Mitsubishi K3M3 Pine

[johnsan]

Thickly molded parts, delicate surfaces. It looks like this will be a pretty easy limited run kit. Very surprisingly, there are after market decals for it.

I never thought this plane would ever be issued in kit form and never really considered scratch building it. It would be a fairly easy project as it seems to be mostly straight lines.

[ross blackford]

Looks good johnsan. An interesting trainer that, a single engined multi purpose trainer and the only one of its tyoe that I know of. Good to see it starting to come together.

,

Ross.

[johnsan]

So far this appears to be a fairly easy kit to build. The parts match pretty well. Time spent thinning the trailing edges of the wings is well spent.

Here they've had a coat of primer before the yellow-orange paint.

Likewise the engine cowl looks much better with thinning. The resin engine is a tad bit crude. It will get some work later on.

[JackMan]

I really like the yellow-orange. Was it your own mix?

Thanks

[johnsan]

I like the orange also. It's Mr Color 58 Orange Yellow straight from the bottle. Ok, I did thin it for spraying, but the color is unaltered.

[ross blackford]

:D, Looking good johnsan. This one will look good when it's finished with all that orange-yellow and IJN green paint. The interior looks pretty good too and that black engine cowl will set off the colour scheme when you're finished. Good progress there mate. Please keep us all updated as you go, we'll (or at least I'll) be watching this one with interest.

,

Ross.

[johnsan]

Thanks, Ross.

Believe or not there is an aftermarket sheet for IJAAF trainers that includes markings for 2 Pines. Actually it is the same plane with 2 different color scheme interpretations. I'm doing the one that is orange overall excepting red tail surfaces.

I do like the prospect of green over orange. I'm planning on doing a Ki-9 in those colors. Hopefully this will be in this GB, but that depends on completing the Pine.

[Mike J. Idacavage]

Wow, this is looking good! Like the rest of the group, I really like the way the color looks on the wings. I had not thought of using Mr. Color as I usually use Model Master or White Ensign Enamels, but I plan on picking up a bottle of this color for some future projects. This will be one colorful trainer when you are finished! ;)

Have fun modeling!

Mike

[johnsan]

Thanks, Mike. Mr Color 58 is a pretty useful color as use of this orange yellow appears to have continued post war.

More work on the Pine.

Going clockwise in the photo from the lower left corner we have AZ Models resin engine, next the engine from RS Models' Ki-9, a silicon pressed mold of the RS engine, a cast from the mold, and finally the cowl in which the engine will reside.

The mold is incredibly easy to make. It's just a block of silicon sold in Japanese hobby shops for just this purpose. Just heat up some water and plop the silicon in. When the silicon is heated, it becomes soft enough to take impressions. Just press whatever you wish a copy into the silicon and let the silicon cool down. Remove your master. Fill the mold with your casting material. Remove when the cast hardens.

I use Tamiya Light Curing Putty for casting material. It takes detail very well. Because the silicon transfers light well, the LCP cures very quickly. You can cast up to 4mm depth. Tamiya recommends only 2mm thickness for LCP because light has to penetrate the material for it to harden. Not a problem here because you can shine light from all sides on the mold, not just the open backside.

For a light source I use an LCD flashlight. It gives a pretty intense beam of light and works better than other light sources I've tried.

[johnsan]

Ok.

The engine is now mostly finished. I will need to drill a hole to mount the prop shaft later, after making a new prop.

The cowl is just pressed on for the photo. It'll be permanently fixed after the engine is mounted on the fuselage.

I think the new engine looks much better than the kit provided one and it wasn't hard to make. 3 casts for get nine decent looking cylinders,.

The exhaust pipes are from the kit. The fit isn't too good and they need some cleaning up but they are very usable.

Add a little additional brass rod and copper wire for the pushrods and wiring harness.

Then it's just the usual paint, wash, pigment.

Edited May 13, 2010 by johnsan

[johnsan]

I haven't had much time for modeling lately, just a few minutes here and there.

Still need to install the windows before glueing these parts. Still, it's progress.

[johnsan]

Had a bit of time for modeling. Yay!

The interior fits kinda ok. The floor boards just butt up against the fuselage. There are location lugs that help a little. The floor boards were a little wide.

Fit was not so good. The fuselage parts alignment was a bit off. The dorsal rind did not match, nor did the sliding hatch just forward of the ring. In any case, both these areas were very softly molded. the easiest and quickest solution was to remove these to be replaced later with new parts from sheet plastic. The joins got a slathering of putty, were sanded, and primed. Repeated several times. There was a little bit of recessed detail that required rescribing.

Looking forward to adding the tailplanes, an area on the aft upper fuselage was scalloped out to better blend these parts.

Next up: painting the fuselage.

[johnsan]

Painted and wings stuck on. Struts need to be replaced.