1/72 Hasegawa H6K5 (Mavis)

Gallery Article by Phillip Steele on Oct 20 2010

 

A big ol' model, this one.  Almost equal wing span to the B-29.  Lots of support cables and struts.  A combination of Model Master and Tamiya paints were used.  Except for a short piece of brass wire and some fishing line, I used no after market products.  The general fit and alignment was quite good, considering the complexity.  The rear main wing strut on both sides had be lengthened 1mm to get a close fit against the hull, and their wing attachment points required a bit of reshaping.  Some filler was required around the wing supports.  I built the entire main wing (minus the struts and floats) and boat section as separate assemblies, doing all of the weathering beforehand. I placed the wing glue free on the supports to allow some movement to attach the rather delicate strut assemblies.  After everything was set and solid, I applied glue to the wing attachments with a hypodermic needle.  It worked out quite well.  I had pre drilled all of the strut rigging holes (#79) before assembly.  After all that was in place and solid, I did all of the rigging in one three hour shot, including the floats, using 3 lb test fishing line and CA glue.  I then gave it a very delicate application of silver paint.  The cross points were then given a dab of grey paint to make them stand out.  The antenna wires are 2 lb test line, blackened with a marker. 

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The paint chipping & weathering was done in several steps using different shades of green and grey to give the appearance that it had taken place over time.  Each step was sealed with Dullcoat.  I put a light to moderate coat of chrome silver on the wing and boat before applying the color.  This provided an easy way to produce bare metal using narrow strips of masking tape.  I also did some dry brushing with silver paint, and lightly sanded other areas.  I spent more time taking paint off than I did putting it on.  I used powdered pencil and markers for staining.  The only decals I used were the tail fin numbers, choosing to paint the national insignia and yellow areas on the wing leading edges.  This wasn't difficult, and worked out great for the weathering.   

I usually don't do this much weathering, but it looks "in scale", at least to me, and the model really stands out in the display case.   

Phillip Steele

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Photos and text © by Phillip Steele