Brickie's Japanese Sabre

[Brickie]

Or Katana, if you will.

Picked up one of these at Huddersfield, hope to use it to practice my NMF. Any tips gratefully received.

[MerlinJones]

Take the time to properly mask the canopy.
Use a wide brush and apply two coats of Humbrol Metalcote Aluminium...I'd suggest that the Polished Aluminium gets too shiny.
When handling the tiny beastie, put nose and exhaust between thumb and forefing...that'll save you a load of hassle later on.
Leave off the u/c, doors, tanks and pitot until it's all polished up.
Don't worry about the finish being uneven...it'll be more like the Real Thing.

Enjoy.

Regards,
Bruce

[Brickie]

I'll hopefully get chance to start on this tonight. So your suggestion is to assemble the "main structure" including the canopy, then paint, then attach "kibbles & bits". This is pretty much what I do in most other scales as well, so that sounds logical...

I shudder to think about the pitot tube in 1/144 - I can't even manage not to break them off just by looking at them in 72nd...

[Brickie]

Well, I've build the thing last night - sorry, I seem to keep getting carried away with the building and forgetting to stop and take photos!

Still, we can use this as an NMF tutorial instead. I'll pop into the LHS and pick up some metalcote today. Much as I'd love to leave the pitot off, it's actually moulded to the wing and bent well out of shape before I ever got it out of the box...

[Ian]

Cut it off and use some fuse wire instead.

[MerlinJones]

Good tip from Ian, there.
When you see the better looking 1/144 models, it's usually the extra fine details that make them stand out.
Sprue-stretching becomes an integral part of the hobby again.

Regards,
Bruce

[Brickie]

I've never attempted stretching sprue, and knowing my clumsiness I'd probably just set fire to the house. However fuse wire could work as I've got some of that knocking around.

[MerlinJones]

Sprue stretching is definitely one of those techniques that is more art than anything else. That said, once you can strtch the stuff, it opens up all sorts of possibilities for detailing work, at no extra cost. (Bar that of a tea light candle).

Regards,
Bruce

[Dirkpitt289]

Stretching sprue is an art/ technique I've yet to master.

[ShaunW]

Warning: stretching sprue will permanently damage your mental health and burn your fingers. I have some experience and will be fine again soon, so I'm told.

[Brickie]

I've given it a couple of squirts of Metalcote, and I swear I will take some photos over the weekend

[Brickie]

Right, here we go. THe LHS only had Metalcote in a rattlecan of Polished Alu, so that's what I went with. Here's the situation after two coats...



And the state of play this afternoon after a bit of buffing with a soft cloth and a wash of thinned-down Tamiya Smoke...

[MerlinJones]

Looking good.
You can polish some bits more than others and I find this tends to 'blend' those panel lines in a tad.
The decals also go a long way to reducing the effect.

Regards,
Bruce

[ShaunW]

That looks very good Brickie, I do like a nice Sabre

[TimJ]

The paintwork looks great.