Nakajima Type 11 Night Fighter....in-progress

[matrixone]

Thank you Moon Puppy, chuk, razordws, and Dave!

Painting the cockpit seemed like it took forever to do because of all the different colors it needed but at least it looks interesting compared to the RLM 66 painted cockpits I am used to.

The real fun with this model will be adding some weathering to it and not have it look like a patchwork quilt, some pre-shading will be used on a few random places and a lot of post fading on the uppersurfaces...this must be done with great care not to take these effects too far and ruin the model.

The weather has cleared up and it has stopped with the neverending raining/drizzle and I have just finished up taking pics of the finished 1/48 scale Komet, pics should be posted soon.

Matrixone

 

[phantom II]

Waiting on this one patiently .

Cheers, Christian B)

 

[Iron Mike]

Zoom, zoom. :drinks

 

[nerdling]

Looking good Les. Now I can use your build for reference when I eventually get around to building mine lol.

 

[matrixone]

Thanks guys!

Ryan,
Whenever you get around to building your kit you will really like how well everything fits. Depending on how the rest of this build goes I might built my Tamiya Dinah this year, its tough deciding what to build next because there are some other interesting kits I want to get to.

Matrixone

 

[matrixone]

A couple more in-progress pics of the cockpit just before the canopy was glued on...

I will start painting on the camo colors later today, even though this aircraft had a simple overall green camouflage paint scheme it will take a while to paint this one because I will be adding some weathering to the uppersurfaces by spraying some panels lighter shades of green to represent some fading of the paint...the lower surfaces will get slightly darker shades of green sprayed on some of the panels to add some interest to an otherwise boring paint scheme.

Matrixone

 

[Paulw]

wonderful progress Les

 

[jknaus]

James

 

[SA Dave]

Somehow seeing you do a Jap plane just seems all wrong, no matter how stuning you do it Les - IT HAS NO MOTTLING LES!!!!

 

[matrixone]

Thanks Paul and James!

I just finished with a base coat of the green camo color, I will wait until the sun comes out before I attempt the fading of the uppersurfaces. No, I don't paint outdoors but I do like to use some natural light when painting subtle variations of the base color...indoor lighting alone can give false looks to the actual colors being painted on the model.
So far this summer has been a bust in my part of the world...its been mostly cold and cloudy with only brief breaks of sunshine every few days.


Matrixone

 

[Paulw]

Ya wanna swap?

 

[matrixone]

Dave,
Yes its strange painting an airplane with only one color...but as you will soon see this one get its share of mottling anyway! :hmmm

Paul,
As much as the weather sucks here right now I would not trade with others in the U.S.A., few people here have A/C because of the usual lower temps we get in most summers. But this summer has not been good, its been cold enough I have had to turn on the heat. Were it not for the leaves on the trees you could easily mistake this as being early spring and not mid summer.

Matrixone

 

[Paulw]

 

[matrixone]

The base coat of green has been sprayed on the airframe and the engine cowls painted blue/black.

After the paint is dry I will start the paint fading process.


Matrixone

 

[SA Dave]

Nope no mottles yet

Looking sweeeeeeeeeeet Les. that blue cowls really stand out nice and I bet they will really take your kind of weathering.

 

[matrixone]

Thanks Dave!

The mottles are on the way but they will just barely be seen after they are sprayed on. The blue/black on the engine cowls will be darkened a bit more more by a thin spray of flat black on the sides and bottom, I won't darken the top much at all as I want it to look sun faded. I will spend as much time painting this model as I do on the multi-colored Luftwaffe planes I like to build. :geek

Matrixone

 

[jknaus]

Looks cool
James

 

[Dusan]

Excellent work Les!!! Beautiful kit have to add one to my stash :v

All the best!
Dusan.

 

[Paulw]

I may have to buy one myself. I like those Japanese Beaufighters.

 

[matrixone]

Thanks for the comments guys!

A few more in-progress pics, here you can see where I sprayed on some mottling in different shades of green on a few random panels to start the paint fading process, also I added some dense mottles of light tan around the wing roots where the paint would tend to get scuffed up by the ground crew...much of this will get covered up by a thin spray of Nakajima green paint and then get some paint chipping. These aircraft did not have much paint chipping compared to most other Japanese airplanes so the wing roots will be the area that will get almost all of the paint chipping weathering effect.

Next up for this model is a slightly darkened version of the base color will be sprayed on in tight lines in a few random panel lines and a few panels on the undersurfaces.

After the decals are put on they will also get some light weathering by spraying on tinted thinner to give them the same patchy appearence as the paint job.


Matrixone