W.I.P. pics of new projects....

[NARSES2]

Always liked that little Huma kit. Be nice to see your take on it 

[Captain Canada]

Both really nice looking aeroplanes, and will certainly add some 'flair' to your stable. Nice to see you throw a couple of whiffs in there !

[matrixone]

Thanks for looking NARSES2 and Captain Canada!

Some pics of what's on the work table besides the Ju EF 128 and Ho 229.

Here is where I am with the Dragon Me P.1101 Nightfighter, the airframe is assembled and as you can see here I have yet to sand off the red filler putty on the wing roots. Its impossible to see in this shot but I used super glue as a seam filler on the fuselage...this is not the best fitting kit I have worked with and there were a lot of small gaps to fill.


This shot shows both Messerschmitts that are currently being built...the Bf 110G-4 is nearly ready for paint.


The Bf 110G-4


A rare (for me at least) non-Luftwaffe aircraft model is this old Tamiya Ki-84.
This will be a RW build.


Matrixone

[Captain Canada]

That P.1101 looks tiny beside that 110 ! Nice to see you branching out to a Japanese aeroplane !

[matrixone]

Captain Canada,
I came close to making the Ki-84 a Luftwaffe Ki-84 complete with a Fw 190D-9 camouflage scheme, but I remembered I bought an Aeromaster Ki-84 decal sheet to use with this kit so I will be using that for the markings...I hate to waste anything including decals.


Matrixone

[Gondor]

That P.1101 looks tiny beside that 110 !

Look at the relative sizes of the cockpit seats Captain. I think the Bf110-G4 is in 1/48 while the P.1101 is in 1/72 scale.

Gondor

[matrixone]

Gondor,
You are correct, the Me P.1101 is 1/72 scale and the Bf 110 is 1/48 scale, sorry for not stating that in my post.

Right now I am dealing with getting the drop tanks for the Ki-84, Bf 110, and Me P.1101 sanded and filled. Whenever I do manage to get around to spraying some paint I can spray the drop tanks and airframes all in one session. To add some interest to the Bf 110 one drop tank will be almost factory fresh and the other will be finished as being well used complete with some dents in it.

Matrixone

[Captain Canada]

lol I guess I should look before I leap ! I thought all of your stuff was 48th so I just assumed.

[matrixone]

A few more in-progress pictures...

The Me P.1101 is still not quite ready for paint, the wing roots still need some smoothing out. The other two are to be painted soon, as you can see the canopy frames have been sprayed RLM 66.


The Bf 110G-4 has had the canopy masked and the canopy frames painted RLM 66, as soon as I finish the drop tanks this model will get a thin base coat of pale gray and then some random pre-shading on the lower surfaces.


I started painting the cockpit on the Ki-84 but ran into some trouble...my go-to book on Japanese aircraft is ''Japanese Interiors'' by Robert Mikesh and sadly the book has very little to say on the cockpit colors of the Ki-84 so I looked at a bunch of color photographs of other un-restored late war Japanese aircraft and used them as a guide for painting my model...not perfect but it will have to do. The color profile seen here is the markings choice I will use on this model.
The engine face on the model was sprayed metall and will later get an oil wash to bring out the detail molded into the part.


Some detail painting of the cockpit parts. The kit includes a decal for the IP and will use that so maybe the cockpit on the finished model will look okay.


Here the cockpit is seen during dry fitting.


Matrixone

[NARSES2]

Neat collection. There are going to be some nice ones here 

[Captain Canada]

It sure is. Nice. Those are going to look great on your airfield ! Love the interior work as well.

[matrixone]

Thanks for the comments!

Since the above pictures were taken of the Ki-84 I have glued the fuselage halves together, this went pretty well but the gun cowl was not quite wide enough so there is a gap that will have to be filled.
I also did some dry fitting of the wing to the fuselage and there are some gaps that will need to be filled on each wing root...very un-Tamiya like! To be fair this IS an older 1970's era kit.

When I can I will get one of the newer Hasegawa Ki-84 kits, the pictures I have seen of them look great and the surface detail on these kits will make it easy to add subtle weathering effects that should look realistic.


Matrixone

[Allan]

Matrixone,
I too am a great fan of these older Japanese kits, including their Japanese and German fighter planes, particularly the old Fujimi 109G/K in 1/48 scale
and the Hayate is a great design isn't it?   just love the way the elevators and rear wings were placed so far in front of the vertical stabilizer   I wonder is that was done with any reason in mind?
Allan
the Hayate with the red fuselage markings, was it flown by the pilot who put the yellow lightning flashes on his Raiden, do you suppose?
and my dear Matrix old thing, why did you anoint the model in the upper right hand corner with RLM 66 at the bases of the vertical stabilizers?
do tell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[matrixone]

Allan,
Yes the Ki-84 is a terrific looking design, when I can I do so want to get the newer Hasegawa kit. IIRC Hasegawa made one of these in 1/32 scale and that would tremendous fun weathering it. I have been looking through my few books on Japanese airplanes and in many photographs the finish of the Japanese Army Air Force machines looked like the paint would wear off much more quickly than on the Japanese Navy aircraft.

It would be unlikely the pilot of the Ki-84 with the red fuselage markings was also the same pilot of the well known Raiden with the yellow lightning markings, the Ki-84 was used by the Army and the Raiden was a Navy aircraft...I just don't know if it was common for pilots to transfer from one branch of the service to another.

The RLM 66 sprayed on the base of the vertical stabilizers was done simply to check if the putty and sanding I did on those areas were done properly, often if I have paint leftover from whatever I was painting I will use that for painting practice or checking the seam lines on models under construction.

Matrixone

[matrixone]

Some new in-progress pictures...

Ki-84:
The basic camouflage is now on this model, pre-shading was done on the lower surface but the upper surfaces have had some paint fading done and on the wing roots metall was sprayed on in preparation of weathering to come. The back of the prop blades were also given a light spray of metall near the tips.




Me P.1101


Ju EF 128


Bf 110G-4



Matrixone