Tuesday, 17 October 2017

Kawasaki Ki-61 "Hien" by Dan Salamone

Attached are images from my recently completed 1/48 Hasegawa Ki-61I Hei. The natural metal finish is airbrushed Floquil Old Silver, the dark green mottle is Vallejo acrylics. Once cured the Floquil was wet sanded with automotive grade sandpaper. The Vallejo acrylics have relatively poor adhesion IMO, the scuffing/wear is from lightly rubbing with a soft cotton cloth.
Once you find the proper air pressure and paint consistency, the painting of the mottle goes rather well (but is time consuming).
All the other paints used were Gunze lacquers. Started this model in 2005 and just finished a few months ago!
 
- Dan Salamone - 
 
 
 
 

7 comments:

  1. Arawasi17 October 2017 at 12:11

    Absolutely amazing Dan! So beautiful!.
    So, free-hand camo with the airbrush works, it just takes about 12 years to produce excellent results. :)
    Question: what is "wet sanded"?

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  2. Dan Salamone17 October 2017 at 22:13

    Thanks for posting the images, and for the kind words! Wet sanding is literally using water and very fine grit sanding films to achieve a high gloss finish to the base paint. I have a set of automotive sandpapers that go as high as 12,000 grit to achieve this. Before weathering, the NMF finish was almost mirror like.

    I actually started this model when brand new in 2005, and was going to be a 68th Sentai aircraft. After moving back to Michigan from Colorado, I restarted it, but found an image of this aircraft from the 244th Sentai and changed gears. There was another move in 2012, and yet again the project came off the "shelf of doom".

    Being that Floquil enamels are now out of production, my next NMF aircraft will be painted with AK Interactive Xtreme Metal enamels. Hoping to build a Shoki, or maybe even the new Tamiya Hien once my model table is back up and running. Have a few 1/48 Japanese airfield vehicles to finish before that happens as well. ;-)

    Dan

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  3. Dan Salamone17 October 2017 at 23:32

    Thanks Jean! Been doing a lot of 1/48 airfield vehicles the past few years as well as a few aircraft. Love seeing your work here, too. ;-)

    Dan

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  4. Arawasi18 October 2017 at 13:57

    Thanks Dan.
    Jean, what paints do you prefer for your NMF Japanese aircraft?

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  5. Arawasi21 October 2017 at 11:13

    Merci Jean.

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  6. Danilo27 October 2017 at 20:48

    Great model, beautifully painted. My only objection is about the trailing edges which I am used to thin down to obtain an edge as sharp as a knife.
    Otherwise an amazing painting job!

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  7. Dan Salamone28 October 2017 at 02:18

    Thanks, Danilo. ;-)

    Dan

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