Space Battleship Yamato "Flying Tigers" Cosmo Falcon

[Captain Canada]

What a neat looking kit ! I have never seen this before. Hard to say how to finish it, I guess anything goes ! I do like the green one tho.

[seadude]

I think I give up.  I can't seem to figure out a decent paint scheme. I originally thought of a retro WWII Flying Tigers paint scheme. But now.......not sure?

I was thinking of the following:
Olive Drab upper fuselage.
Light or Medium Grey lower fuselage.
Red aircraft nose.
And leading edges of wings and so forth to be a Dark Tan or Dark Earth color similar to how the leading edges and other parts are painted red in this pic below. But the more I think about the Dark Tan/Earth color on the leading edges and other areas, the more I think it just looks butt ugly.    So.........what else could I do? Any other suggestions?

[Rick Lowe]

How about just the OD/Grey/Red scheme and ditch the l/e panels?

Or - change the red to the tail and have it in a Retro-Tuskeegee scheme.
I don't recall whether they ever had painted aircraft or NMF only, but it's your model and you can adjust things to suit yourself.

FWIW

[zenrat]

You could go in completely a different direction and take inspiration from Chris Foss.

[seadude]

Posted my dilemma to a FB group last night and I had one guy who said to try making the wing leading edges and other yellow parts red color the same as the nose. Not sure if I'll go with that scheme either.

[Old Wombat]

I like the lay-out of the scheme for this, so perhaps keep the general lay-out & colours but, for than retro look, go with the US OD & light grey scheme; leave the current grey bits (per the image) as is; the tan bit either keep as is or paint matte black, as an anti-glare panel; &, for the brick-red bits on the leading edges, why not pick a squadron or group colour and paint them that (red, yellow, blue, green, whatever).

[seadude]

A few WIP shots. The classic P-40 Flying Tigers scheme that most people are familiar with in books, pictures, movies, etc. is an olive drab green + medium/dark tan upper fuselage, neutral gray lower fuselage, and a red nose.
Well, the upper fuselage of my Cosmo Falcon is olive drab. Lower fuselage is neutral gray. Nose is red. A Flying Tiger aircraft just wouldn't be a Flying Tiger without some sort of dark tan color. So I added a bit in front of the cockpit area behind the red nose. But I'm still not sure if I should take it further by painting the leading edges of the wings and the vertical stabiliser dark tan also? Should I or shouldn't I?
Also made a small base for my CF by printing the Cosmo Falcon emblem, putting that in a simple frame, then maybe have my model either sitting on top with landing gear extended, or have my model on a display stand instead?

[Rick Lowe]

Might depend on how well the doors fit in the closed state... learned that one...

Although, as it's a Japanese kit, I would expect they'd fit pretty well.

[seadude]

Might depend on how well the doors fit in the closed state... learned that one...

Although, as it's a Japanese kit, I would expect they'd fit pretty well.

Not sure I understand what you mean?

[Rick Lowe]

Sometimes the manufacturers don't allow for closing the doors... they fit fine when assembled open, but if you make them closed they fit where they touch and you use a heap of filler.

[seadude]

I'm going to have the landing gear extended and the doors open. Also will have the weapon bays open too. The BANDAI kit does have extra wheel well door panels if a person wants to show the fighter with the wheel wells closed. I won't need any filler at all.

[Rick Lowe]

Oh, now that's a nice touch... saves a heap of trouble. 

But moot, as you're having them 'down and dirty'... 

[seadude]

More progress from last night after painting and adding the wings. I guess the Testors Dark Tan color doesn't look too bad? I needed to add tan somewhere on the model and this is the only thing I could come up with.

[Old Wombat]

It looks great to me.

[Rick Lowe]

Yeah, I agree!