Sweet 1/144 P-51B Pioneer Mustang "DING HAO!" - WiP

This is a old photo (check the date 08, 2010) of a build which i only recently finished.

Was sorting out the hard drive and found this in pic which then made me dig out the model and it was practically complete, really ready for a wee photo shoot.

I brushed painted this with Tamiya paints, even the white was brush painted.
Ian

Japan trip 2011 - Day 8, part Ni - Ginza

Evening of day 8 was spent in Ginza, which is very plush. Even though im not the biggest fan of shopping in these department stores was a experience doing it here. Spent most of my time in Sony and Tokyo Hands.

Knew what to visit because in the morning when i turned on the TV to check out the weather, some presenter always seemed to be in a Ginza "depato", that or something about food is always on Japanese telly which i instantly wanted to try.







Ian

F-toys 1/144 remodel - Avia CS-92 - Completed

Very easy and satisfying little build, wanted to make something quick and this worked out great. Just a f-toys Me 263 dual seater with a little detail added in the cockpit, undercarriage and gun barrels, repainted and decal to make a nice new model.







Looking at some other gasphons which ive amassed up in the loft, basically if it has a nice canopy i think i will model it.
Ian

Japan trip 2011 - Day 8, part Ichi - Kamakura

Day 8 i visited the this ancient capital of Japan, Kamakura, this being the last day my JR Pass was valid for so went for a trip an hour outside Tokyo.
Main reason to go is the seriously impressive Giant Buddha or The Great Buddha, really impressive being around 800 years old and has survived tsunamis and earthquakes. Really old beautiful city with so many temple, i reckon every street i walked down had one. I walked a crescent route round the city, starting at all the old temple where the Buddha is then strolling on down to the beach.

Love the "Beware of Hawks" which where circling over head, in the UK we have just evil Seagulls and annoying Pigeons, looks like Japan wins the badass bird contest.

I think then i walked the entire length of the beach to the other side of the city, then up through thedeserted  suburbs into the main town, had some tasty Sushi and visited some more temples before heading back to Tokyo for the evening in Ginza. One of the guides told me that quite a few of the temple are replicas, being in a country where natural disasters are nasty and the odd samurai brawl.


























Ian

Old build, new photos - Revell 1/144 AV-8B Harrier II plus - "Ace of Spades"

First model i painted with the airbrushed back in old May 10. Not are that bad looking at it now, canopy a bit rough where i poorly masked but an alright model.
Just wanted to take some photos of all the 1/144 crew i have now and the carrier deck i painted over the holidays. All the red-shirts are weapons guys, safety checks and other stuff i reckoned.



Ian

Real Grade 1/144 - RX-78-2 GUNDAM - WiP 1 -

Time to start building this bad boy i brought back from Japan, bought in Yodobashi Camera Akihabara, "awesome shop!"
You can see the box got damaged on the flight back to the UK, looks like the crew played rugby with my suitcase.

Took me quite some time to prepare all these pieces, so many sprue to sand! And then just like with the Zaku every piece has to be prepare, primed and painted speciality, had to buy 200 kebab stick to hold all the pieces.

This is the first time instead of fixing any sprue marks with putty i used super glue, instead of waiting 24 hours for the putty to set i left the glue 30 minutes, result. Still will wait to see what it looks like once primed.

Off out today and plan on buying some Tamiya rattle cans for the white, have found painting white from the airbrush quite difficult using Vallejo only so far.



Ian

Japan Trip 2011 - Day 7, part San - Roppongi and Tokyo Tower

Last part of my super busy day 7 was to go to Roppongi my now favourite Yamanote line during the rush hour! Check out the packed carriage full of salarymen, i use to have to dress like this.

Planed on visiting Tokyo Tower at night purely to see the amazing cityscape all aglow and it did not disappoint, was such a amazing sight, light filling up your view all the way to the horizon and all those red flashing night on the top of skyscraper's straight out of the 80's anime. Had some kick ass Yakitori on the way back, only time i had these and i eat alot after only eating deserts practically all day.  One of my favourite photos at the top from the entire trip, Odiba and Rainbow bridge visible.

















Ian

F-toys 1/144 Me 262 - Avia CS-92 WiP -

Quite often when ive bought model from Japan im given a free gift and its usually an F-toys Me 262, ive got maybe 6 of them now, single and two-seater's. Modelled as the post war Czechoslovak built 263, the Avia S-92, two-seater CS-92. I wanted to model an aircraft as i feel like quite some time since i finished a model plane.

This is a quick remodel, adding detail to the cockpit and undercarriage and hiding the seam lines then hand painted using Citadel Foundation paint, first aircraft ive brush painted since i bought an airbrush. Got the decals from a lot of 1/144 decals i bought of eBay year ago and always come in handy.

This turned out to be a quick build and really have almost finished in no time, should have a look at remodelling more F-toys like i use to, just got to make sure that an f-toys gasphon i buy have nice clear canopy, never good making one with ugly murky clear plastic.

Ian

Japan Trip 2011 - Day 7, part Ni - Shibuya

After spending the morning in Harajuku the rest of the daylight hours where spent in Shibuya, which made the busy Takashita Dori look like picnic on a warm summer day.

Really looking forward to Shibuya and it famous crossing which was just as cool and neon. Visited Tokyo Records, the cray looking Disney store, did karaoke, ate cake (which the Japanese adore from all the cake shop i saw) and enjoyed the how the streets have colour coded lampposts with number for tourist to easy navigate. Had to stay till dark to see what the crossing looked like and check out the skid marks from some Tokyo Drifting?




















Next up Tokyo Tower
Ian

2011 - Model review.

Every aircraft, mobile suit, space battleship and deck crew which ive finished over the past year. Seen a bunch of other modeller do the same thing yesterday and thought it was a cool idea.

If i did a 2011 Works in Progress review, it would be 3 times as many model!

Happy New Year!
Ian