Here is how the Sally looks at the moment...
Chuck A. Villanueva (@uscusn)
I assembled the main parts of landing gear, the attempted to place the two main pieces into position while I was holding the engine nacelles in place temporarily. I didn't have any luck doing this.
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1. Landing gear attachment holes
The front of the wing spar is where the main gear connects to.
I could get this main part in place, but I had trouble with adding the retraction mechanism later. There was not enough room to do this. I think we will have to follow the instructions here.
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1. retraction strut attachment point.
This is where the retraction strut connects.
and this is how it looks connected. It is next to impossible to get it all done at the same time, even when the retraction strut is not glued to the main strut assembly.
So I ended up gluing the main landing gear together, and placed them in position temporarily while the glue set up. These were only held in place by a friction fit, and were removed later for painting.
This shows how the main gear look like at this point.
Then I decided to build the rest of the bomb load. These will get painted Black soon, with some stripes added later.
The props were removed from the plastic trees and prepped for painting.
The engine nacelles were also finished up. I added the oil coolers and air intakes. The fit was spot on.
The engine front and rear sections were glued together, as were the engine crankcase and ignition harness.
I used some Molotow chrome, and sprayed it on the bomb bay. I wanted to have a nice shiny base for the upcoming Aotake colors.
The upper interior of the engine nacelles / landing gear bays received the same Molotow treatment.
As did the engine cowlings, bomb bay doors, and lower portions of the engine nacelles...
The propellers were treated this way too.
Then I mixed up some Clear Blue Tamiya paint. I lightly air brushed some on top of the Molotow. I deliberately didn't try to get a uniform appearance. More on that in a few. The engine nacelle on the right has been given a light coat of Clear Blue.
The bomb bay doors were given the same...The part on the right side shows the before, while the one on the left is after.
This shows the upper nacelle / landing gear bays in the same fashion.
Then it was time to add some Clear Tamiya Yellow. I lightly sprayed this on top of the Clear Blue, making sure I didn't get an even finish. I wanted it to be variegated. This shows the completed lower engine nacelles.
This shows what adding the Clear Yellow did. It gave it the odd custom mix I was looking for and added some Green hues to the mix.
The landing gear, engines, and wheel hubs were then painted in a Flat Aluminum color.
The final touch was to come back a last time and add some Clear Green in a few places. These pictures capture the look I was after. I think this is a very good representation of Aotake.
This shows how the bomb bay looks. It looks darker because the lighting is not striking it at the same angle as in the other photos. It definitely has a Blue Green look to it.
Now on to the interior.
I sprayed the inside of the dorsal gunners position using a Blue Gray color. Oddly enough, WW2 US Navy Blue Gray is a decent match for this !
The instrument panel was assembled and also painted in Blue Gray.
as was the rest of the interior.
I will be adding the small parts and some washes on here soon, so please stay tuned for updates.
As always, comments are encouraged. Thanks for stopping by.
