How many of you guys still remember the good old days when a 1/72 Hasegawa Zero coat only Rm3?...or a 1/48 Otaki Tony goes for rm5.50....or a 1/50 Tamiya Val for rm 7?

yup the good old days braders, when model kits are cheap, man i got Hasegawa's Marvis for a mere rm15...dont really know how much it cost now..but it must be expensive i guess. ah,,then there was my favourite...Nichimo's 1/48 Kate....i must have got at least 6 of them as i could remember....long time ago braders. i did have a huge collection of japanese birds back then.

its been at least 20 years since i build my last aircraf before moving to specialize on german panzers...i was 20 then, now im 42, guess its time i start rebuilding my collections again, ...the problem is...they are so darn expensive now, well time has change, so must i.
the way i see it...money is not a big problem, the bigger one is some of theses japanese birds are hard to find....where do one ever gonna find a 1/48 Jake nowdays?

so i decide to start this thread and post all future builds here...and im starting off with Tamiya's Betty.
hope you guys could help me out , especially the aircarf sifus..im still weak when comes to building birds

the 1 st thing i did was to make a bigger work place...my pervious 1 is too small



along with the betty im build this 2 at the same time...crazy huh :rolleyes:



starting with the betty...and the rework on the cockpit floor



the oob seats ..well the look like oob...and the other one is the rework








a rare betty cockpit photo

IMHO, Japan plane is the hardest to depict since their planes are soo heavy weathered.. Can't wait how you going to do it.. Must be very nice.. By the way bro, if you interested, I have some close-up pics on Japs plane cockpit. Just shoot me a pm lah if you want it..

haha...i wan brader.


ah thats why i like them coz they are dirty with paints peeling off here and there :P
but if you ask me to build a modern jet...then i rather sleep coz dunno how to start...in another words dunno how to paint a clean cut one

anyway it would be a big help if you could help correct my mistakes as this project goes on

actually i have check thru quite alot of info from the net about japanese planes,,well dont really know which is which..so i decided to rely on memory on what i have read in the past.
i skipped the betty and instead started on the rex, as i find that theres too much info thats missing abt the betty and also since i havent done any planes for the past 20 years , its best to go easy, sort like warm up before i start on the betty :D


cockpit of a George..but the Rex has the same cockpit


the paints are worn out and faded after 60 years..but i know some folks will take it for granted that they look this way in ww2 ;)



i remember when i was in high school a friend told me that japanese fighter pilots bring their own straw seat rest when ever they take the bird up..welll maybe i guess, so i left the seat bare in this case.
add in some wire cords and some small details




i realise all the extra work are wasted as it couldnt be seen once everything is in place...wa lau a..rugi bos :angry:



a sliver +grey base coat



next a mixture of olive green(45%)+yellow(45%)+white(10%) produce the typical bamboo green of most japanese aircraf interior


the finished cockpit..i decide not to dry brush as i want the cockpit to have the greasy and still in used look. i once took a peek inside a cockpit of F86 Sabre...and boy was it oily.

The painted tape belts looks like it could be PE material. Well done!

Did you paint the half red dial white on the other half on purpose? Because, the photo shows it is half black / red.

Also, it's just a teeny weeny minor detail and may not be visible once closed up but you might want to pick out the lower right knob on the instrument panel in red too. The ref photo shows this quite well.

cheers

Bro, first of all, your cockpit are super awesome.. Soo nicely done
Secondly, here you are some of the pics from my resource..

Mitsubishi G4M Betty




Mitsubishi Ki-46 Dinah III






all credit goes to the publisher.

ok towkay pooh, i miss that one out, later i touch up la...you have sharp eyes brader


bos shahrs..wat la you, now onli u posting the photos, after i finish the cockpit, can see now the colour i use is wrong , but nvm la i correct it on my next cockpit.
btw bos u got photos on val and kate ? :)

:P But your cockpit is nice ody.. No Val pic, but I do have Kate B&W pics.. Luckily one of the pic explain what color is the cockpit..


Nakajima B5N2 Kate







all credit goes to the publisher..

ok thanks bos...now must go get the hasegawa kate, but quite expensive ler, if in malaysia how much ah

big problem bos...i didnt check the clear parts when i bought the rex..it happens that there is a crack on the front part of the canopy...so is there any way to cure this?..

How deep or bad is the crack?

Not to put a bump in your progress but cracked clear parts are non repairable in which case, your options would be limited to contacting the manufacturer for replacement, hawking a spare off someone or vac form / heat smash a new one.

If you got a photo of it, perhaps the guys can assess the damage better and provide you with more informed feedback.

cheers

Hi Ari... When it comes to "dirty" or "mengotorkan"... U are the man. Regardless of what nature, your sure would come out just "realistic". Me, don't like "so dirty" military hardware coz had been trained to keep "good look" for my real 1:1 scale military Hardware...

2 thumbs up!!!

Mej®

a small crack in the front canopy , i ready mask it up for painting guess i just igore it or i will never finish this kit and see how everything turns up.
1 option is to put a canvas cover, second is to take this build as practice, but i guess i wont be wasting time trying to get a new one

hahah..i try not to make this one too dirty infact it would be clean expect for paints peeling off...lots of it

after sanding..theres plenty of lubang in this kit, well old kits are like that. the canapoy is given a spray of interior colour to match the inside. ah finally found the correct color tone for interiors after looking at the photos shahrs posted




im trying out this method that i figured should work.i first spray the details with a light coat of red brown + black


after cleaning



an overall spray of metal




close up



i decide not to use the decal, and instead spray paited the yellow and red

And there you were getting all worried about laying of planes for a long time. :lol:

That was 1 superfast built bro.. It was nice as well.. Cant wait for your next step on this bird..

well the build is quite easy thats why its fast.,less than 50 parts in all, only that sanding took up half a day. too be honest , since this kit comes with a crack canopy, i sort of did it without much planning, kinda lets get it over with instead paying more attention to details, im sure i could have done better, except it would be a waste as the crack canopy is gonna spoil everything...well just like i said before...this is for practise...i got at least 6 more jap planes to build



the basic IJN green..no mixing as this colour is correct, ah...japanese paints always gives the correct IJN, IJA, IJAF tones..you and me know why its like that ..hahaha





an over spray of IJN green + yellow



let to dry before the paint peeling starts




its quite diffcult to spray the underside, with the float geeting in the way. i wanted to create the sharp edge wave look on the borders with masking tapes , but then i got lazy and did it free hand...ha lazy due to the crack canopy again

cun.....

more updates

The scratch was awesome bro.. How did you do it ya

Very quick and nice progress so far Ari.I love what you have done with the cockpit.
I am sure that more weathering and staining will be coming soon , knowing your work. :)

In anticipation,
eng hui

nice work ari,

Always like ur armor, now planes pulak.

Just one info, the Japs tends to touch up the hinomaru, so it should be always "Fresh". correct me if I'm wrong

bos the scratch is done using hairspray methos..just like with the tanks :P


yup the hinomaru are always fresh as the japs take pride in their national insignal, but as the canopy is cracked i decide to build one of the thousand of aircraf the american captured after the surrender. they were left there unattended, the good and important ones are shipped back to the states, while the rest were bulldozed into pits and burned.
most japanese pilots and ground crew when straight to work for the americans, flying in planes from all over japan to a collection point, where they were later destroyed.


an important note is ...the white with green cross betty was burned shortly after the surrender

a light spray of black and later a miture of light earth + black for highlights







after a spray of clear coat before washing






wash...black+ burn sienna oil paints





after cleaning and left to dry, before detail painting

another fast build on a cheap kit. Tamiya's Frank is almost hopeless in many case...missing are the rivets that would make the Frank a beatifully plane, well, Hasegawa's Frank are much better, with all the rivets included, but then the price is almost rm70, while this tamiya kit is abt rm20.
i had build this kit many years ago , only that after 20 years i realise how bad this kit was, well of course we never dreamt back then that kits would so accurate as it is nowdays.

i dont really expect this kit to turn up nicely but again this kit is good for practice in getting the shades right...im building one that took part in the battle of okinawa, one thats been hurrily patch up and send on a one way mission.
got the colour guide from a magazine that i bought recently, almost 300 colour plates of jap aircraf of various types











i used black + blue for the anti glare

the other day i sign up for a modelling contest , i thought just join for the fun of it, haha. so i have 14days left to finish this Betty.




instead of spending anymore on model kits, i decided to invest on a better compessor and airbrush, as the one i have is not so good



heres some wip

very nice work

Re your compressor ..........where can I get hold of something like that.........looks very nice........and price range ?

Rgds
Mr B

U r fast man, good and fast

i dont know where to get it in malaysia, coz i bought this is jakarta.
price is rupiah 2.5million, (Rm900).
abit expensive but this is one of the cheapest top range compressors, silent, up to 70psi, and the best is they work nicely when doing fine spraying under 15psi.
there several chinese brands that looks like this one, price at rupiah950 thousand (abt Rm340)..cheap but for general work ok la...to get the real fine line...susah bos, and i was using one of this before my wife complaint bery noisy :wacko:

not fast la bos vince...it took me 3 days to finish that, and the hardest part is yet to come ...canopy masking :unsure: lucky this kit has very clear canopy outlines..or else i mati la...so many frames to mask.

after i finish that , everything would be downhill coz this betty has very good fitting, i dont think i need any putty or too much sanding...yes the fit is that good.
guess if all models are made like this..modelling putty will run out of business

Thanks man

Can you advise where in Jakarta is it in the hobby shops or so ?.........I am quite frequent there.........been there 3 times in the last year.........

Rgds
Mr B

Got this at the hobby shop...Bios Shop,STC Plaza, Senayan...oppsite Senayan City.

if you want the cheap one...go to Golodok(chinatown)..plenty of compressors..range from rupiah300 thousand(abt Rm100) up to 1.2millon. mostly chinese made stuff...boleh pakai la, if your not fussy about quality. another word is...they heat up quickly and condense..so becarefull not to work over 10minutes or else you will get water spraying on your model...for armour its ok bos,but for aircraft and cars...kenot la


well the reason i got the Anzen is i want to do camo painting freehand, so i really need a good compressor, something that will produce fine lines and very little overspray. you need a very low PSI to do this, chinese compressor will not work under 15psi..they do best at 35psi..thats too much air for fine spraying.

thanks man

how did u bring it back?

rgds

I live in jakarta bos...hahaha :D ,im PR in indo

Oh ok.............

Anyways thanks for the information..........I would very much like to consider getting that compressor............will check it out during my next trip.......

Rgds
Mr b

I think MrLow at HHQ has a similiar compressor for sale. :)

oh ya ..i saw some compressor sometime ago at Venus artshop in petaling street, something like rm600, didint actually see what model, maybe you want to check there also.
Btw is Bos Low still in operating? thought he moved?

Thanks guys

I actually have a similar one with a tank. But the one that Ari looks very heavy duty looking and I believe as seen got a water trap......plus it looks nice........will check out Mr Low and Venus

Thanks again
Rgds
mr B

disaster....one of the side window Hilang :angry:
so have to make a new one, lucky side windows are easy to make with clear resin




work on the wheel wells





rework done on engine roof






rework on the engines


base paint on




finish

didnt had time to photo the wip...rush job bos, just glad to meet the dateline

here are some photos minus the tail gun section...still half done, once finish just attach to the plane.

the waist guns had been removed , the tailgun is replaced by stick, so are most of the side windows and many of the unseen equipments...they are not needed as this bird is on a one way mission