This is the Hasegawa
kit, using decals from Sweating Beaver (apparently associated somehow with IPMS
Canada). The reason I don't know for sure is that the decals were a gift
from James Knaus, who was a frequent contributor here on ARC. He was given
an ultimatum from his wife to clean out some of his stash, and I received a HUGE
box with lots of goodies. His only stipulation was to put them to good
use. Here's to you, James!
The aircraft
pictured here is from 111 Squadron RCAF, stationed in Patricia Bay (near
Vancouver, BC) in 1942. They were deployed to the Aleutians shortly
afterward, according to the great little historical spiel included with the
decals.
The kit itself was a
quick and easy build, a nice break after that big F-16 I finished recently.
I had forgotten just how small fighters from WW II are in 1:48. I used
Tamiya acrylics (earth and NATO green looked close enough to me) for the upper
camo, and a rattle can of grey primer that I bought for peanuts at a hardware
store to approximate the sky grey bottom. You can see I don't get excited
about colour authenticity on all my builds...
Click on
images below to see larger images
I weathered it very slightly with
dry-brushed silver (Humbrol 11). The decals were easy to apply but have
minor register problems and the roundels end up being thick in the middle (3
layers to go on with the concentric differing colours, especially on the
fuselage sides). I also chose to paint the navigation lights silver then
colour them red/green with permanent markers (the kit gives an option of carving
out the lights and replacing them with clear parts, but it looked like WAY too
much work).
I'm happy with this
cute little fighter. It reminds me of an old control-line P-40 I used to
fly ages ago with a .049 engine. I had 3 fuselages and 2 wings, and used
to glue it all together regularly after crashes (deliberate and accidental).
This one will sit quietly on my shelf - it will not be asked to fly!
Dan McWilliams
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