SPA Modeler

Incredible work!

Stikpusher wrote:Looking great John! I don’t know how anyone pulls off this quality of work in 1/72, but you doing it does not surprise me.

Thank you Carlos! I've been working on this project at a pretty good clip. Most of my techniques and work flow have carried over from the larger scales but I'm starting to see some of limitations of my skill set. It's hard to get clean paint and weathering effects at this small scale for example. You really need a fine eye and I often miss stains and paint boo boos until I look at the photos carefully.

keavdog wrote:Great detail on what looks like about the size of an anchovy from the bait docks

Oh yeah! And the small, pinhead chovies at that! Man, I miss offshore fishing... I gotta get out there this year!

Bish wrote:That's some lovely work on this, its looking amazing. I have seen they are releasing more versions of this, i think looking at yours i might be getting one myself, possibly the D-13.

Yeah, I think later version are planned but this one has all of the parts that you would need to build almost any D-9. You may have to fill a couple small panel lines on the gun cowling for example.

jeaton01 wrote:Lovely.

Thank you sir!

BlackSheep214 wrote:Incredible work!

Thank you!

Moving steadily forward on this small build. Although it is quite complex for a 1/72 scale model, it IS smaller and that in itself speeds up many things. I've glued the engine/cockpit tub assembly into the fuselage halves and glued the fuselage together. Fit is ok but not perfect. The main issue I'm having is the angle between the engine and cockpit isn't quite right. In hindsight, I should have inserted the engine/cockpit assembly into the fuselage while glue was still drying to get those angles right but too late now.



Other than that angle issue (which I consider modeler error and not really the kit's fault), the fit is very good.


Using White Milliput, I've secured the cannons into the gun cowling. I've made sure that the guns are suspended off of the gun troughs so that I can slide a piece of paper or tape underneath to aid in painting after the camo has been applied.




Check-fitting the gun cowling and radiator cowling. Don't see any issues so far.



Thinning the cowling flaps was a good idea since the edges will be visible, even in the closed position.



IBG thoughtfully provides a scribing template for the cowling fasteners and round hatch on the bottom of the fuselage under the engine.

Update not finished yet! I busted out the old school compass cutter to fashion a mask for the radiator cowling face, which I want to paint now. A Post-It is used to dial in the size of the mask and the final is cut on a piece of yellow kabuki tape.




The radiator face has been painted and weathered. Obviously the mask goes on top of this but I forgot to take a pic.


Flat spots have been sanded onto the tires to simulate weight.


The headrest is a two-part affair and I set them within the canopy as the glue dries so that it is correctly oriented.


One of the smallest plastic parts is the small scoop that goes on the gun cowling. It is so small that I purposefully left part of the sprue gate attached so I had more to hold onto when hollowing out the end with an x-acto blade. The snippers are just there for size reference... they had nothing to do with this step!




The interior of the wing tops has molded details for the wheel wells. This spreads out the wheel wells apart among separate assemblies, which makes painting the wheel wells a bit of a pain.


Finally, the VS-111 prop. It is quite a nice representation including the balance weights on the hub. Although most of the hub will be covered by the spinner, I wanted to paint and weather it because it had such good detail on it.

Just amazing...as usual!

Very nice!!!

This is better than a dinner and a show. I am in awe with this build.

Nice work John...in any scale.

John, you are a master wizard! From 1/32 to 1/72 is a major change in size.

LyleW wrote:Just amazing...as usual!

Thank you Lyle! I appreciate the support!

Medicman71 wrote:Very nice!!!

Thanks Doc! Appreciate it!

BlackSheep214 wrote:This is better than a dinner and a show. I am in awe with this build.

Ha! That's ironic because, for me, I feel very "productive" spending time in the modeling room instead of on the couch watching stupid Youtube clips.

Gary Brantley wrote:Nice work John...in any scale.

Thank you Gary! I've been enjoying the change of pace of working in a much smaller scale. A little more thought behind each action goes a long way!

Stikpusher wrote:

John, you are a master wizard! From 1/32 to 1/72 is a major change in size.

Thanks Carlos! Just trying to stay productive and muster up enough momentum to start on some of my larger builds again.

I watched the Super Bowl at home with the wife so not as much modeling work today. I managed to glue the gun cowling into place. Again, the fit is good but not perfect and I have a strong feeling that this is all stemming from the slight misalignment that I introduced between the engine and cockpit assemblies and probably could be avoided by other modelers.



Yes, there are some small gaps that I need to fill but I'm totally ok with that as I have seemed to avoid any steps or overhangs, which are much harder to correct than just gaps.



I've not yet glued the radiator cowling into place yet. I like to address the seams one major component at a time and I'll fix up the gaps around the gun cowling before that. The face of the radiator cowling has been painted and I've now applied the mask that I made a few steps prior.



The fit of the radiator cowling doesn't look to pose any problems.




I decided to apply some salt weathering to the prop blades. This is done by wetting the surface and sprinkling small salt crystals in a random pattern. The water fuses the salt crystals to the surface as it dries, forming a random splatter-type mask pattern. A very watery contrasting shade (usually grey or tan) is lightly airbrushed over the salt crystals. Wipe everything away with water and you should be left with a mottled stain pattern that kind of looks like hard water stains. The initial effect was a little too obvious so I toned it down with a watery mix of the original prop color (RLM 70 Black Green, Mr Hobby Aqueous).


Construction now proceeds in a somewhat unconventional manner. After the lower wing part is glued into place, you need to fold some PE parts and glue them into the wheel well area BEFORE gluing the wing tops on. I've seen another build of the IBG D-15 kit and that modeler had some issues closing up the wings due to interference from the PE parts. I personally don't like this approach because of the potential fit issues and complicating the painting process but we shall see...

Everything is looking beautiful, so much to take in I'm not sure what I'm most impressed with.