Sea Harrier

Here are some pics of my son's birthday present we built together. The kit is an older Tamiya 1/48 Sea Harrier FR.1. He picked the markings (because its a "pirate flag") and all the colors. Not too bad for a toddler.

Ki-84 Hayate (Frank) "57 Special Attack Unit"

I got this 48th scale Hasegawa beauty at an IPMS show a couple of years ago and have finally gotten to build my first Japanese WW2 fighter. I went straight from the box on this one (Aeromaster decals excluded) and I'm glad that I didn't put any money into detailing it because it definitely didn't need it. So far, this kit has had the best surface detail I have ever worked with, as well as parts fitting properly. I did get a heads-up about the landing gear needing to be glued in, since the rubber grippers supplied by Hasegawa don't work the way they theoretically should. I filled the space for the grippers with Squadron Green Putty, let it dry, then drilled out holes for the pins and glued the gear struts when ready. This worked well and the landing gear is solid.

For the undersurfaces, I used the same process as my Buffalo and for the upper surfaces, I used a 70-30(ish) mixture of MM Military Brown and Burnt Umber. This color came out looking like a warm and rich chocolate brown that I like. Aeromaster's instructions suggest this aircraft was black over natural metal, but I like the brown better and other sources state that the aircraft from this unit were a dark chocolate brown. I added a black anti-glare panel on the nose, however, to break up the brown a little and I think this adds a little more interest.

I didn't want to weather this aircraft very much for a couple of reasons. First, this was a suicide attack aircraft which means the pilots probably didn't fly the aircraft a whole lot before they would have headed out for their ultimate mission. Secondly, the scheme is very beautiful and I didn't want to distract from it like a Bob Ross painting that has a huge tree right through the middle.

B339 Buffalo "2-VLG-V"

This is Tamiya's 1/48 B339 kit that highlights the late model Buffaloes sold to foreign nations who, at the outbreak of war in the late 30s/early 40s, needed fighters in a hurry, especially in the South Pacific. There were four marking options available: two Brittish examples, a Dutch East-Indies aircraft, and a U.S. Navy airframe in overall grey scheme. Because of the less-than-usual nature of the Dutch markings, I chose to model the aircraft flown by Lt. August Diebel. This was perhaps the most successful B339 airframe, Lt. Diebel having scored four kills in it. The Finns were more successful with the B139 Buffalo, which was much lighter and faced inferior aircraft than those fighting the Japanese in the South Pacific.

For the bare-metal finish of the undersides, a used Tamiya Silver from a spray can sprayed into a cup and then transferred into my airbrush cup over a gloss-black primer coat. Once dried, this made the base over which I could mask the other colors. To simulate different panels, I used various mixtures of Metal Master Aluminum and Stainless Steel Metalizers as well as MM Aluminum to simulate a silver laquer painted onto the fabric ailerons and elevators. The upper surfaces were MM Military Brown and MM Khaki Green. I have no idea whether these were accurate to the scheme that the Dutch used because in my research I haven't seen a single source that agreed with one another. Nevertheless, I like the way this scheme turned out which is most important.

The Tamiya Buffalo kit is a little dated, doesn't have enough detail in the landing gear bays, and the instrument panel looks a bit hokey, but overall I really like the kit. Straight from the box, this kit looks good to me and was fun to build. I'm not looking for it to win any awards anyway.