Thursday, July 30, 2009

Model Airplane International 08 2007


The difference between these two two-seat sub-types was that the 2m had straight wooden wings whereas the 2m3 had metal wings that were swept back at an angle of 15 degrees. Along with the addition of the 11-2 straight wings Eduard have also added a bit of spice via the inclusion of a pre-painted photo-etched fret, canopy masks and a fabulous new decal sheet covering no fewer than five options. The original kit parts looked pretty impressive but with the addition of the coloured etched set the detail is pushed up quite a few notches, especially in the cockpit area where things like the etched instrument panel and coloured belts really improve the final look. But what of the transplanting of the wings, could this Frankenstein type surgery really work? Well it does but not totally painlessly, I may add.

Model Magazine International 06 2005


Even though I'm not a follower of WWII Japanese aircraft, I have to admit that I had a weak spot for the Ki-84, so when I had the opportunity to have a look at the content of the box, I couldn't resist to buy it and start it right away, putting aside all my other on-going projects. When I work on large scale models, I like to add texture to their skin. For this purpose, 'Rosie the Riveteer' was put to good use: this very clever tool is made of a rotating pounce wheel that allows to replicate rows of rivets with a perfectly regular spacing. Although some would use a ruler as a guide or at least draw the rivet pattern onto the wings and fuselage, with a (very) little practice, it is possible to rivet a whole model in a few hours without even using any other tool or even drawing the rivet lines. A good three-view drawing of the aircraft will be the best help for this enterprise. Try it, you might even find this fun... Once this work was done, I could start the model per se. Since I wanted to do it as a quick build project I added very few extras - the high level of details allows you to do so and concentrate on the painting and weathering.