The Chromepen may be a rather difficult option in 1/32 as it is my experience that it needs to blend in wet in one go. I have a 1 and a 2mm pen, and still have to use them on other stuff than oleos and tubes.

Let us have a look at it when it is dryed up! - the BMF is awesome as usual! And on a large cowling it is just great!

Really great paintwork and detailing, Louis, I am coming late to the commentary but I have really enjoyed catching up on your build. Research on appropriate cockpit colors can be exhausting and you clearly took tremendous care to get it right. Your layered approach to aotake for the wheel wells and cowl is spot on too. I think you made some very good decisions overall with convincing results. The engine is also skillfully detailed and I liked your copper wire choice. I was interested to see that you tested the fit inside the cowling after wiring it up. I learned that this was essential when doing my 1/48 Hayate. All that extra detail can really create a tight fit, especially when using stiff wire for the ignition harness. I found out with my 1/32 P-47 that fishing line could be a good alternative to wire when there was less than ideal space to work in. Fishing line doesn't give you the curviness of wire, though, which can be important in Homare engines. Overall, the Shoki is quite a beast. It the very purposeful lines of a fast climbing point defense interceptor - a B-29 killer. I am looking forward to seeing this built up.

Very nice seatbelts, it looks very realistic just as it is. Keep it coming Louis

Buckle up!

Here are some pictures of what arrived in the mail.

The packaging stated it is for "most Japanese Army aircraft in WW2". It does not have a shoulder harness.

The shoulder harnesses were used on some planes, so please check your references if you have them. It was a single strap that went over one of the pilot's shoulders ( I believe it was the left side going from memory), and not two straps that we are most accustomed to seeing.

This photo shows the photo etched parts.

This last picture shows the actual seat harness. It is made of paper and is laser cut. It looks much better than what I tried to make, trust me on that one...

I will try to get this assembled and will post photos once it's done. This is the only thing that is holding me back from installing the cockpit into the fuselage.

As always, comments are encouraged.

Just had to re-read this thread Louis. Might I comment on the first post; accidents happen! - and as this is started by accident, I kind of like your choice of accidents @lgardner! and as Spiros, I am impressed by the detail in the belts in this scale. Going to be good.

Gentlemen,
@fiveten
@airbum
@mvtb

Thank you all very much for the kind words, (and yes Erik, accidents do sometimes happen for a reason)... and now I have a good update to post. I have assembled the seat harness and installed the cockpit. I am very happy to say this seat harness was a huge improvement. It also was not too hard to assemble the harness. I took my time and used some Formula 560 glue to hold the fabric impregnated paper parts together. This glue was recommended by the company to use for assembly. They do not recommend using any type of CA or Super glue.

Once I assembled the seat harness, it was very easy to simply glue the straps in place. What a huge difference these seat straps have made.
Here are a few close up pictures for you to see what I mean.


The cockpit was given some wear marks by dry brushing some silver in various places. I also used a silver pencil to replicate some of the scratches. Here are some photos that show the cockpit before I snapped it into position in the fuselage.




Here the camera angle has made the barrels look crooked. They are actually straight. This is an optical illusion.


Stand by for another update as I show how this looks once installed !

That is some cool belts! Open the panels? - yep @lgardner, this is so detailed, and it is going to be adding to an already great build. Keep up the good work my friend.