Custom carriers from OOB's and painted pieces

FJO’s Yamato and Musashi and the schematic I found using Google that I sent to him for reference:

When I googled the Japanese Oscars, the KI-43, I found so many cool paint schemes it made me want to buy 10 more just to paint my favorites.  I don’t recall what the history was behind the Val that was the inspiration for the black and grey camo, but it looked neat so I borrowed from it.  Its actually more dark green than black, but I needed a black tactical to go with the black KI-43.  These are the shots I used for a basis on the black pair.

FJO did 5 groups of 4 Fubuki destroyers, and I bought a few extras of the Akitsuki destroyers from HBG (we seem to have lost some Akitsuki’s from the set the came from, and took the few German ones we had and made then Japanese), so we have 5 of those as well.  Here are some Fubuki sets.

2 more sets.

And the Destroyer family photo:

A shot of most of what’s painted so far of the IJN.  The camo fleet pieces are closest to the camera, with others in the Carolines sea zone (scroll right).  Note the unfinished Kongo in the Philippine Sea.  Finished Kongo BB’s are shown later in the post.

Thank you all!  I wanted to find some pictures of the Akitsuki DD’s but I don’t think we took any pictures of them as a group.  You can see 3 of them in this shot in the Japanese home sea zone.

The UK navy that FJO knocked out in about 6 weeks back in January and February a few hours each night after work.  Not as detailed as the Japanese, but we didn’t have the cool tiny brushes, pens, or magnifying lenses back then.

Close up of the last 2 Vals that were done.  HBG sculpts. (No cockpit lines yet- those were added later, shown below.)

A few Japanese bombers. Had no idea they were that dusty!

Bombers finally got their cockpit canopies and noses and tails inked and final coat of clear 5/25/2019:

While FJO is busy on his customized Shoho made from a cut down OOB Akagi sculpt (the unpainted black one in the comparison picture shown earlier with Akagi and 2 other cut down sculpts for Zuiho & Amagi) I’ve been working on the UK air force. Three or four years ago we’d bought some decals from HBG so we could separate long range planes from regular for a house rule.  I slapped some paint and decals on 10 Spitfire sculpts (the flat wing sculpts I don’t care for) and those became the long range UK fighters. I’ve re-done them since I got Dom’s decals from Pico, and repainted the green camo (leaving the original plastic color), and added fuselage roundels and fin flashes and squadron markings to others to separate them into distinct aircraft. Some got underside wing roundels, while others were painted as part of a set of historical progression Spitfires from a reference page I found while googling paint schemes. Here’s the flat wing set from a few years ago looking like they’re flying on our glass topped board (who needs plane stands?), and most from the re-done set.  The sculpt isn’t perfect- neither of the 2 OOB versions are. Both have messed up rudders that need to be filed down to the correct shape, so I guess in a way these have been modded too. You can see the difference in rudders in the pics below.  Top picture on the glass table is the older version (all these planes will get squadron letters later).

2 more on a print of the historical reference page (same bottom, one has fin flash and one doesn’t), and early Mk1 Spit with black & white bottom (note leading edge of wing) with a later model Spit fashioned after Brian Lane’s plane with the oversized fuselage roundel.

Battle of Britain Ace Brian Lane’s plane again with the early Mk1. I like this sculpt vs. the flat wing version, but it also has a bad rudder that needs to be filed to its correct shape. I used a rough emery board to get most off then a smooth one to get the gouges out and define the round shape more.

The Shoho in progress. Remember this is the cut-down black Akagi sculpt from the comparison picture on page 1 of the thread.  You can’t see it here but there’s an orange mini sub on the hull deck under the aft striped section of flight deck.  At the front, there’s a gun platform between the 2 support posts for the flight deck.  In the middle, the original Akagi’s exhaust spout has been carved down to be a smaller spout with a gun platform next to it.  The sides are in the process of getting the various gun mounts and deck lines added before the portholes are added.  The base flight deck color is down and it’s outline defined to match the schematic found online.  Elevators, arrestor cables and deck lines will be added later.

Got some shots of the Zeroes and Vals last night.  Missing 2 fighters, one green one lost and one Oscar yet to be painted, and one Val yet to be painted.  The HBG Oscars have nice landing gear detail on the bottom of the pieces that are highlighted but I didn’t get a picture to post.  The white Fw-190’s are built by Mitsubishi under license from Focke-Wulf. :lol:

And a year and a half later, here is the entire Mitsubishi A6M Zero set with the Fw’s (one missing) on the left and Ki-43 Oscars at right, with cockpit canopies done. Makes a big difference: