Finished the canopy tonite, did a bit of touch-up painting, and it’s done. I may need to redo the base, I’m not real happy with the way the weathering came out. But the plane is done. I think it came out pretty good.
Now, to clear the bench and reset for a car model!
The B-24 is finished! The glue isn’t even dry yet. 
This plane was flown out of England, and one of the crew was the father of a friend of mine.
This is a project for a friend, whose father served on a B-24 during WWII. This is in the markings of that aircraft. I hope to have this finished over this weekend.
All I have left to do is add the landing gear and canopies, and a little more detail painting.
A lot of headway with the tiny zero. All that’s really left is the canopy. Which is proving to be a real challenge. It’s very tiny, and I’ve given up on trying to mask it for paint. Instead, I’m using some decal paper that I’ve sprayed with the IJN Gray, and will cut narrow strips to cover the canopy frames.
This kit came with the nice carrier base. I’ve tried to weather it, but am not completely happy with the end result so far. The plane carries the markings of one of the Pearl Harbor attackers from the carrier Akagi.
Built this over the cold snap we had here in Florida. It’s a very, very nice little kit from a Japanese company called Sweet. For such a small scale, the detail is fantastic. And it goes together SO nicely, have not had to do any filling whatsoever!
There’s an old Mexican superstition that what happens, or what you do, over the new year carries through the year. So if your house is clean, or if you eat well, your house will be clean and you’ll eat well throughout the new year. I’m hoping the same might be said for model building - that since I finished a model over the new year, I’ll finish every model I start in 2010. Anybody going to hold their breath? ;-)
Anyway, the Ohka is finished! This one is based on one of the aircraft found on Okinawa at the close of the war. Did I do a good job?
Here are some color pics:
Well, got the Ohka primed and painted, and spritzed a little gloss on the nose so I could add the decals. I printed the decals and sprayed them with Model Master clear gloss. When I applied the first one, it just crinkled up into a little ball. The other side seems to have went on OK, though this decal film seems a bit thick. I’ll have to look it over once it’s dried, see if I might need to add some more setting solution. And of course will need to reprint them so I can do the first one over again.
Bought the wood for the sawhorses, and I need to find a better base. The one I have would be fine for a simple display, but the vignette I want to create won’t really fit on it. Shouldn’t be a huge deal, as we have lots of scrap wood around.
Fireworks are popping outside. Hello, 2010. Hope it’s a better year than 2009!
OK, I’ve decided which version I’m going to build. This Ohka was found on Okinawa after the war:
I think it will make a neat little vignette, with the sawhorses and the ‘keep out” sign. I made some decals in Photoshop, starting with a basic font and then using the paint tools to make it look like it was hand-painted. Then searched the ‘net until I found a good look at the chrysanthemum symbol next to the “I-18.”
Got it primed as well. There’s a few flaws, but I’m not sweating it too much since it will be weathered to death to match the photo.
Well, got the cockpit in the aircraft, and the aircraft glued together. Added the remaining exterior parts - basically the tail and some counterweights on the control surfaces. Now I need to add some sheet styrene behind the pilots seat, as it’s open and I don’t believe it would have been on the 1:1 version. Then will need to mask off the cockpit and put a first coat of sandable primer on it. Then a coat of Japanese Light Gray. I also need to dip the canopy in Future and hope that the crack is not as visible.
After painting, the next two hurdles will be the markings - in this case it will be fairly simple, just a chrysanthemum and a number, and maybe a hinomaru on the fuselage side, depending on if it’s in some of the period photos. Then I’ll add the base, which will be a small vignette of the plane up on sawhorses, as many of them were found by the Allies in 1946 at the close of the war.
If I’m really, really diligent it should be ready for the next club meeting.
Wow, didn’t realize it had been so long since I updated here. Of course, have been updating the other blog (http://x.tesoritos.com/blog) with travels. Was away on vacation for around 2.5 weeks, then away on business for a while, then some more travel. So stuff on the bench sorta fell by the wayside for a bit. I also took up guitar lessons (like I need another hobby) that has distracted me for a bit. Anyway, got motivated recently and restarted working on the Ohka, and finished the cockpit. While it’s really not much of a cockpit, I can take some solace in the fact that it’s 100% scratch-built.
I already commented on the seat and floor. The sides of the cockpit are fairly simple, as they would be since the Ohka was a single-use aircraft. So on the left you have the throttle and mixture controls for the rocket engines. The instrument panel is very simplified, with only four gauges (thanks to Mike Stanley for recommending Mike Grant decals) and the arming switch for the warhead. The right side has simply a single horizon gauge. I need to find out if they used seatbelts, but otherwise I just have to assemble the parts and then prime and paint the exterior. Then more scratch-building for the cart, and of course an adequate base.
Ohka Cockpit - Done!
Also working on a 1/144 scale B-24, which is coming along nicely. Got it mostly painted this weekend, and should be able to get it moving along more through the week. If I get really, really motivated I might be able to finish both the Liberator and the Ohka before the end of the year. Which means I’ll have finished four models in 2009! Of course, I probably bought 10… or 12… oh, shut up…
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02 1st, 2010| 
