Hey, Jeffry,
I believe the yellow leading edge was introduced in 1941 by RAF command so that pilots could recognise friend or foe in their mirror. At the same time they painted the spinners on hurricanes and spitfires, etc. light blue for the same reason.

Today I was fortunate to get some time working at the hobby table...

So I masked off the leading edge IFF markings, wing and fuselage "Bandages" on one of the "Nate's" then proceeded to mask off the twin tail stripes on the other.

Then I sprayed these areas with Tamiya White, (which was also used as a base for the yellow paint which was to follow).


Then I sprayed the yellow on the tail stripes of one "Nate", and the IFF markings on the leading edge of the wing on the other...

once unmasked, this is how the tail stripes turned out on the "77th Sentai" plane:

followed by the other which has the wing and fuselage "Bandages" and IFF wing markings. This one still has some red color areas that need to be masked off prior to spraying.

The final step for the day was to spray on several light coats of Future to prepare for the kit decals.

If you look really close, you can see where the pesky little oil coolers have now been broken off the front of the engine again... I highly recommend leaving these bits off until the very end if you are building one of these... They are very fragile and when I removed the masking tape, I accidentally removed the oil cooler as well...

It should be an easy fix (again), but this time I'm waiting until just before I glue the cowling on for good.

As usual, comments are encouraged.

I'll let this next picture describe how the side stripes and wheel spats turned out.

The white paint bled under the tape. The red did too in a spot along the fuselage just behind the cowling. It looks like the vents behind the cowling allows paint to seep under the tape.

So I gave the instructions a closer look and it turned out I had originally masked the area incorrectly.
Following the fiasco I sanded down the stripes with 2000 grit paper and touched up along the edge with some Japanese Army Gray.
This time I am using 3M automotive grade painting tape that I have used on full sized car restorations. It has a nice sharp edge and I hope that it is better this second time around.

I'm getting ready to spray some red ...

I'll let you know how it works.

Lot of effort (and tape) but it's paying off!

Nice looking Nates! You have quite the assembly line going, what with the Hellcats, etc.

Thanks gents for the kind words... The assembly line is going at full production speed now... The Hellcats have been taking a lot of my masking time in preparation for paint.

Jeff, I'm glad we were able to properly answer your question about the yellow leading edge paint. Masking full size autos does help some 😉

Earlier today I prepped the propellers for installation. The instructions would have you glue an ill fitting plastic stop cap over the end of the prop shaft. I wanted to do things a little different...

So I used a Tamiya "poly cap" in place. It worked out great... and the prop spins very easily now. Even the slightest breeze will turn the prop.

I gave the red cowling two light coats of clear to see how it would affect the look of the red, especially since it has a flat finish. Here's the cowling after I snapped it into place. This one is ready for some more clear coats and then the decaling can begin.

Friction is holding the cowl on the fuselage in the picture shown below:

Here's the other "Nate" after it received the same prop treatment with the poly cap, and the cowling was also pushed in position to take the photo. It still needs two white narrow stripes painted on the rear of the fuselage. Then this one should be ready for decals.

I did a little on line detective work on building these kits before I started them. I blatantly stole this idea from another online builder. It's a very easy way to make sure the seams are perfect on the wheel pants, and allows for easy wheel painting at the same time...

To begin with, use a razor saw and cut a "V" shaped notch into the wheel... Yes it sounds scary, but trust me it works...

Don't use a set of sprue cutters or snips to do this... If you do the wheel will snap into two parts... Ask me how I found this out...

When you are done removing the "V" section of plastic, the wheel should look like this:

Then simply put a small drop of glue on the wheel center, and position it into the wheel pant assembly. Rotate it around until you are happy with the portion of the wheel that is exposed.

This is how it will look if done properly...

Getting closer...

Here's how the Ki-27's look right now...

Comments are encouraged.

10 days to Christmas...

Thanks Paul for the compliments...

I haven't been able to get much work bench time in over the last few days. We have been visiting my step son who is in the hospital. He had to have an emergency partial amputation due to his diabetes... He is getting better, but has a long recovery ahead of him. I have been posting replies to various articles using my good old cell phone from the hospital.

But we are back home for a while now...and I managed to get a little done on the "Nate" earlier today.

Started off by masking the two stripes on the rear of the fuselage. Next I used some frisket tape to make the stylized "77" unit markings on the fin and rudder. I was able to find actual photos of this plane and used them to make a set of home made stencils for the "77"

Next I sprayed on the white. The fuselage stripes are done here, and the white was used as a base for the blue which was applied later.

The blue was sprayed on the rudder and fin next...

Then the masking was removed...

Here's how the second Nate looks right now.

A coat or two of clear and both Ki-27's are ready for some decals...

Merry Christmas everyone. 6 days to Christmas...

Comments are encouraged.

Thanks Greg and I hope that you have a wonderful Christmas.

Late last night I applied the decals on one of the Nate's.

This morning I applied the Hinomarus on the wing of the second one.

Here's how they look now.

Then I spent a little time fitting the canopy onto the fuselage. Once I was happy with this I gave both canopies a dip in the "Future" acrylic. Hopefully this will increase the clarity of the clear plastic as they are not very transparent. Time will tell. I didn't want to take the time to polish these parts beforehand.

Now they're drying ...

Hopefully soon I can wrap these little guys up and get them posted...

As usual comments are encouraged...

4 days left until Christmas.