This is my second
submission and this model is a rush job done just in time for the 60th
anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing. (Took me about 1 month plus and in between
a few other models). I got this kit with 50% from a local hobby shop (Thanks
Hobby HQ!). Its totally out of the box. Interior details are quite good but I
wasted my time doing it because they can't be seen anyways. Fit is bad in
certain areas around the cockpit as you may be able to notice from the
greenhouse canopy which hardly fits. The real aircraft looks highly polished but
I figured better tone down the shine for 'war time' condition. (Its difficult to
make the model shine anyway!). The shinier silver is painted using the
Gunze's H8 Silver and the greyish silver along the wing is a 80%-20%
silver-white mix to simulate oxidized aluminium (thanks to Mr. Paul Boyer of FSM
for his advice-before that it took me many days of pondering to figure out the
right colour).
Decals from the kit
were almost a nightmare. They were very brittle and when testing the first decal
I could even hear the decal crack. Piece of advice when using academy's
decal-soak in water for at least 20 minutes before attempting to slide it. Most
of my decals cracked nevertheless so what you see is what I could do best to
reassemble the pieces of decal. Final model is sealed with Testor's Metalizer
Sealer. Sources from the internet suggests that the tailcode 'R' was only
applied for the actual bombing mission so to make it the as other B-29s.
Otherwise it will be an 'arrow in circle' on the tail. Both tail codes are
provided in the kit.
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The above pictures
are other views of the model and with a same scale Hurricane for size
comparison.
I like the shiny
tail. Not much else to say about that. Below is the bomb bay view without the
bomb and I like the crew walkway which I brush painted it silver-drab. Slight
weathering is done around the engine nacelles and moving surfaces using very
thinned down acrylic flat black.
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A paint bottle is
put underneath the elevator to prevent tail sitting. Caution: this is a very
very tail heavy plane. It is still tail sitting despite the fact that I have
jammed packed the whole cockpit floor with lead. If there's a next time I will
have to sacrifice the interior detail and put lead in its place. Another view of
the tail with Little Boy loaded in the bay (temporarily for the photo shoot).
And I dedicate this model to the men and women that helped to bring the last
Great War to its conclusion.
Enjoy.
David
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