.

Box Art:

Instruction Booklet:

Color Schemes:

Decal Sheet:

Sprue Shots:

Clear Sprue:

SAC Metal Landing Gear:

Aires Replacement Cockpit:

Quickboost Replacement Exhaust Stacks:

Started off with cleaning off all the casting blocks from the Aires Cockpit.









The JLC Razor Saw works wonders on stuff like this.

All the parts cleaned up and fitted.



Some very nice detail to start picking out soon.

Rudder arm bar was slightly off set to the left and will be simulated with a
deflected rudder once we get to that stage.



The side panels are a drop fit, no sanding.



Started cleaning up the glass cockpit pieces right away and dipped into Future so they can dry for as long as needed (24 hours min). 



The wing fit was like a glove, with very little clean up to speak of. 

Just used the bow sander by flexifile to get the leading edge cleaned up without affecting the roundness,

There is a large heavy plastic truss to keep the wings from drooping when final assembled.



Quick dry fit of the fuse halves with the resin sidewalls in place and the resin back cockpit former in place. 

Looks like all the panel lines join up quite nicely.



View through the bottom.



Engine and cowling sub assembly.



All the plastic parts cleaned from minor flash, sanded for pin holes



Parts assembled.



Cowl assembled, fit is perfect without any major rework/filler.



Propeller, hub and spinner sub assembly.



Sanded down the blades to a more scale like thinness with the ProModeller sanding sticks
then with circular motion used the MDC sponges to get a super smooth blade.





Ready for paint.



Two extra fuel wing tanks getting prepped.  Inserted a piece of brass rod to simulate the "pick up".



Airbrushed on Alclad Dark Aluminum for a base coat.



Applied some salt crystals with distilled water and let dry for 10 minutes.



Airbrushed on a 50/50 mix of Tamiya XF-4 Yellow-Green and Tamiya XF-3 Yellow at 8 psi, and 50/50 Tamiya X-20 Thinners,
very light dusty coats as not to disturb the salt crystals, just building up layers.



Rinsed off the salt



and airbrushed on a flat coat with Model Master Flat Clear.

The inside of the cowling was a little bare, decided to spruce her up with some strips of plastic card from Evergreen Scale Models,

0.020 thickness, just following the exterior panel lines as a guide, imagining where some structural detail "might" have been on the real airplane.





A little later in the build sequence I will define some of the "inside paneling" with an oil wash of burnt Sienna. Plus some oil splatters and general grime.



Drilled out the wing gun barrels.



Added a small detail to the front chin cowl radiator inlet.

Drilled, then cut the original molded in plastic detail to remove it,



then final sanded the plastic lip to shape.



Suitable brass screen (K&S Metal Brass) of approximate scale that looked good to the eye.



Cut to shape and inserted, then glued with thick super glue.

Quite an improvement over the flat original plastic.

Prepped all the parts that would be in the Nakajima Interior Green shade.

A light misting was applied over the Alclad II Dark Aluminum base coat,

using Mr. Color leveling thinner and 4 drops of Mr. Retarder to a 2 ml. color cup.



Sprayed at 70/30 Thinner to Paint ratio and at 10 PSI max using my Evolution 2 in 1.

Paint color is Mr. Color #127

Finished up the painting of the sides panels.

A light oil wash applied and some dry brush to convey some general wear and tear.



Wires were picked out with a blunt Black Sharpie pen.



Glued both fuselage halves together, using Tamiya Thin cement while she was held together in key points with some Tamiya tape.

Spent quite a bit of time to carefully align the various panel lines to ensure as little re-scribe would be as necessary.



After the glue was allowed to harden overnight spent time carefully sanding down the top and bottom seam. Skipping past the panel lines.

Using a bow flex sander and various grit sizes from the MDC sponge range...







Thus far no filler has been used.

Glued on the Horizontal Stabs and the Rudder sub assembly.



Super glue was applied to the inside of the seams to minimize risk of the dreaded "ghost cracks and seam separation" after a paint session on these large flat glue areas. 

Prep work on the engine sub assembly has started by spraying first a base coat of Alclad Dark Aluminum. 

Rocker arms, push-rods picked out with Tamiya NATO Black. 

The front of the gear housing was painted with Tamiya Medium Grey (XF-20).

Drilled out the holes for the ignition wires.



Copper wire used and inserted



and spot glued with thick super glue and a quick spray of kicker to set in place.



Prep work for the propeller/hub/spinner sub assembly has been started by painting the Alclad Dark Aluminum as the base.

A light over-spray with Model Master Polly Scale "Soviet Green" FS 505358,
which ended up a beautiful match to the color needed for the blades.



Propeller tips lightly dusted with Mr. Color #109 Character Yellow.

Blade center Tamiya NATO Black.  Once dry over-sprayed with model master Super Flat coat.

Spinner has been treated with salt crystals and left overnight to dry.

Ready for the next stage Blue Sentai markings of the 29th Fighter Squadron.



The blades will be de-stressed with some Model Master metalizer on a sponge.

Completed the Aires Cockpit tub, picked out details with a light dry brush of flat silver, and a light oil wash of burnt Sienna/Black at a 50/50 mix.

Made some handles and rods from beadery wire to create the various controls. 

Applied a bead of thick super glue on the top to create "handles".

Applied 3 applications of Future to the dials to simulate a domed glass effect.

Applied a wash to the seat "cushion" to show a leathery effect. 

Picked out some details for the oxygen? bottle with some blue and the rescue case to the right of the seat in a deep Green, just for fun.

Airbrushed the guns with Model Master Gun Metal, then buffed and details highlighted with a dry brush of dull silver.



Rudder pedals made from the PE set adhered wonderfully with a small drop of super glue.

Instrument panel detail.



To complete the seat belts and the reflector gun sight. 







The instrument panel is still removable and will most likely drop that from the top to facilitate easy final alignment to the cockpit coaming.

Cleaned up all remaining needed parts from the sprues, polished up the parts, filled a couple minor sink marks in the flap detail, sanded edges etc.

Here are all the "remaining parts" to finalize the build.

Painted up the wing tank connection mechanism and connection siphon tubes with Model Master plate silver.

Painted up the flaps exterior and the main gear doors and tail doors with Tamiya JN Grey (XF-12).

Insides were treated with a blotchy appearance of Alclad Aircraft Aluminum ALC119 and some shading of Dark Aluminum ALC103.



Checking wing to fuse seams.



Overall fit is pretty good, most likely will place a spreader bar on the inside of the fuse under the resin cockpit

to ensure an "as good as possible fit" and minimize the filler need.



The right side fit is very very good



the left side has a minor gap throughout the join. 

As I don't want to introduce unnecessary extra di-hedral to the wing plan-form and force fit with it with a rubber band to close the gap, the spreader bar is the better option in my opinion.

Finalized the cockpit by installing the PE belt Painted it a light Brown, close to "leather",

and some minor paint chips to depict more wear and tear.



The whole resin tub (minus the instrument panel) was dropped in.



Checked for alignment and then spot glued with some thick Super Glue.

A spreader bar was inserted to tighten up the minor gap to the wing join.



Removed the "bumps" from the wings (top and bottom) and from the horizontal tail that were representations of the navigation lights.



Will be replacing these with clear sprue'd versions.



To prepare for painting, rubbed down the fuse and wings with plastic prep.

Plus vacuumed the whole model shop and dusted off all surfaces, in hopes to eliminate dust settling into the paint.



Inserted the Instrument panel through the top and aligned with the top dash. 

Installed the two clear acetate screens representing the reflector gun sight.

Glued on the front canopy with Gator Grip glue. 



Masked off the interior with some 3 M White Tack.



A light coat of Mr. Surfacer 1200 (Grey) primer was applied.



Once dried (about 30 minutes) rubbed down the surfaces with MDC sponges and checked the over all fit and finish.





Particularly liked how my panel lines ended up after being re-scribed around the leading edges.

Paying close attention to line up top with bottom lines in the original plastic.

Used the JLC razor saw, to set the panel, the "teeth" on the saw allows for a quick alignment
of the panel line by lightly "sawing into the plastic" and set it in place, then lightly followed with various scribers.





Some rivets were applied close to the cowl on the "strengthening plates" and look the part.



The wing join to fuse turned out wonderful.



Applied some final rivets at strategic locations. 

Lightly rubbed it down with a well worn out MDC sponge.
As a last step used a piece of an old T-Shirt to polish it down.

Treated some panels with various shades to try a pre-shading technique, Alclad "Steel" and "Aluminum" 

and also to allow some of the chipping to have character.









The Yellow Identification bands were masked off, Salt applied and left to dry for 20 minutes under a light.

A light application of Mr. Color "Character Yellow" #109 was then airbrushed on --ever
so careful -- at a pressure of 8 psi, as not to disturb the salt.

#109 has a slight tinge of "Orange" and looks much more the part than a regular Yellow.



Masks removed and Salt Chips dissolved with distilled water.









3 M White Tack inserted into the wheel wells to protect the nice Metal Finish already applied.



Airbrushed all fabric flying surfaces with Tamiya XF-25 Light Sea Grey.

This color is a very nice companion to the JN Grey under surface.





Salt Chips were applied to the Silver under side, then Three Shades of JN Grey applied, using some White to tone down.

Some nice post modulation and Pre-Shading of the "Steel" are peaking through.



She is quite "blotchy" now, this will be adjusted with a final blend of an over-spray at 70/30 thinner to paint.