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Cuajete
Very nice Hien 👍
Congrats!

Franck Drebin
Thank you Cuajete, it's a really nice and enjoyable kit, and using Tamiya camouflage decal sheet is helpful when like me, you're not a master of the Airbrush 😊

William Joel
Nice work, love the camo. The silver finish and panels came out great. Question - why the black primer than the tan?

Guy Rump
Very impressive build, congrats 👍

Franck Drebin
Thanks William Joel, the black primer was Mr Finishing Surfacer 1500 from Mr Hobby. For the decals and the weathering (very light in fact) I used the Prince August Satin spray varnish. It was the first time I used that products and I'm really happy with the result.

Franck Drebin
…sorry William Joel, the black primer is to get a better result with the aluminium color in order to achieve a metallic finish. I often read that but of course, it depends on what you're looking for.

Franck Drebin
Thank you Guy Rump 😊

Neil
Very nice work indeed Franck 👍 agree with William the camo is outstanding! 🙂

Franck Drebin
Thank you very much Neil. Cheers 😉

Juskifo
Super taf camarade

Finn
Nice detailing and even better paint job

BC NRA
Beautiful! I have that kit in my stash. Your excellent job on building your Ki61 has inspired me to build that next. (As soon as I finish my IL-2.)

Franck Drebin
Thank you BC NRA. I'm glad if I encourage you to build this splendid kit. You will enjoy. Thanks Juskifo and Finn too for your comments 👍

Kyle DeHart
That camo has a wow factor for sure. Awesome

John Wilkes
I bought the 1/48 scale version without the full decals. Freehanding the camo job taught me a new respect for the brush. This is a beautiful aeroplane and your work makes it look great. Thank you for posting your work.

BC NRA
I just started Tamiya Ki 61.

Franck Drebin
Copied BC NRA! I will follow that when you will post it.
Thanks Kyle and John. Indeed, doing this camo without decals is a real challenge.

Catalin Oprea
Nice build, congrats! I didn't expect decals for this cammo 🙂. I did mine with airbrush.

Franck Drebin
Well done Katherius, it's definitely not an easy job 😉👍

Pierre Pierre
tres joly peinture super soignée
!

Murtaza Ismail
Nice Camo!

Franck Drebin
Thank you Pierre and Murtaza 🙂

Andy Ball
An almost lizard-like look: great way to show off the lines of this fighter. Great job!

一生还一夜
The camo looks awesome!

Mick Burdett
Great Camo have to try Tamiya camo sheet too

Pietro De Angelis
Amazing work, congrats!

Franck Drebin
Thank you mates. Tamiya decals don't have a good reputation and indeed, they are very thin and challenging by moment. The most diificult part was the fuselage. I had to cut them in two parts to avoid a fatal twist. But at the end, I'm very happy with the result.

Isaac Kite
An extraordinary Hien. She looks ANGRY! congrats.

yeon sung Jung
What a wonderful piece of work!!

Rui S
Great Paintjob 👍
I think photos 29 or 30, would be beautiful teasers 🤔

Franck Drebin
Thank you for your kind comments. Good remark Rui. Indeed, it's not mandatory to follow the chronological evolution with the photos 😉

Mark Sherwood
Nice Hien Frank. Like the camo'. I find Japanese aircraft somewhat under represented in our hobby, it seems a few of us are trying to rectify this. Spot on 🤟🥸🤘

Neil
Hello Franck 👋 looks really good mate. Impressive 👍

Mr D
Hi Franck 👋
Brilliant job on the Paint job, Looks great 👍👍

Chrisswe
Beautiful!

Mr D
Franck, is the camouflage a decal?? it looks really fantastic 👌 lf you painted it yourself you have done a brilliant job.
Really nice model...... definitely on the future list.
😃👍

Ben M
Fantastic job, that's a difficult scheme. How were the decals?

Franck Drebin
Thank you very much mates for your kind words. Indeed, I used Tamiya decals for this special camo. Unfortunately, i'm not an expert with airbrush. So I'm really happy with the result achieved with this help. They had good reaction with Micro Sol and Set but they are very thin and were not always cooperative. The most difficult part was the fuselage. I found easier to cut the long decals in two parts to avoid a fatal twist. And most important, they don't alter with the metal finish.

Franck Drebin
You're right Mark. Even if I'm still loving the classic warbirds, I'm very interested by other Air Forces like Japanese 😉

Mr D
I wouldn't be able to pull that camo off with airbrush myself. You chose the best option...it's nice result and alot of skill n work to lay those down 👍
Definitely be my opinion.
Good build.

Vittorio Gentili
Very nice!

Nicolas M.
Thank you Vittorio, this is a nice model, but really small.

Alec K
Looking great. Following &#x👍;

Snake Plissken
Wow, chrome plated!

Ben M
Taking it on vacation with me to get it started.

Nathan Dempsey
Bearcats unite! Following 👀

Guy Rump
Following. 👍

Snake Plissken
Is it similar to a commemorative edition or just meant to replicate natural metal finish?

Ben M
It's aluminum plated to represent the actual nmf finish. I built a t-33 where I had some issues that I hope to improve upon.

Ben M
Did a lot of sanding areas that will be glued, masking, fitting parts to each other, and basic assembly while I'm on vacation. I got new decals from Siam decals as the originals are from 1968 and not in good shape. I'm not sure how old the Siam decals are but they are newer than '68. One thing that is apparent is the stripey tail decal doesn't fit at all. This is going to be a good challenge to resolve.

Robert Podkoński
Taking a seat here.

Ben M
Decided to try to apply the 1960s decal for the cockpit, as I don't have an alternative. Had to soak it for about a minute in hot water to get it to release. As is typical for hawk kits the decal isn't the right size but you go to war with the decals you have. I got it to apply without shattering. Unsure if it will stick, very old decals like this often have to be glued in place.

Neil
Interesting 🤔 following also, looking good 👍

Ben M
I think the Siam Scale decals I'm using instead of the originals are about 20 years old but they're going on ok. A little thick, so not settling down into panel lines but I'll try some decal fluid once they set in place, hopefully they will on the aluminum surface! The roundels are two part so I will have to do a second layer…

Mr D
Smart little model.... unusual in the factory chrome 👍👍
Nice classic kit.
Bit of heat of hairdryer works with thick decals.... nice n steady.
Like it 😁👍

Ben M
That's a good idea, I may give it a try. First I'm going to upgrade from micro sol to mark fit.

Mr D
I use Mark fit ....but recently found the Vallejo one works amazing... Just used it on my in progress IAR-80.
Definitely my go to now.
The moon ships is great 👍👍

Nathan Dempsey
Wow Ben this one is turning into a colorful bird.

Ben M
An interesting detail I note while decaling. The panel lines on the fuselage are engraved. The panel lines on the wings are raised. Wtf.

Desert Marlin
I've been using Mr. Mark Softener and Mr. Mark Setter. They worked well on some Kitty Hawk decals which are pretty stubborn...

gorby
Nice work so far.

Ben M
The tamiya mark fit and some work with a needle solved the problems! Thanks for all the great ideas everyone. Onwards!

Ben M
Did a bunch of cut the decals into pieces to fit a different model than they were made for. Came out fairly well. Subassemblies are getting larger as the project comes together.

Dave
Looks great. Nice work

Desert Marlin
You seem to have forced the decals to cooperate!

Robert Podkoński
Great job, Ben!

Mr D
It's looking really good 👍
It's great that the kits can still be built after all these years.
The people in the factory's would have never believed the model they are packing wouldn't be built until 2024 🤔🤣.
Nice build to follow 😃

Ben M
Almost complete. Popped the main fuselage seam a bit 🙁 I had gone to a lot of work to hide it. For some reason even after carefully scraping the mating surfaces I just don't get good adhesion. Maybe next time I will try only using CA for assembly on my next plated kit.

Ben M
The decal sheet says 23rd squadron Kohkratiem AFB, but there's not much on the internets. Possibly a misspelling? The Royal Thai Air Force had F8F's from 1951 to 1963.

Thanks to Siam Scale for the decals, without which this project would be hopeless. The sheet number is 48003 if that helps anyone.

Desert Marlin
Looks great so far! Don't worry about the seam. It can be filled and perhaps painted, even though it's plated.

Desert Marlin
Or foil added if you have access to that...

Ben M
Complete! @desert marlin - I decided the seam on the bottom wasn't important enough to do a bunch of rework. It's an old 60's "chrome" plated model after all 🙂 I think it came out looking pretty good overall.

Mr D
Fantastic, Really nice kit , Looks 👍 great.
Sometimes it's nice for a vintage kit to look close to how it would be built originally.... Nostalgic.
Nice find....