While riding out
a recent wave of "building fever", I plundered the kit stash to
bring this beauty to life. Hasegawa certainly has a fine offering with
this kit, as the only fit problems that I encountered were in the wing
root area. Nothing that a little putty and acetone couldn't
take care of in an evening. This kit was built straight out of
the box as I can't afford expensive after market parts (I'm a broke
college student, what more can I say?). The aircraft was painted with
Testors Silver as I wasn't feeling too adventurous in the metallic
finishes category.
Click on
images below to see larger images
The decals were
okay to say the least. The wing insignia (meatballs) shriveled quite a bit
when I applied setting solution to them. I have noticed with this
kit, and also my B7A Grace that Hasegawa meatballs are prone to shriveling
up for some reason. The panel lines were done using a method that I
actually came up with myself. Using acrylic paint that you would
paint ceramics with, I applied it to the panel line. Working with just a
few lines at a time I let it dry. Then I went over it lightly with a moist
(not soaking) cotton swab. It takes a couple
tries but eventually it comes. As always, practice makes perfect. I then
sealed her up with some Future and added a stretched sprue antenna painted
with a permanent marker.
All in all, it was a very
satisfying build. The minor fit problems that I experienced around the
wing root area could of totally been my fault and nothing to do with
Hasegawa moldings. But even that little setback was quickly overlooked
when the finished aircraft rolled off the work table and onto the shelf.
Chip
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