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Thread: Official Nakajima Ki-44 ‘Tojo’ Painting Thread

  1. #1

    Default Official Nakajima Ki-44 ‘Tojo’ Painting Thread

    Here are my first two AIM Ki-44’s.

    These two are both form the 70th Chutai, in Japan, June 1945. The yellow tail marking is 3rd Sentai pilot 2nd Lt Makoti Ogawa. The blue tail marking is from Chutai HQ pilot Major Atsuyuki Sakado. Decals are stock Misc Mini with the addition of a thin red fuselage stripe which I scrounged up somewhere.

    Both planes were base coated with my favorite metallic finish, Rustoleum “Bright Coat, Metallic Finish”. Great stuff. Tough as nails, and you can’t screw it up if you tried. I air brushed the white home defense bands on the wings and fuselage of Ogawa’s plan using the fabulous new Tamiya masking tapes. I used the regular stuff on the wings, and the white stuff designed for curved surfaces on the fuselage. Details were all with basic Vallejo Model Colors and canopies were tinted with Tamiya black wash. Also great stuff. I couldn’t bring myself to panel line and weather Ogawa’s plane because the white bands looked so nice. I weathered and lined Atsuyuki’s plane with the miracle product “Flory Model Wash”, grey. It makes it so even a mediocre at best modeler like myself can do even the tiniest panel lines in minutes. A game changing product if you like panel lines for sure. The grey is ideal for bare metal finish. It doesn’t stand out too much and make the plane look dirty like some colors might.

    I am working on a couple more that I hope to wrap up tomorrow. Both are full camo and so far, look pretty cool to me.

    Click image for larger version. 

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  2. #2

  3. #3

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    Nice work Dave.
    Run for your life - there are stupid people everywhere!

  4. #4

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    Very good Dave - didn't expect to be adding to the showcase today...

    "He is wise who watches"

  5. #5

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    Lovely "Tojo"s!
    I laugh in the face of danger - then I hide until it goes away!

  6. #6

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    Nice!
    Karl
    It is impossible for a man to begin to learn what he thinks he knows. -- Epictetus

  7. #7

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    Excellent job.


    I especially like the canopies.

  8. #8

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    Thanks guys.

    For the canopies, I coat the base metallic color with satin varnish. After it’s cured, I just let the Tamiya panel liner run over it, and sit for about 10 seconds. Don’t let it get on the plane body. Keep it where the glass is only. Then I soak up the extra with a dry brush. The satin varnish absorbs just enough of the panel liner to tint them nicely. Then I add a little shadow of the pilot silhouette with black paint. It’s really important not to try and brush the wet panel liner. That makes a mess every time. Just dab it on, let it sit for a few seconds and soak it off. If the plane isn’t base metallic, I paint the planes base color over the canopy, then fill in the glass area with Vallejo Metallic, Silver, and fo the same thing as above.

  9. #9

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    Very nice Dave. Hopefully later next year I'll get to see these on a table.

  10. #10

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    I hope so as well Peter!

    Here are the next two.

    The heavily weathered IJA Green plane was found on Clark Field in The Philippines in 1945. It is believed that the tail marking is the first initial of the pilot, “Mo”. The plane has the same base metallic coating as above. I then applied a very light coat of “AK Worn Effects”, followed by a layer of Mr Color “Dark Green, Nakajima, C-129”. I tried it mimic the actual chipping seen on this very well documented plane. Very heavy on the fuselage, but almost none on the wings and tail. I hand painted the tail marking using Vallejo “Sand Yellow”. Decals are Miscellaneous Miniatures.

    The mottled brown plane is one of the first batch made for operational trials. This particular plane is serial number 4408, flown by Captain Yasuhiko Kuroe, 3rd Flight Leader, 47th Independent Air Company. These planes saw action in Southeast Asia. Captain Kuroe scored the first victory in this model, shooting down a Brewster Buffalo over Singapore. I airbrushed the mottled brown using a 0.15mm nozzle, with Mr. Color “IJA Brown, C-526”. My guess is that is what they had handy when these planes, many of which rolled out of the factory in natural duralumin finish, headed to the front.

    Both of these planes were four alarm, hair on fire, running down the street screaming disasters. I had run out of my normal Vallejo clear coat and tried some AK 3rd Generation Satin varnish. Everything seemed fine at first. When I applied some well de-tacked masking tape to do the anti-glare panel on the green guy, the AK varnish peeled right off. I took a look at the brown guy, who had a top coat of this varnish on it, and gently rubbing my finger across the wing, up came the varnish! Normally, I would have tossed them in the scrap pile and moved on, but it can take a while to get replacements. So, I spent about 8 hours getting the bad varnish off by peeling it with tweezers and gentle rubbing. I suggest proceeding with caution using AK 3rd Generation varnishes. Hopefully, it was just a bad batch. Anyway, after much pain and suffering, here they are;

    Click image for larger version. 

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  11. #11

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    good job! they turned out quite nice despite your tribulations!

  12. #12

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    Here are some cards for the Ki-44's above;
    Click image for larger version. 

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    Click image for larger version. 

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    Click image for larger version. 

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    Click image for larger version. 

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