Yokosuka R2Y "Keiun" - Modeling

The subject is the Fine Molds kit in 1:72, out-of-the-box, and I will also use the white metal after-market set also by Fine Molds that curiously includes a "wooden" cart. The building process will be featured on this posting alone.
C numbers correspond to Mr Color paints, X/XF numbers to Tamiya.

First I start with the cockpit instructions of the kit and the after-market set that explains how the belts are to be placed on the three seats.

Here are the parts for the cockpit. There is little flash here and there but nothing dramatic. Detail is also fairly good.

Below are the paint instructions for the belts and the after-market set.

The instructions say that the seat belts should be painted red brown (C-41, XF-64) and khaki (C-55, XF-49) with silver (C-8, X-11) buckles. They are really tiny but I'll do my best.

After experiencing some difficulties with the airbrush I managed to paint the cockpit. The instructions call for Nakajima Cockpit Color (Mr. Color C-127); no equivalent to Tamiya paints.

The cockpit has two hands of paint and I painted one hand a "Hayabusa" wing to show how the color looks straight on plastic. They are placed next to a "Federal Standard 595B Colors" deck. Considering the glossiness of the paint and the difference in the medium it is applied on (paper vs plastic), the closest I could find is FS14257 which is a bit darker than the Mr Color paint. Below are photos taken without flash and HERE is the link for the color chip from the FS site.

More progress during the weekend and the past couple days after struggling with the tiny seatbelts.

I used soot, gun metal and silver from two Tamiya Weathering Master sets, and the brown from an old eye-shadow compact kit my wife didn't use any more to weather the cockpit and bring out the details. The result is most satisfying. I hope you like what I have done so far.