Work on the Kikka Continues

Masked and ready for IJN Dark Green.

Had to leave the canopy off at this point as the entire fuselage, even under the canopy, appears to be IJN Dark Green. 

The cockpit colours contrast nicely with the IJN Dark Green. There are some dark green touch ups that aren't quite dry in this picture that appear slightly darker in colour. Should be fine once dry. 

The Kikka is ready to have the canopy put in place. 

The canopy has had the "Future" treatment and has been masked using bare metal foil.

The canopy is on. You can see the bead of Testors Clear Parts glue drying. I tidied this up with a wet sponge to remove extra glue.

Bare Metal

Decided to go with the actual paint scheme used on the prototype that flew. 

I used a Krylon Silver Brilliant Primer and Paint spray can from Canadian Tire for the first two coats.

Not too bad. The finish looks better in real life than in this picture. The wet sponge in the cockpit should keep out the spray. 

Wings, Engines, and Seat belt

A snowy Saturday so I have some time to get more work done. 

The engines and wings are on. Lots of sanding and filling at the wing roots.

Still the cockpit looks nice. 

There was a huge sink hole to hide on the starboard side of the fuselage. The wing roots needed considerable attention.

I forgot to add a seat belt earlier. No PE for this in the kit so I decided to 

try using sticky notes as that is what I had laying around. Just did a coat of desert yellow and let it dry. While I was waiting for the notes to dry, I masked the engine intakes and burners to get the model ready for priming.

I use Glad Press N Seal for masking engines and other odd shapes. It conforms to most shapes and sticks to them quite well. 

According to my research the Kikka used a three point harness. Must have been fun to fly a jet with a three point harness! 

The sticky notes seat belt doesn't look too bad. 

I used a metallic permanent marker to add some buckles and fasteners. 

Back at It - FineMolds 1/48 Shisei Kikka

After a pause to take care of the holidays and some life events I am back at it. This time I am working on completing a FineMolds 1/48 Shisei Kikka - Japan's answer to the Me262. I started this kit a couple of years ago. When I opened the box I was thoroughly impressed by the "Fine" molding job and excellent panel lines. However, the fit was far from perfect and results in large seams that I have to sand down so I became discouraged with the kit and put it away for a rainy day. Well it is not raining, but I have decided to try again.

I start with the cockpit as usual. FineMolds has done an excellent job here. Just need to add a seatbelt.

The instrument panel is recessed but the decals settle down nicely. 

One innovation from FineMolds is the nose weight they include, in the form of a nut and bolt,

that fits onto the top of the nose wheel bay. 

Some nice side panel detail is included in the cockpit area. Some highlighting brings out the 

detail.

The "office" fits nicely into the fuselage. 

I wish I could say the same for the fit of the fuselage halves. It didn't seem to matter how many

times I tried, I just couldn't get the fuselage to line up without some rather tremendous seams.