We left off with my roundels killing my mojo... my first attempt at correcting them being a failure I decided to tackle the problem by recreating it. So I masked three sections on the same NMF and sprayed heavily paint on it. I then try to remove the paint in three different ways : 1- with Tamiya's lacquer thinner ; 2- with Mr. Levelling thinner ; 3 - by sanding. I opted for the sanding because the two other solutions made a mess, removed too much paint and would have needed sanding anyways.

So let's go sanding ! I started with 600 or 800 ; and moved up all the way to 4000 by using a really small piece of sandpaper and going slowly making sure I don't go to far away.
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Even being careful, I dropped the plane a few time and broke two pieces...
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

let's start masking !!! I masked the roundels, or what's left of them, to be able to spay back the NMF.
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
But realized at that moment that I had painted some panels in different tones... and was about to forget them. So let's mask again !!
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
After spraying the different tone, I masked them back to spray the original NMF color (no pictures of that part)

Taking advantage of the roundels being mask, I decided to paint the blue stripes. Starting with the horizontal one on each side. Let's go mask again !
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
But I have to say that it was harder then I thought it would be. I was happy at that time that I had decided at the beginning not put the ailerons on.

This time, it was painted with acrylics. Started with tamiya's medium blue in a mottle pattern and then spray over with thin coats of tamiya's flat blue. No picture of the process sorry... When I unmasked I realized I had overspray a section and misaligned another. So back to masking again !
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Remove with tamiya thinner

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Now time to go ahead with the vertical stripe. SO let's go back to masking again... I measure the width of the stripe and cut it with my Infini cutting mat. Put it on the plane and masked each side of it.
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Pretty happy with the result !

Now it was time to paint the yellow bands in front of the wings. So let's go do some masking !
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Then carefully sprayed Vallejo's yellow ochre
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Again pretty happy with the result. Looking all good to me.

The yellow will be chip a bit in a near future. And being done, it was time to try to recreate the kind of stars around the guns.
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

So let's go back to masking
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

And spray my homemade mix of red
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

And now, don't ask me why I decided to do that !!! But I went on to paint the red demarcations lines on the wings....That was a lot of work !!!! Much more then I thought. I used Aizu's 0,4 mm masking tape (width of the line) to mark the area then masked around it to spray the red. Masking and masking and masking It took me most of the afternoon.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
I forgot to take a few pictures of the process.

Time to unmask ! You tell me if it was worth the effort...

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

But wait before it !! Because when taking the picture I realized that one line of the left side was misaligned So what did I have to do ? MASK AGAIN !!! mask to spray back the NMF and then mask again to spray the red line.

I forgot to take a picture of the final result but you get the idea ! So tell me if it was worth the effort instead of using the decals ? And tell me what you think of the rest

All that was really tiring
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

May be you've noticed there's not much about the roundels.... no they weren't spray back yet. Only corrected them by the sanding them and it took care of both problems. They should be painted again at my next session. So will the black on top of the engine cowl as you may have notice that it's coming out too easily as I think I have spray to much of AK'S worn effect.
Thanks for reading all the way through the long post.. and mostly because I had to write this post twice as they was a problem when I submit the first one... it all disappear

[digger303]

That sounds like a lot of frustration with all the masking and corrections, but it's looking better.
The dogs got the right idea....just chilling.

[Garion77]

And here I am again ! and now for the damn roundels....
But first, let's do my favorite thing.... masking ! This time for the black on top of the canopy that needs a bit of touch up and for the walkways.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

The roundels were also masked
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

And everything was painted.
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

And now.... the drums roll...again....

THE TOP
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
I think we can call this one a success

THE BOTTOM
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
A success again in my eyes

THE SIDES
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Not a success but not as much a failure as the last time. But I'm going to live with it this time. May be touch up a bit with a paint brush and hope for the camouflage to hide a bit... again the problem was the white. Too thin when I sprayed.
I don't know why I had so much problems with them as I had none with the british one on my Hellcat. The sides being harder to do as they have 4 colors.

But moving on now to the next step ! painting the camouflage.

Take care

[BigWall]

Nice work! So much masking! It looks like it was definitely worth the effort though. Do you think the acrylics let you spray a thinner layer of paint?

[Kevthemodeller]

Lovely detail work

[Garion77]

Nice work! So much masking! It looks like it was definitely worth the effort though. Do you think the acrylics let you spray a thinner layer of paint?

Thank you Joe ! well may be for the acrylics. I don't have much experience with lacquers as it's the first time I really use them for a project and not only a small area. So may be it's my inexperience.... ? White is already a color harder to spray than others but I found, in my really small experience, it's even harder with a lacquer white. But the others colors are much more easier to do. And a better finish !

[Garion77]

Hello everyone !
Hope the weekend is good for you all !. So between autumn chores as I was able to squeeze time at the bench to paint the camouflage scheme on my Tony.

If you remember, I cut my own stencils for the camouflage

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
(photo taken after use ! )

Thank god for them !! It took me only an hour to paint the camouflage with them ; and another hour to airbrush the spots on top and near the wing root. And when spraying them, I realized I would never have been able to do a good job. Because all the ones I've done freehand they show up easily.

But in the end the global result is simply amazing to me. What a beautiful scheme !

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Next up... don't know yet... haven't made up my mind for the weathering I'm aiming at. And too much chores left for the weekend.

Take care and stay safe !

[digger303]

Cutting the stencils was a good idea you made short work of the painting.

[Garion77]

Good Saturday morning everyone !
So a really small update to show that the decals are on and gloss coat on for future weathering.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

So not a lot of decals on that model ! They all went down pretty well except for the big signs at the back with the stars. And the problem was also that I used Tamiya's decal solutions, the strong one, and it clearly isn't good. I had bought them because my hobby store didn't have any microsol and microset left. I used it on my last built and wasn't impressed. I thought I give it a new try as it was on Tamiya Decals this time. I think I put the strong one at least 10 times. So no more tamiya decal solutions for me ! I was able to get back microsol and microset since the last built. But will try Ultimate's with my next order.

And one it was time to varnish, after spraying, I realized that a decal had move while drying.
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Now it's too late...and so small and on the underside...

So now will be the weathering. I'll start with a Ultimate wash the move on to oils... but still don't know what I'm aiming at... the few pictures I find on the internet show the top pretty "clean" and the little I can see of the underside seems pretty dirty... Hope to have time at the bench this weekend as the temperature here is horrible for the weekend.

Happy Halloween !

[Garion77]

Good morning everyone,
so last time, I had just finished putting on a gloss coat (aquagloss) over everything after the decals. I knew at that point I would put Ultimate wash on it. I have at hand light and dark dirt. Having look at pictures of the real thing I knew at what look I was aiming at. So it was time to test it ! the beauty of those was is that it so easy to remove.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

What I wanted was the light dirt ! so it went it on !

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

And let to dry for an hour so. Then remove it with. I'm aiming at more or clean top and dirtier underside as the picture I saw and using as a reference.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

So subtle on the top a bit more already on the underside before going to the oil paints.

Then everything was left because it was Halloween time !
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
After a full big bag of candies and being all wet time to go back home.

Back to the bench the next day. That's when my problem with the decals happened ! Made a post on the forum about it. The decal had been left to dry a few days after the damn tamiya's decal solutions. Then it was gloss coated with aquagloss, then Ultimate wash. Let to dry for a day after removing the excess. Then it was time for a semi-gloss varnish from tamiya and it lifted up...
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Thanks to the help on forum, thanks to Scott ! I was able to repair it ! Afterwards, I put a flat coat on the roundels, the ailerons and all the green camouflage spots. Time now to weathered the wheels
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

And to weather a bit more the propeller, as it was to clean to my taste. And when looking at pictures they are really dirty !!!
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Most of all the weathering was done with oil paints. Still learning and experimenting with them but I love it. easier then airbrushing stuff for me and cost less then buying all sorts of weathering products. 2 enamels products were use only.

Another mistake on my side happened while doing all this ! an aileron fell off...not glued enough. put it back in places but it didn't go in and left a gap. Also notice I had a kind of spill of the varnish
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Don't know how I'm going to fix it. May be leave the gap and try to hide the spill with weathering

Weathering on the underside currently drying. But it will put aside for at least a day as I encountered a small problem and spent almost all night at the emergency
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Slice opened my finger....

[antonowski]

Ouch! I've been really clumsy lately with the hobby knife but nothing as serious as that! Hope you're OK Francis.

Build is looking really good, and even though some things are holding you up at least you're able to fix it.

Can't wait to see it finished!

Cheers,
Ant

[Garion77]

Ouch! I've been really clumsy lately with the hobby knife but nothing as serious as that! Hope you're OK Francis.

Build is looking really good, and even though some things are holding you up at least you're able to fix it.

Can't wait to see it finished!

Cheers,
Ant

Thank you !
It did not happen with a hobby knife ! my finger is open on half it's length

[BigWall]

I'm glad you're ok!

The model is looking great

[RangerNeil]

The model is looking excellent - the finger decidedly less so!! A great shame for you the tail plane fell off - can you hide the gap with a little weathering material???

[digger303]

Lucky you still have the finger and it's use, but glad your on the mend.

[DRUMS01]

Really like the camouflage scheme and that is a smart choice of color for the panel lines. I think we all have had similar situations regarding the part(s) of an assembly coming off, especially the more any of us handle our kit. I sure you will be able to fix the gap and blend it. This is an attractive aircraft design and it is only enhanced with your camouflage.

Ouch! I am going to nominate you for the sacrificial modeler of the month. Regretfully I was one a few years ago so I can feel your pain. I hope it heals quickly and doesn't hamper your modeling. Feel better soon....

Ben

[aur0ra145]

Ouch!

The model looks fantastic!

[Garion77]

Yes ouch !!!! I did hurt ! But I won't go into the details

So has I said, I was letting the underside dry with the oils paints. I'm aiming at the following picture, has it is pretty dirty.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

I'm kind of trying of recreate that, with mix results....
So I want you opinion of my results...

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Not much going on as the finger is hurting a bit and tired of the night at the hospital's emergency

[digger303]

Great work and as you asked I spent some more time thinking about it and looking at the pic. The pic is bad it is so hard to pick out the camo and the weathering. However I would suspect the pivot point of the undercariage might see some oil stains streaming rear ward and also under the engine from the bottom cowling. BUT I'm a armor guy who knows little enough about them let alone aircraft.

[Tomcat64]

Just caught up with some of your recent updates and the cutting out of your own camo mask was an inspired choice!

The cutting of your finger though doesn't look quite so inspired but I hope that it's now mending ok.

The weathering up also looks great

[BigWall]

I think you've done a great job with the underside.

[Garion77]

Hello everyone !!

Really small, small update ! Approaching the finishing line ! Weathering was a bit "upgraded" on the underside with oils again. And really subtle pencil chipping ! love this way for chipping ! No color mixing ! No paintbrush ! No cleaning !

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

i was able to dirty more the underside as I wanted. And for the keen eyes, you'll notice that I left the roundels and closer area surrounded them pretty clean. In fact, from what I've read, were kept pretty clean as a sign of respect to the Japanese Empire and the Emperor.

In the meanwhile, the gun barrels going on top of the engine cowl were drilled, at first with a 0,3 mm drill then with 0,5 mm.

Next up, will the exhaust stains. Again, by looking at pictures, it seems to be pretty faint. almost invisible ! And then gluing all the landing gears pieces, and other small pieces left. Rigging of the antenna ! Good practice for my upcoming Pfalz D III ! So they should be one other post before I put the final pictures in the completed section

Take care everyone, stay safe

[BigWall]

It's looking great!

Can you tell a little more about the pencil chipping? Did you use the AK pencils?

[Garion77]

It's looking great!

Can you tell a little more about the pencil chipping? Did you use the AK pencils?

I do have a few of the AK pencil but I actually didn't use them much yet. I use watercolor pencil bought at an art supply store. They're is a huge range of colors in many brands and cheaper then AK's. But the tip is a bit different. AK is a bit "greasy" then usual watercolor. So for small chipping, I prefer the true watercolor pencils for that reason. With AK, it's easier to do other effect because of the greasier tip. AK, as marketing, named all the colors for modeling user...but you'll have them in art store under their real names.
For the chipping part, it's much more faster for me and easier. Be sure to do it on a flat surface. Easier with the real watercolor pencil in my opinion and the colors are better suited for huge range of colors.
Hope it helps !

[BigWall]

It's looking great!

Can you tell a little more about the pencil chipping? Did you use the AK pencils?

I do have a few of the AK pencil but I actually didn't use them much yet. I use watercolor pencil bought at an art supply store. They're is a huge range of colors in many brands and cheaper then AK's. But the tip is a bit different. AK is a bit "greasy" then usual watercolor. So for small chipping, I prefer the true watercolor pencils for that reason. With AK, it's easier to do other effect because of the greasier tip. AK, as marketing, named all the colors for modeling user...but you'll have them in art store under their real names.
For the chipping part, it's much more faster for me and easier. Be sure to do it on a flat surface. Easier with the real watercolor pencil in my opinion and the colors are better suited for huge range of colors.
Hope it helps !

Than you for the info. I'm thinking of using the pencils for weathering on an upcoming model.

[Garion77]

It's looking great!

Can you tell a little more about the pencil chipping? Did you use the AK pencils?

I do have a few of the AK pencil but I actually didn't use them much yet. I use watercolor pencil bought at an art supply store. They're is a huge range of colors in many brands and cheaper then AK's. But the tip is a bit different. AK is a bit "greasy" then usual watercolor. So for small chipping, I prefer the true watercolor pencils for that reason. With AK, it's easier to do other effect because of the greasier tip. AK, as marketing, named all the colors for modeling user...but you'll have them in art store under their real names.
For the chipping part, it's much more faster for me and easier. Be sure to do it on a flat surface. Easier with the real watercolor pencil in my opinion and the colors are better suited for huge range of colors.
Hope it helps !

Than you for the info. I'm thinking of using the pencils for weathering on an upcoming model.

AK got a few good video on you tube explaining different effects. And Will Pattion too had a good video on them. As I do planes, it's real easy chipping with them. There's not much two tones chipping like military vehicles.

[BigWall]

I do have a few of the AK pencil but I actually didn't use them much yet. I use watercolor pencil bought at an art supply store. They're is a huge range of colors in many brands and cheaper then AK's. But the tip is a bit different. AK is a bit "greasy" then usual watercolor. So for small chipping, I prefer the true watercolor pencils for that reason. With AK, it's easier to do other effect because of the greasier tip. AK, as marketing, named all the colors for modeling user...but you'll have them in art store under their real names.
For the chipping part, it's much more faster for me and easier. Be sure to do it on a flat surface. Easier with the real watercolor pencil in my opinion and the colors are better suited for huge range of colors.
Hope it helps !

Than you for the info. I'm thinking of using the pencils for weathering on an upcoming model.

AK got a few good video on you tube explaining different effects. And Will Pattion too had a good video on them. As I do planes, it's real easy chipping with them. There's not much two tones chipping like military vehicles.

Thank you. I've seen Will Pattison's video. I thought I would never use them but they may be perfect for what I'm planning. I'll be sure to check out the water color pencils as well

[ForeverPlasticKits]

What a huge work on this beautiful model, it seems to be beautiful once finished!

[Garion77]

Hello again everyone,
so as I said in my last post, here's one last update before crossing the finish line. hope it will be tomorrow. No bench time tonight.
In this last update, you'll see the exhaust stacks putted on with a subtle exhaust stain.
Also the propeller is on, landing gears and bombs. Or were they drop tanks ??? I don't remember
Hope you like it. Feel free to criticize

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Only things left to do... putting on the canopy (open position to show, what I think, is a beautiful job on the inside), the antenna and the rigging of it. All that we'll be shown in the finish thread of this beautiful kit.
As a I look back at the work putted in, it was pretty easy project in the fitting department. Tamiya kit goes like a charm. I would definitely recommend to anyone cutting their own mask or buying them instead of airbrushing the camouflage ; unless your a expert airbrusher !! Pretty happy with the end result of everything except the decals ! Even tough I had my "lifting" problem they weren't that good ! I would recommend again buying a mask for them and painting them. All the scratchbuilding I've done in the cockpit was worth it to my eyes. As it will show a lot though the canopy ; Even in the close position. A really good kit for a really beautiful plane once done ! Happy with what I've done but have to improve with the oil paints a bit.

Thank you for watching, reading and mostly commenting.

[digger303]

Come out well. A well used war machine.

[RangerNeil]

Its an impressive build - congratulations!!