The masks I ordered a few weeks ago finally arrived yesterday and are already set were needed.

Speaking of masking, for the first time ever I had residual glue from Tamiya tape used in masking the red striped on the floaters

. My best guess is the red paint not being fully cured(?). It’s an easy though annoy fix to mend it.

The dolly also teaches me a lesson... never paint the wood planks before it’s base, in this case that metal hull red structure 🙂

After correcting also this blooper (lots of 1mm tape are going to be used) I will proceed with the oils for that final wood effect and this part of the kit will be wrapped up

Spiros, I just could not face that large green house canopy without them 😉

So while oils take their toll timewise due to their long drying time this forced me to slow the pace in the dolly construction.
This gives me the opportunity to focus on the interior parts.
The cockpit is very nice, looks busy yeah though not entirely accurate.
The IP had a decal to recreate the dials but not only it disintegrated while apllying it but what I could save just silvered like no other IP decal I used before. therefore I decided to scrap the darn thing and used a few airscale dials (those who fit). The rest will be hand made.
The cockpit green shade is a mix using Real colors Mitsubishi green with black or white. A grey will be added in some parts and gloss black in others.
A wash will follow plus a few scratch built items. The gunsight in particular will be reworked because it’s very simplistic in detail and comparing with other gunsights around this one is huge!
Cheers!

Such a realistic dolly You have made - very nice indeed. I'm sure the extra work on the IP will pay of in the well-known @holzhamer style!

Great looking cockpit, Pedro. Such a shame a good portion of it will be hidden.
All the best!

Thanks guys! Indeed like most cockpits this one will be to narrow to allow a good view inside at lest bare eye 😉

Not that I advanced that much, been building cables from stretch sprue and creating a bombing aim device that Tamiya-San overlooked, but recall the long drying tone of oils? Well after 4 days I resumed work on the dolly this time to weather the wood planks a bit...and there goes another 2-3 days waiting.

Speaking of oils after seeing a video from Plasto on YouTube where he paints half fuselage of an Hellcat entirely with oils I decided to use this medium to actually paint and not just weathering or wood effects. Decided to try downgrade the deep black used in the pilots IP and randomly applied a mixed dark grey with a blueish tint.

Looks ruff but after a second scrub with a clean and dry brush it evens nicely. Definitely gonna use them more.

Cheers

Hey Spiros, thanks but the photo really doesn’t do justice for a good comparison between the first application and the dry swipe.
Funny how I’ve been using oils for more than a decade but limited them to weathering and washes, forgetting their primary function which is painting. I wouldn’t say they are easy going but oils offer a greater scope for blending and mixing than say acrylics, which are my to go method when it comes to brush paint. Their only issue is the drying time

Great progress here - can't wait to see the DB601. . . eehhh Aichi Atsuta engine installed 🙂

Louis my friend @lgardner- thanks for the feedback. The dials are plain decal, made by a very nice company named Airscale. They do all sort of IP dials and cockpit signs in decal form, across all main scales. Those you see in the photo came from their Luftwaffe set, which besides the authenticity factor are also way too big to fit the dials provided in the plastic. Fortunately a Japanese WW2 set is also made and I’m here waiting for the mailman to bring one to my doorstep 😉 hopefully those will fit nicely eheh