Hasegawa J2M3 Raiden - In Between Build

[DocRob]

Not much done lately but sealing the bird with a coat of future (the shiny appearance is not the finish) and decaling, which is not my favourite job, because there is always room for bad surprises doing it. That's why I prefer masks and using an airbrush, which is time consuming but controllable. This time everything went smooth, but I cutted the extra film away before applying.
I'm still not sure about the next step but I think I stay with the original idea of using yellow oils for an enhanced "stressed surface" effect. Never done that before, so at least it's challenging.

I just noticed on the pics that I made a bad mistake while painting, used a wrong color. Who mentions the mistake to me will recieve a very sweet virtual cookie .

Cheers Rob

[coolboxx]

I love it....aerial

[DocRob]

Thanx CB,

Made my mind up and used some oils for enhanced "stressing" of the surface. First get the bird ugly, dabbed with yellow oils along imaginary and existing spars.

 

Then it is time for blending and after doing so my head is spinning, becaouse of the odorless but not vaporless and for sure not effectless turpentine, yeah .
I used different sized flat brushes to blend the oils, always first up and then along the fuselage.

On some pictures the effect seems a little to heavy. Before I decide to further reduce the effect I let everything dry for the night. The lighting on my bench is worsening the effect on the photos as well. All in all I'm satisfied for the moment.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Hola Senhores,

the weather is not so nice so it's time for the lower side of the Raiden. Used a brown-green wash for picking out the details.
At least, after all theese coats I still have the effect of the preshading, so the translucent-multi layer technic worked well.

Next where the pigments for the exhaust trails. I used light sand first, then earth and then dark brown, dabbed on and the excess blown away with the airbrush.

Having worked on so many effects it was time to seal everything, for me always a daring moment, because I hate too see a bad spot after sealing or remember that there was another effect I wanted to have done before that. I used a mixture of 25% Tamiya Flat Base and 75% Future, which to me is a good finishing shine that unifies the previous coats. I can't wait to make the final assembly, but have to, due to drying time.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Voila Gentlemen,

nearly ready for takeoff now. Yeah I know, the pilot is lacking some colorful expression and there are some cleanups and touchups to be made.
I completed the wheel section, installed the engine and exhausts, the cowling and the prop and guess what, everything fitted very well. I added the guns, which where only 'rolled' in Uschis Iron Powder, which gives a convincing metal appeareance. The position lights where added using Contacta Clear and finally, tataaa, the masks where peeled of the canopy. A little bad surprise here, since there got some color under the mask of the open canopy section. After unsucsessfully trying to polish that away, I decieded to leave it that way and tell everybody that all was intended as grime on that used warhorse .

After finalizing I will post some proper pictures in the finished work section, not that slightly crappy "action stuff".

 

I really enjoyed most of the build and I hope you did as well. 

Cheers Rob