Eduard 1/48 Hellcat Mk I

Post by **digger303** » Mon Jun 14, 2021 12:12 am

Cowling looks pretty smart and I wouldn't worry about the strips. They were mostly hand painted on in a very rushed manner. For a first attempt it's working out well. The masks are very well done...

Post by **Casper** » Mon Jun 14, 2021 12:21 am

looks great

Post by **Garion77** » Tue Jun 15, 2021 7:34 pm

Hello everyone,
small update today as work started on the roundels and fins with masks I've purchased from Maketar.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

I have already a set for German crosses but in a kind of plastic paper. I loved them. The current set is in kabuki masking tape... don't remember why I bought those instead of the other material...maybe the price. All that said because after putting them in place, I think the plastic paper is better. Not sure those in masking tape will last as long. May be I'm wrong as I haven't have used them that much yet.

So putting them in place wasn't easy at all ! I think it took me around 2 hours being sure everything was properly align. What surprised me is that it was the fins the hardest ones. Because the masking paper is so narrow it's really hard to align in the correct position. They say to use masking tape to lift the mask and put it in place... tried it and it never worked. And putting it in place like that was crap !!!

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
(on the last one, forgot to take the picture while the other mask was on, ready to be painted)

You can also see on the picture that I did the overspray of the camouflage colors on the invasion strip as shown in the painting guide.
So, let's hope all that work we'll be worth it in the end when I finish painting them....

Post by **digger303** » Wed Jun 16, 2021 1:00 am

Post by **Stokesy44** » Wed Jun 16, 2021 7:32 am

Looking good. Hope it all goes well with the mask painting

Post by **BigWall** » Fri Jun 18, 2021 3:29 am

Agreed! This is looking great!

Post by **Donkeywalloper** » Fri Jun 18, 2021 1:06 pm

This is an awesome build, simply a master-class

DW

Post by **Garion77** » Sat Jun 19, 2021 7:14 pm

Donkeywalloper wrote: Fri Jun 18, 2021 1:06 pm This is an awesome build, simply a master-class
DW

WOw thank you for the nice comment ! really appreciated !

Post by **Garion77** » Sat Jun 19, 2021 7:57 pm

Hello to everyone ! hope everyone is having a great weekend with the summer starting ! So between work, my son and building a pavers patio (yes yes I'm ADHD if you haven't notice

), I was able to squeeze time between all that to finish my RAF markings. When I left my last post, everything was masked up and ready to go...
Until I realized I hadn't check what paint colors to use

So good old internet came in handy at had to test a few things with the colors I had at hand what I've found. And I hate mixing paints to obtain a certain color.... even just adding white or black I hate it

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

I was lucky with a few... As I said before, I mostly have Tamiya and Vallejo paints, and didn't want to buy anymore for the moment.
I found for the yellow, that gold yellow from Vallejo, which is the same as RLM04, was the color marking. And it was a pretty good match when compare to decals and for my eyes.
Next up was the red, again internet was calling for fire red, that I had (don't know why

) and again the match was perfect when compare to the decals and for my eyes.
And finally blue was the one that gave me a bit more trouble

On the internet I found 2 tamiya paints for the markings : field blue (dead center of the test) and royal blue (middle column at the bottom). Field blue wasn't so bad, so may be I coud use it, at that time. Royal blue was awful ! I tried adding flat base to it and still not good (right column in the middle). The other callout was Signal Blue from Vallejo (top right) which was an exact match to the decals.

But again, my eyes weren't liking it because it was too dark. So I rolled up my sleeves and mix tamiya paints : flat blue and flat black in a ratio I found on the internet. And this time it was to my liking

(right column). So I mix a big batch to keep in a pot for future projects (3 spitfires...)

I decided to go against all videos you see on the internet and spray white before the colors but only where needed for the roundels. But in the end, had to spray a bit more except on the top and bottom wings. So process started with white, then yellow on the sides.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
After the yellow, I thought I may be had spray to much near the mask. We'll see when unmasking

let everything dry and then masked up again and ready for the red

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Time to paint the red. Tried doing a bit of tonal variation but with mix results

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Again, let everything to dry (quite humid right now where I live), masked up again and ready for the blue. Again, I tried achieving tonal variations, this time using my stencils and light blue, RLM86 if I remember right)

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

and then the moment of truth !!!!! Unmasking everything was quite stressful and exciting at the same time.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Scratch the red on this one while removing the mask. I won't correct it and use it in the weathering process

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
too bad the picture doesn't show the tonal variations in the blue but it's there

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
And to finish the only mistakes :

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
the yellow bled through the mask a bit and same thing for the white on the fins.

But in the end I am pretty pleased with everything !! really worth the extra work and the investment for the mask. But I would recommend using vinyl instead of kabuki tape.

Hope everyone likes it because I do and a lot !!!!

Go Habs Go !! Vegas goes down !!

Francis

Post by **digger303** » Sun Jun 20, 2021 2:10 am

I like the tonal variation it's come out well.

Post by **BigWall** » Sun Jun 20, 2021 3:13 am

Very nice work!

Post by **Tomcat64** » Mon Jun 21, 2021 8:44 am

Great progress since I last checked in - that really does look superb, the paintwork is stunning

Post by **ForeverPlasticKits** » Tue Jun 22, 2021 6:34 pm

BigWall wrote: Sun Jun 20, 2021 3:13 am Very nice work!

That's right, the build is awesome!

Post by **Garion77** » Tue Jun 22, 2021 8:26 pm

ForeverPlasticKits wrote: Tue Jun 22, 2021 6:34 pm
BigWall wrote: Sun Jun 20, 2021 3:13 am Very nice work!
That's right, the build is awesome!

Merci beaucoup !

Go habs GO

Post by **Garion77** » Tue Jun 22, 2021 8:27 pm

Tomcat64 wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 8:44 am Great progress since I last checked in - that really does look superb, the paintwork is stunning

Thank you very much

Next post will take a bit of time. Too much to do at home

Post by **Stokesy44** » Tue Jun 22, 2021 8:57 pm

Very nice work. Really good post too, taking us through the process.

Post by **Garion77** » Tue Jun 22, 2021 10:14 pm

Stokesy44 wrote: Tue Jun 22, 2021 8:57 pm Very nice work. Really good post too, taking us through the process.

Thank stokesy ! really appreciated and helps to go on ! Has I said gone take a few day before the next post and ran in a small problem earlier. Painted the walkway, that's all fine and beautiful and then, decided to start the decals. But this time, as recommended by Will Pattison, without any gloss varnish on, as I'm trying to preserve the most I can my riveting. I was also using for the first time tamiya's decals solutions. I'm out of microsol and microset, and had only those in the store. Used them in the cockpit with mix appreciation. So on with the reals decals, but it reacted with my paint (damn Vallejo)

I was able to save the disaster and will be able to use it as weathering. But now on with a gloss coat. Don't know yet which one I'm going to use... aqua gloss, or AK's...but leaning to tamiya's with leveling thinner. Think it would help more my riveting.

Post by **Garion77** » Wed Jun 23, 2021 12:37 am

Finally, a really small update.

First, as I mentioned in one of my answers earlier, the painting of the walkway :

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Came out pretty well. Use Tamiya rubber black but less diluted to make it heavier on the surface like the real thing. A bit of tonal variation was done first using a light grey.

But the goal of my update is to get some help. I'm wondering what color should the part just in front of the masking should be ?? I know the forward face will be chromate yellow... but the small area that just in front of tape making all the circumference....

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

I found a few pictures that would suggest some kind of aluminum...like this one :

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

You can see it behind the ladder, between the exhaust pipes...

Or am I mistaking... paint it as well chromate yellow or leave the camouflage color. I'm asking because it's going to show with the top open to show the engine.

Thank you

Go Habs GO

Post by **Garion77** » Sat Jun 26, 2021 4:09 pm

Hello fellow modelers !
I have time finally to do a small update. The day before yesterday was our national holiday and was supposed to work outside the house. But I was finally too tired because of work and how late the hockey games were. So I decided to threat myself with a morning of modeling and an afternoon in the pool.

I left you with my last post with the paint reacting to Tamiya's decal solution. So I had to put on a clear varnish finally. The varnish finally dry I was able to put the decals and stencils on. Quality, as usual for the Eduard's kit I did was pretty good. The resolution of the stencils is awesome

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

You can see on the next one where the paint reacted to the decal solution ; black of the invasion stripe around the "E". Decided to leave it like that as part of the weathering

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

So next up will be another clear coat to protect the decals and do a pin wash of different panels. And my next update should be when I start weathering the underside... may be in a bit because of the work I still have to do outside (my girlfriend's reading space with a paver's patio), a lot to do at work, hockey games and small trip next weekend

GO HABS GO
Stanley Cup in 7 games !

Post by **Garion77** » Tue Jul 06, 2021 10:30 pm

Hello everyone !
well it's been a while since my last update. I was finally able to finish the pavers patio in the backyard. And went away for the first time in a year as the lockdown here is easing up, on a small vacation ! in one of the most beautiful spots I've ever visited in the world and it's almost right in my courtyard. Well actually a 5 hours drive but nonetheless ! It's called Charlevoix if some of you want to check it out on the web.

This is going to be a really small as I haven't done much since the last post. I was actually going to do a few hours of modeling but disaster struck in 2 different ways ! First, before going on my small vacation, I decided to redo the landing gear struts as I thought they weren't neat enough. So I use a knew product I had to remove CA glue.... but it melted the plastic

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
So nothing to do with that anymore !! I was able to find replacements parts in metal from Srpue brothers in the US. Hope it will do and fit ! Will get them during the course of the week.

The second disaster happened a few hours when I got back from work and sat down to do my pin wash before dinner. But some kind of damn chemical reaction happened !!!!!!!!

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

As you can see, something happened and ate the paint all the way to the plastic... I don't know why

I used Tamiya Clear with leveling thinner, and the pin wash was with AK Paneliner and a bit of enamel thinner. May be I should of done one more coat of clear before.... anyways now the only thing left to do is to sand everything around those patches, shoot some primer and paint again.

A shame...everything was going so well !

GO HABS GO ! there's still hope !

Post by **Twokidsnosleep** » Tue Jul 06, 2021 11:32 pm

Oh that is a shame
Definitely spot repair
Maybe some bullet holes??

Post by **Kevthemodeller** » Thu Jul 08, 2021 7:27 am

Twokidsnosleep wrote: Tue Jul 06, 2021 11:32 pm Maybe some bullet holes??

Or perhaps battle damage repair patches, small rectangular sections or PE fret, painted over

Post by **ForeverPlasticKits** » Mon Jul 12, 2021 9:36 pm

Dommage pour la jambe de train, incroyable qu'un produit en enlève un autre en détruisant le support! Pour les petites écailles de peinture peut-être nettoyer le kit avant de le peindre?!
Bon courage pour remédier aux problèmes!

Post by **digger303** » Tue Jul 13, 2021 1:39 am

ForeverPlasticKits wrote: Mon Jul 12, 2021 9:36 pm Dommage pour la jambe de train, incroyable qu'un produit en enlève un autre en détruisant le support! Pour les petites écailles de peinture peut-être nettoyer le kit avant de le peindre?!
Bon courage pour remédier aux problèmes!

Too bad for the train leg, incredible that a product removes another by destroying the support! For small paint chips maybe clean the kit before painting it ?!

Good luck in remedying the problems!

Post by **Tomcat64** » Tue Jul 13, 2021 9:35 am

Oh Wow - what a shame

I really hope you figure out a way to rescue this one mate.

I'd probably be the same as Kev and try and make square patches to fix the paintwork if you can.

Post by **Garion77** » Tue Jul 13, 2021 9:53 pm

Hi all,

so not much going on since my last post. It kind of killed a bit of my mojo... and while wanted on another thing on the project I broke part of a strap for my fuel tank... so not the best of time combining with an extreme accumulation of fatigue because I have sleeping troubles for the last 2/3 months. So it caught up to me a bit. Really too tired for much anything more then work and house chores. Don't know what it causing it but I've read that it's a common problem since the lockdown for covid...thank god it's finally over here, or almost over, as that we have only about 60 cases a day.

The only thing I was able to do since my last spot was to correct the painting problems. Sanded down the sections, sprayed Ultimate primer and then the corresponding paint.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

As you can see with the above pictures, not really much left to tell the problem I ran into. But the next one still shows unfortunately

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

I knew it would be the hardest section to correct as it looked like the solvent had even ate the plastic a bit. It still shows a bit and there's a mark left of where the masking tape was during priming. And when I riveted back the rows that had diseappered there's one I misaligned. So I have to figure out a way to correct it a bit more...but may be the riveting will stay that way...
so still killing my mojo ! And when you're really tired it's hard to sit down and solve those problems instead of just modeling

Post by **Garion77** » Thu Jul 15, 2021 9:38 pm

well....they say lightning never strike twice at the same place but seems it does with my current project...

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Yes you do see ok ! the wing broke off ! and this came after yet another problem !!! Just had finished repairing my previous bad luck and was ready to spray some matte varnish to proceed to my next stages of weathering. I was trying a brand new bottle of AK Matt Varnish (not the lacquer one)... and it was spraying really awful...don't know why. So let's hope this doesn't scrap anything else. It was spraying really thick and not smooth at all...

This doesn't help at all my mojo and the way and I'm feeling tired lately. And to add to all that... my coffee grinder broke this morning !!! Only one year and half old !! Let's hope the warranty still good when I get it to coffee shop. Know I have to find strength to push trough all those problems. My goal was to finish before my vacation the second week of august. Still possible but still a lot left to do with the wheels and other small parts.

Post by **BigWall** » Fri Jul 16, 2021 2:03 am

Too much to deal with without coffee! Hopefully the varnish didn't cause more problems.

Post by **Garion77** » Mon Jul 19, 2021 8:58 pm

Hello everyone !
So after all the back to back disasters, I set everything aside and decided to do other things ! Went hiking in a beautiful place around a forest and a river where they are old ruins of a gun powder manufacturing site that sold it to the US army during the US Civil War and during WW I to the allies. Did other small things with my girlfriend and caught back a bit of the sleep I was missing.
Came back to it and did a lot of test spraying with AK Matt varnish since I didn't get any help on the forum. The first spray I did on the plane had leveled down good even with all the problems I had with it. With my testing finally settled with a ratio of around 60% thinner and 40 % varnish and a spraying pressure of a bit more then 20 PSI. So did a few coats and everything looks nice.
I already had do pin washes of different colors all around the plane and a few stains with enamel products. Now I'm at a more deep weathering stage as I stained the shell ejection chutes. I started by putting on an highly diluted dark grey from Vallejo, 71.056 Panzer Dark grey, around the holes all the way through the back of the plane. and followed it with Nato Black, highly diluted again, this time more around the holes itself.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

It looks pretty good to me !! When I get to the oils paint I'll a bit more staining around it.

Post by **BigWall** » Tue Jul 20, 2021 6:22 am

It's looking great!

Post by **Garion77** » Wed Jul 21, 2021 12:03 pm

BigWall wrote: Tue Jul 20, 2021 6:22 am It's looking great!

Thanks Joe ! Really appreciated ! Up next will be the exhaust stains and the weathering of the reservoir. Hope to post them today or tomorrow. Not a lot of time for modeling lately. And it's summer time ! So pool time

Post by **Garion77** » Wed Jul 21, 2021 10:13 pm

Hello all
small update.
exhaust on the top done for both sides. I've used a mix of Vallejo Panzer Dark grey first, then Tamiya Medium grey and finally a bit of Tamiya Desert yellow. A few bit of oil paints also of Starship filth.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Not so bad. I think I lack a bit of fluidity in the airbrushing. But the colors are good too me with what I've seen in pictures. Tell me what you think ! good or bad ! Improvement needed ??

Also finished the weathering on the reservoir. As to dry and put on a Matt coat before I show the pictures. I hope to receive my landing gears struts by the end of the week. Let's hope so if I want to go on.

Post by **digger303** » Thu Jul 22, 2021 1:16 am

I think it looks pretty good. The white has turned out right on scale

as have the others, but white is tricky.
Gotta get some of that star ship filth.....on the shopping list

Post by **Garion77** » Thu Jul 22, 2021 11:54 am

digger303 wrote: Thu Jul 22, 2021 1:16 am I think it looks pretty good. The white has turned out right on scale as have the others, but white is tricky.
Gotta get some of that star ship filth.....on the shopping list

the color starship filth is awesome... I have quite a range of oil colors. And because of that I never bought it until recently even if I was tempted when always seeing it being used on youtube channels. Last time I went to my local hobby store there it was calling me to buy it

But seriously they had just started having AK stuff in the store so I went on a shopping spree. And at a real good price.

Post by **Stokesy44** » Thu Jul 22, 2021 12:24 pm

Lovely work. Beautifully subtle.

As you were applying it were you thinking, just a little bit more, just a little.....

I love the thrill of painting effects.

Post by **BigWall** » Fri Jul 23, 2021 2:08 am

I think you got the color just perfect!

I agree, I need to get some starship filth as well.

Post by **Garion77** » Tue Jul 27, 2021 8:52 pm

Hello all !
small update on my hellcat.

Propeller and propeller hub, from Ultracast, painted. You can see in the photo that they are much more detailed then the kit's

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Weathering has begun on them but ran into some problem with my varnish... so pictures coming later if I can salvage them. But I won't have a choice to use them as the decals are on them already.

Exhaust stains done on the underside

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Pretty happy how it turned out. At first, before adding the oils, I really didn't like it. I had use two rust tones from Vallejo and Sandgelb. Before the oils, I put a bit of tamiya's panel line dark brown is some places.Then I used smoke and engine oil from Abteilung oils and it turned just how I wanted.

And finally, the finished reservoir

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

One of my homemade strap broke off but it will glue back in place with no problem. I'm a bit disappointed on how it turned out.

So I'm near the end of the project. But still waiting for my replacement of the landing gears struts I broke. After those, not much left except a bit of pencil chipping. The rest will be putting and the small things in place. let's hope I have Time finishing everything before leaving for vacation in beautiful Sandbanks, Ontario

Post by **Kevthemodeller** » Wed Jul 28, 2021 7:21 pm

Lovely detail weathering

Post by **digger303** » Thu Jul 29, 2021 1:21 am

Layers on layers to get the right looking effect and it takes time.
You've got it right now to start putting it all together and adding the last bit's of weathering to tie it all in.....can't wait.

Post by **Garion77** » Fri Jul 30, 2021 1:52 pm

Hello everyone,
again a small update, mostly to show globally where I'm at at the moment.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

A bit more weathering was done. I tweaked a bit more the exhaust stains on the sides with oils paints so the flow seems more natural then the first time I posted them. As you can see on the first picture, I also added an oil stain with Vallejo Engine effect products with oil. It was made using a reference picture I had.
Using oil paints again, you can see that I dirtied up the flaps and ailerons, again using reference pictures I had. It doesn't show much in the pictures but I also did the same a bit on the blues and reds of the roundels and fins.
And on the last picture, I did some stains from engine soot, again using reference pictures. I started by using again the Vallejo engine effect range, engine soot, but it was awful... I really hate Vallejo ! But that's what I could get my hand the easiest at the beginning. So I added a bit of stains using different pigments. The effect came out pretty good to me and subtle as I wanted.
So not much left to do. I'll have to get my landing struts to finish all. Only thing left in the meanwhile is pencil chipping and the engine cover

Post by **Garion77** » Thu Aug 19, 2021 12:56 pm

Hello everyone.
Back from my vacation from beautiful Sandbanks, Ontario. Set beside one of the Great Lakes, beautiful beaches, warm water and lots of wineries and distilleries. A must to visit if you're in Canada !

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
My son, taking the only break he took on the beach... 15 minutes. The other ones were only when it was time to eat !

So still being on vacation, but at home for the next week and half, I'm trying to push to finish line for my Hellcat. Let's say that all the bumps I encountered before kind of halted me a bit. But let's push on ! I spent most of yesterday's afternoon working on it.

The landing gears were built and detailed with a lot of efforts...not worth it as it doesn't show as much as I expected. And my replacements struts are awful. Don't fit well and detail on them is horrible.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sorry bad picture quality.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
As you can see on the above picture, the alignment isn't great because of the bad fit. This was the best I could do.

Also had to modify the propeller to fit on the engine. I used ultracast instead of the kit. But needed to cut the pin at the back and drill a hole to fit. It was time to use my brand new tool.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Also worked on the engine cowl. A few PE bits to put on that came with resin engine.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
This was hard work as they don't fit or aligned pretty good. I did the best I could.

Then went back to the engine as I had to put on the exhausts. After testing everything, I decided to put the engine on the plane and then glue the exhaust.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
If I had glued them in place first I don't think they would have hold when putting the engine on or the engine cowl. The fit is pretty flimsy. Only the bottom ones left.
So approaching the finish line as we can see.

Post by **digger303** » Thu Aug 19, 2021 1:41 pm

The scenery looks spectacular must have been a great holiday and got all romantic drawing hearts in the sand

good on you.

The kits coming along and those wheel struts look OK we don't all look as closely as you would tend to do.

Post by **Garion77** » Thu Aug 19, 2021 2:26 pm

digger303 wrote: Thu Aug 19, 2021 1:41 pm The scenery looks spectacular must have been a great holiday and got all romantic drawing hearts in the sand good on you.
The kits coming along and those wheel struts look OK we don't all look as closely as you would tend to do.

Good eyes to see the hearts ! it's actually my son who made them and wrote Papa (daddy) beside them

Post by **Garion77** » Sun Aug 22, 2021 11:46 pm

Almost at the finish line.... hope there's still some followers !

So not much left to do and not much was done because of the beautiful temperature we have right now. So a lot of pool time !
But squeeze a little bit of time to finish installing the propellers. I had already drilled the hole to fix it to the engine but realize something was wrong went it was time to install it.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Easy to see the problem ! Here's the comparison with the kit's one.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

So cut the thing to fix it good

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

And fix the fuel tank... remember it ?

one of the first think I posted a long time ago when I started the thread. I really need to build a bit faster !

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

So almost finish ! only 2 things left ! so the next pictures will be the end result !
Take care everyone

Post by **digger303** » Mon Aug 23, 2021 12:29 am

Looking good, underside looks great and love the engine detailing.

Post by **Kevthemodeller** » Tue Aug 24, 2021 8:25 am

Morr superb work, the undercarriage and engine look fantastic

Post by **BigWall** » Wed Aug 25, 2021 1:04 am

It's coming along so nicely!

Post by **Garion77** » Thu Aug 26, 2021 8:56 pm

Model is finish !

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Pictures will be uploaded in an another post in the completed section. All in all I'm satisfied with the result being the first time I push myself to this amount of details and realism. In retrospective, I think the result would have been better if I hadn't struggle that much with the matte varnish. I think I did a pretty good job with the roundels and invasion stripes. I'm happy with the paint job ; because having use mostly Vallejo paints, it's the first time I achieved this smoothness with them...but the varnish kind of change everything up. But still don't like that brand of paint.

Painting roundels are a must for me now. Disappointed with the landing gears even if they don't show that much. I also need to build faster ! Also need to improve in painting the canopies as it is my weakest point. You'll see the result isn't that good when I post the pictures in the completed section. I love my gun stains on the bottom and exhausts too. In fact, I love my overall weathering. The engine, even with all the work it was is awesome. I realized after putting the engine cowl on that Eduard made a mistake with the structure bars. There's none on top but there are two a bit offset from the top. And the fit was so awful I should have left them out.

I think everything came up nice, too bad I'm horrible at taking pictures. But still worth celebrating !

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

So thanks for watching ! Hope I still have a few followers with all the time it took me. Next up will be Tamiya's Ki-61 ; out of the box build and first metal finish paint. May be a few scracthbuilding details but no buying extras this time. Don't know yet if I'm going to do another building thread... will see. May be on another one later. Haven't made my decision yet.

Thank you everyone. It's encouraging reading all the comments .

Post by **digger303** » Fri Aug 27, 2021 12:16 am

Overall first impression is wow you have achieved a really nice result. The weathering made a huge difference to how the model is perceived. A beer well earned.

Post by **BigWall** » Fri Aug 27, 2021 4:03 am

It came out very nicely! Congratulations. I hope you do another build thread. It's nice to learn from watching someone's project come along.