SPA Modeler

KennyX wrote:I will NEVER criticize you or anybody else for sweating a detail like the red on the IP. I agonize over such things. And I’ll never minimize your feelings about it with a flippant “Nah, the rest of the build is great, that’s not even a fraction of a percentage of it!” NO. Because again, I’ve been known to lose sleep over things like that. I’m not joking. It infuriates my wife and makes her worry about me. It’s just how people like you and me are. And acceptance of such attention to detail and perfectionism is key in self-actualiztion. So I’m not saying anything more about that except that I TOTALLY GET IT.

As to the cockpit. Your cockpit work on other models is what inspired me to do a better job with mine, and I can’t speak to whether your past cockpit work was “too pristine” or not, because honestly, that’s so subjective. That said, you took the constructive feedback of other to heart and set yourself a goal to get out of your comfort zone and do a more weathered cockpit. And buddy, I applaud the effort, I applaud the risk, and in my subjective opinion you did a beautifully weathered cockpit in this build. BRAVO.

Same here! Now I'm not a rivet counter, but I want my jets to look as close to the real thing as possible. Whether it's a color or a certain load out that was never used, sometimes it drives me nuts!!! I have to get it right!

That's the obsession. We all have it to some degree. I know that when that little voice starts, I gotta take action or its going to keep me awake at nights.

Meanwhile, the Shiden Kai build grinds forward. The masked canopy parts are glued into place with Tamiya Extra Thin cement, being extra careful that the glue does not leach into the masks. FYI... the clear parts were dipped into Future prior to the application of the masks. The small PE shroud was glued into place onto the front of the windshield at this time.



The clear parts were sprayed with the interior green color first and then black over that. It's important to make the frames as opaque as possible.


Tissue paper moistened with water was used to mask the open wheel wells.


Finally, we are at the painting stage. To prepare the painting surface (and hopefully stave off paint lifting at the masking stage), I've cleaned off the model using a soft cloth lightly wetted with Windex. The undersurfaces are given my usual pre-shading treatment.



Alclad White Aluminum is used for the base color of the undersides.



Some random panels are painted in other Alclad colors to give some tonal variation to the metal finish.


The top sides are sprayed with Tamiya AS-12 Silver directly onto the plastic without a preshade. Since the topside green color will be chipped with hairspray, the preshade will be applied on top of the silver.




The AS-12 is liberally thinned with Tamiya Lacquer thinner to help preserve the surface details as much as possible.

Medicman71 wrote:

KennyX wrote:I will NEVER criticize you or anybody else for sweating a detail like the red on the IP. I agonize over such things. And I’ll never minimize your feelings about it with a flippant “Nah, the rest of the build is great, that’s not even a fraction of a percentage of it!” NO. Because again, I’ve been known to lose sleep over things like that. I’m not joking. It infuriates my wife and makes her worry about me. It’s just how people like you and me are. And acceptance of such attention to detail and perfectionism is key in self-actualiztion. So I’m not saying anything more about that except that I TOTALLY GET IT.

As to the cockpit. Your cockpit work on other models is what inspired me to do a better job with mine, and I can’t speak to whether your past cockpit work was “too pristine” or not, because honestly, that’s so subjective. That said, you took the constructive feedback of other to heart and set yourself a goal to get out of your comfort zone and do a more weathered cockpit. And buddy, I applaud the effort, I applaud the risk, and in my subjective opinion you did a beautifully weathered cockpit in this build. BRAVO.

Same here! Now I'm not a rivet counter, but I want my jets to look as close to the real thing as possible. Whether it's a color or a certain load out that was never used, sometimes it drives me nuts!!! I have to get it right!

I'm a big believer in each to their own and it fascinates me how different people will approach the same job with such different mindsets - we are all truly individual. If you guys ever saw my working practices first hand - it'd kill all three of you! Some fantastic sniper I'd have been...

BANG!!!!

''Meh.. Close enough...''

John, you are a Master with a capitol 'M'aster! I don't really have such obsessions as this. Once in a while something will bug me about a part off kilter or something like that, but my drive to achieve such incredible perfection on finishes and such like you have doesn't exist in me. In that respect you are numerous levels above me. My only obsession is with getting models finished.. I HATE having them on the bench for long periods of time! That is what keeps me up at night! Therefore I will sacrifice a really good paint session or detail session in order to just get it done. If possible I even bypass whole subassemblies when parts get lost just so I can finish something. If I can't, then I get it all done up to that point where I need to replace or rebuild a missing part. Those are the models that tend to stay on the bench very long.

Once again I marvel at the magic you employ getting that paint looking so incredibly magnificent! Keep it coming!

I think we can all learn from one another. Almost everything that I do now was picked up by reading build posts of other modelers and incorporating their ideas into my work flow. Very little that I've come up completely on my own, if anything.

More tonal variation on the bottom and the fabric-covered ailerons have been painted JA Grey.

John that is looking really good! The different shades of some panels really draws the eye to all the details instead of blending it all together. Like you I have not come up with much of anything on my own but take bits and pieces of what I've seen others do that I like and incorporate it into my work flow.

Thanks Clint! Just trying to add some visual interest to what could be a very homogenous finish. Another potential area of improvement that I've identified is my treatment of aircraft bottoms. Usually, I'll be very pleased with the outcome on top but less so on the bottom. So I'm trying to look at this NMF finish for opportunities to add tonal variation. I think it is in pretty good shape right now with the markings and post-shading to come. Obviously there will be no paint chipping on the metal.

Beautiful work John!

I’m speechless....

Looking real good on the undersides. Just curious, but why did you go with IJA Gray instead of IJN Gray for the doped fabric?