Global Scale Modeller

Hello Guys,

My first submission to the gallery:


Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate (Frank) of the 200th Sentai based at Tanza Airfield, Negros Island, Philippines, October 1944


The 200th Sentai was formed using instructors and pilots from the Akeno flying school. It was a six (6) chutai squadron (most flying regiments are either 3 or 4). One of the distinct feature of this flight regiment is their aircraft had medium or large tail numbers painted on them.


They were hastily sent to the Philippines in October 1944 to augment the air defenses due to the US landings at Leyte. Despite being loaded with top veteran and instructor pilots, the unit did not perform well during their stint in the Philippines.


What inspired me to model this aircraft of this particular squadron:
1) Stories of my uncles in Negros Island during the war. They remembered Japanese aircraft that had numbers painted on their fuselage and tails.
2) Just recently, I was able to ascertain the exact location of Tanza Airfield in Negros and then learning that the 200th Sentai used this field.


I did subtle weathering just to show a few chip marks and stains. Also used a little bit of oil layering to fade some colors. On the last minute I changed the color of the spinner to a dark crimson red as it looks more sinister.

Some minor modifications that I made were to replace the pitot tube with syringe needles and scratch-built the aerial mounting brackets on the mast with aluminum tape. Aerials were made from stretched sprue.

All "hinomarus" and warning bands and line were masked and painted. The only decals I used are the tail numbers (salvaged from an old 1/48 Wessex sheet and the Akeno marking from spares)

Cheers,
Tony

And what a submission!!! Stunning work! I really like the weathering. Hayate is a beautiful plane.

Olli

Wow! that's great. I've always had a thing for Japanese aircraft.

Thanks for the comments gents. I have several other Japanese subjects that I will post later on.

Cheers,
Tony

Great work on such a lovely plane!

Very nice work!

The chipping is very realistic, did you use a silver pencil? -Just want know.

For the chipping and weathering here is how I did it.

During prep, the model was painted with satin black and then misted with silver lacquer while the black was translucent, I performed a salt spray and then covered the model again with silver lacquer and then performed another salt spray and the sprayed the camo color. When you remove the salt is give you the effect of both tarnished and natural metal. Some portions I used a fine brush with chrome silver.

tferedo wrote:For the chipping and weathering here is how I did it.

During prep, the model was painted with satin black and then misted with silver lacquer while the black was translucent, I performed a salt spray and then covered the model again with silver lacquer and then performed another salt spray and the sprayed the camo color. When you remove the salt is give you the effect of both tarnished and natural metal. Some portions I used a fine brush with chrome silver.

Thanks for the answer. Sounds like I maby have to try this tecnique myself.
What did you mean about salt spray and what is that you used as salt spray?

I just termed it "salt spray" but actually what I do is I use fine grain salt and even grind some of it into finer bits. Then I add water and apply to the model freely. Another is to apply water over the model and then I sprinkle or spackle the model with the salt to make stick randomly. Once removed the effect looks like this:



HTH

Thanks. It makes more sense now. Looks like it's a really effective and cheap trick, have to try this next time I do some chipping.

She's beautiful, very well done! Wat color did you use for the greenish yellowish upper side? It's looking fantastic

Hi and thanks vdbo76,

I used Gunze Sangyo Mr. Color #304 Olive Drab as the base. Then I used some oil colors (yellow, white, blue and red) and blended them to vary the tones.

Cheers,

Beautiful looking kit! Excellent techniques throughout, I dig the weathering - will try that on a Zero I have in my stash!
Cheers Jim

Ridgerunner wrote:Beautiful looking kit! Excellent techniques throughout, I dig the weathering - will try that on a Zero I have in my stash!
Cheers Jim

Thanks and looking forward to see you Zero.