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Re: 1/32 Hasegawa N1K2-J Shiden Kai

Posted: Mon Jul 27, 2020 2:08 pm
by Medicman71
Very nice!

Re: 1/32 Hasegawa N1K2-J Shiden Kai

Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2020 6:12 pm
by jkim
Thanks guys! I haven't updated in a while because I was busy with other things. I FINALLY received the HGW seatbelts from the Czech Republic so at least that is not holding me up anymore.
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Less components than a typical Luftwaffe harness system so assembly was relatively simple.
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Even though the fabric material is much more flexible than brass, it's still difficult to drape these things in a realistic manner. And is it just me but don't all of the seatbelt representations, whether they are fabric or brass, seem a tad OVERscale? Would the lap belts really fill up the bucket of the seat so completely?
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Anyways... now that the seat is complete, I can take a few more pics of the cockpit.
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Overscale or not, the seatbelts add a nice finishing touch to the cockpit. Now I have to start getting serious about riveting. I just received another set of Galaxy Tools riveters with the wider spacing. Same vendor as before but instead of having to wait over 60 days, transit time was only 11 days.

Re: 1/32 Hasegawa N1K2-J Shiden Kai

Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2020 6:41 pm
by jeaton01
The shoulder belts in the Stearman were about 2 inches wide, the lap belts were about 3 inches. They were government surplus of course. So in 1/32 that would be 1/16 and 3/32. Can't help you with the WW II Japanese stuff, didn't fly those! Yes, they often do seem wide, especially in 1/72.

Beautiful cockpit!

Re: 1/32 Hasegawa N1K2-J Shiden Kai

Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2020 7:07 pm
by Floki
Them belts sure look good in the cockpit. I often wonder about German belts looking over scale when installed.

Re: 1/32 Hasegawa N1K2-J Shiden Kai

Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2020 8:53 pm
by Stikpusher
Beautiful work John! :shoutout: I agree with your thoughts about the harness and how much that they really take up on a seat. But we do make our scale modeling compromises. Representation vs scale fidelity.

Re: 1/32 Hasegawa N1K2-J Shiden Kai

Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2020 6:06 am
by LyleW
I demand to see those little, tiny people you have building this! I don’t see how it is humanly possible. Someday, I’d love to see a video of this happening.

Re: 1/32 Hasegawa N1K2-J Shiden Kai

Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2020 9:50 am
by BlackSheep214
Very nice!

Re: 1/32 Hasegawa N1K2-J Shiden Kai

Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2020 4:22 pm
by jkim
Thanks guys! The cockpit is basically finished but I can't put it into the fuselage until the riveting is done. I've been procrastinating on this for a while now because the Shiden Kai happens to have a ton of rivets. Now that I've received the New Galaxy rivet tool in the preferred 1.00mm spacing, I had no excuses left to fall back on.
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The first step is to draw the rivet guide lines onto the model using reference drawings, a flexible ruler and a soft-lead pencil. Because there are so many rivets, the lines started smearing. I decided to hold off on the more tightly spaced "intermediate" rivet lines and get the main grid lines in first.
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Once the lines are drawn, I simply roll the rivet tool over the lines. A decent amount of pressure is needed to make holes in the plastic and my rear fuselage joints buckled in a few places.
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After riveting, I removed the pencil lines with Windex. At this point, I was thinking about leaving the intermediate rivet lines off. I mean, who is really going to notice?
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Of course, I was compelled to complete the job and I put the intermediate rivets on as well.
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At this point, the rivets are like little pimples... each hole is surrounded by a mound of raised plastic. I don't like how this looks so I try to sand off the mounds and leave only the holes. It's another step in the process but I think the results is worth the effort.
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Re: 1/32 Hasegawa N1K2-J Shiden Kai

Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2020 4:31 pm
by Medicman71
Man those rivets look great. One of these days I'll learn how to do that.

Re: 1/32 Hasegawa N1K2-J Shiden Kai

Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2020 5:02 pm
by jkim
Rivets are pretty easy to do... just time consuming!

After the starboard side was sanded, I did the same to the port fuselage half.
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One thing bothers me about the riveting process. All of the debris from the wet and dry sanding gets stuck into the rivets and by the time the multiple layers of paint go on, some of rivets get filled up and won't hold a wash. Does anyone know a good way to remove sanding debris from holes and crevices? I've tried soaking the parts in water but that doesn't seem to dislodge the stuff very well.

With the riveting done, the fuselage halves can be glued together. Hasegawa wants to ensure the best possible fit between the wings and fuselage, especially since the fuselage is so wide at the base, so they provide not one or two but three internal bulkheads.
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Those bulkheads, along with the sleeve for the tail stabilizers, make the fuselage come together very positively. Fit has been uniformly excellent on this kit.
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Fit of the horizontal stabilizers was improved by a little trimming along the contact joint of the stabilizers. I left the interlocking tabs alone.
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The fuselage seams were cleaned up with a bit of Mr Surfacer 1000 and some sanding. Afterwards, the fuselage assembly was given a washing in my kitchen sink. I performed a dry fit of the major components to check things. This gives one sense of the purposeful proportions and lines of this fighter. The wings, both upper and lower, need to be riveted still.
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Similar to the Tamiya Corsair, Hasegawa provides two rear canopy pieces. One is designed to show the canopy in the closed position. The top edges between the sliding canopy and rear part are flush.
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The second piece takes into account the thickness of the plastic parts when placing the canopy in the open position. When closed, there is a step between the two parts.
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I personally don't think the difference is very noticeable and choosing the second allows me to keep the sliding part unglued and posing it either closed or open.
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