Is it real, or is it Hasegawa? I tell you, Hasegawa is getting so good that it's not even a challenge to put their kits together anymore. The kit, as I've heard it put, "goes together like Lego". The new Hayate "Frank" they put out this month goes even further. Full riveting and everything. Incredible. The only challenge left, really, is the painting.
Enormous, gaping maw of the air intake needed to cool the 2000hp Napier Sabre.This kit employs Eduard brass and Aeromaster "Storms in the Sky Pt.X" decal sheet.
An inviting angle. Note flaps.
Step on in for a spin. Sorry I couldn't get the instrument panel lit up any better. The Eduard brass and photographic film dial sheet is, as usual, spectacular.
All in all, a fairly weatherbeaten old chap. Well, strafing highly explosive Kraut war materiel rolling stock doesn't exactly add life to a paint job.
Yes, yes, I faired the 20mm cannon barrels. The original "Tiffy" EL-C was a very early model, so its cannons were probably unfaired, but I've always loved the "Typhoon-ness" of that great sloping barrel shape (dangerous Freudian appeal, perhaps?), and couldn't resist doing them this way. Note brass tubing bores.
This shot gives a good feel for my new "depth metal" technique, which gradates metal finishes from a dull gray to a near mirror-like surface. Try it. You'll like it. A hint: Johnson's "Kleer" floor wax or the equivalent comes in handy to protect during weathering (unless you're using lacquer as a base paint, then you don't have to worry about it).
Darn. Tried to get that instrument panel lit up again and still can't get it. Note shamrock. "They're alwees after me lucky charrrrrrms..."
Detail of poncet wheel riveting technique and watercolor pencil rivet line weathering, along with silver pencil outline/chrome silver core "chipped paint" technique.