SPA Modeler

Thanks all!

Duke Maddog wrote:Looking good Fermis! What scale are these? Your interiors look fantastic.

1/72


Assembly complete and ready for paint...

The major assemblies fit without any issue, however, the scoops on top of the cowlings have quite a gap at the tail end. Clear parts also left a little to be desired, as far as fit goes....not terrible, but could have been better.

I have some hours invested in masking!





Started off with the interior color over the canopy frames.



Then...black and white...



Rather than go with the boring old grey/green monotone schemes, I decided to do the camo schemes and test/practice control of the a/b. After a good coat of a home-brewed grey/green, I used another home-brew for the green and a bit of "artistic license" on the bomber, but tried to stay closer to true with the fighter.

Four, hand cramping hour later...

Wow! Stunning work Fermis! Way to go! All that cramping sure didn't cramp your style!

Time for decals.
**sigh**...I hate Hasegawa decals...always have and probably always will. These were not any better than what I expected. They are typical Hasegawa decals, fairly thick and almost completely impervious to micro-sol. If these were not OOB reviews, the only decals I would have used, would have been the emblem on the tails. I would have masked and painted the leading edges, tail bands, and meatballs.

All the decals went on fine, for the bomber.
For the fighter, the yellow, leading edge decal wanted no part of wrapping around the wing. Those ended up in the trash can, as I threw some unintelligent words at them.

I masked, and painted the yellow.

Even after de-tacking the tape, and being as careful as I could be, the tape just barely touched the meatballs on top of the wings...ruining the meatballs...more unintelligent words were phrased.



To remove the rest of the decals, I simple stuck more tape to em, burnished it down and peeled em up.



I find it easiest, to place the "meatball", then place the mask around it. It makes positioning them evenly much easier!



Then peel off the "meatball"...



I layed down a coat of flat white, followed by red...



Everything sealed again, with a coat of Minwax gloss lacquer...






In conclusion....Hasegawa decals are strongly hated by 10 out of 10 Fermis's.

Wow.. those scribble lines look really good. I guess those cramping makes it all worthwhile. I never seen those scribble lines before on the fighter though. Good job fighting back and tackling your decal troubles. I’ve always liked the painted on look than the decals - especially the meatballs and the Luftwaffe crosses. Well done, Fermis!

Thanks BS...paint is always better!
Truth be told, I'm not real thrilled with the paint jobs and wish I had googled some images BEFORE I started painting. Looking at the bomber, I just see "brain coral"! Kinda bugs me!

Anyway...

Got these finished up!

The only deviation from OOB on this one, (aside from the decal issue) was aluminum tubing for the gun barrels...and I just didn't feel like breaking out the a/b to camo the spinner.







I did replace the clunky exhaust pipes, on this one, with aluminum tubing.









All in all...nice kits. They give you a great start, if you want to go "all out" on em. No real issues, and enjoyable to work with. Having plenty of experience with Hasegawa...I would have pitched the decals and just painted everything.

Man you work fast! And excellent quality to top it off! Very well done!

Congrats on the build, Fermis. Both the bomber and attack aircraft look really the likes. The masking must had been such a bore!! above all I love the camouflage.

Simply WOW!
The camo on the bomber looks so "real", the spacing of the green parts looks so perfect!