The Nakajima Showa L2D2 Navy Transport Model 11.
As mentioned before, there are differences beetween a regular DC-3 and our subject of interest, the L2D. When doing the Model 11, those differences are not very difficult to reproduce. The Italeri kit is very simple in its fitting and most of the seams actually mimic part of the clad covering design so it was easy to fill and sand. With the conversin done and the model assembled I set for the painting process.
Usually all of my cockpit and detail painting is done by brush, leaving the airbrush for the camo schemes and partial weathering. Painting the innards was done in several steps. The most important was to mix my own shade of interior blue/green since I was out of Tamiya's clear blue. I mixed Tamiya Blue (X-4 if I recall correctly) with H-191 Chrome Silver and gave the interior several layers until I was satisfied with it. Other colours used were black and silver for picking up dials, levers and general wear. Insignia yellow and red for knobs and the cover paper found on old decal sheets was used for the seatbelts. Once glued onto the seats, they were painted H-41 and H11.
Next were the wheel wells, engine firewalls and landing gear. A base coat of H-191 was used inside the wheel wells, followed by Tamiya'2 Clear Green liberately applied. For the landing gear itself I used H-33 and H-191 for the retraction struts and ModellMaster's RLM 63 Hellgrau for the rear one.
Since I was doing a Model 11 serving in the Southwest Pacific Fleet around 1942, changes in camo were taken into account. An overall coat of MM's RLM 63 was applied, followed by a dense amount of mottling and squiggles of MM's RLM 83 Dunkelgrün. Both colours are a good match for a faded, chalky IJN Gray and a pre-1943 IJN dar olive like green. Gloss varnish from Revell's enamel range was used in beetween the two colours for the decals were applied before the dark green. An easy and realistic way of doing the usual "aura" we see in this particular kind of camouflage
After looking for suitable decals and failing to find anyone, I sprayed some Heller's French A.F. roundels (best refered to as "cocardes" ;o) ) with H-60 in a random way to give them a chalky look too. After drying properly, they were applied using Humbrol's Decalfix. Once the mottling was over I put the tail numbers on, also a decal dungeon discovery.
The pictures were taken for a project I share with a friend, www.legionmodelismo.com.ar so take a look around and then press the "Back" button. Unless you already have this blogspot in your favourite links, wich would make ME doubt of yor sanity both as modeler and net surfer. Please, also enjoy the watermark specially made for Legion. Any resamblance to a Whermacht arm-band was not a coincidence...
So, without further a-do, the model itself:
On the next installment and since I don't seem to be able to add more pictures, you'll find a few detail photos regarding changes made to the kit, painting techniques and close-up snapshots that a 3-footer model should never have to endure :o)
Good luck and good night,
The modeling underdog
As mentioned before, there are differences beetween a regular DC-3 and our subject of interest, the L2D. When doing the Model 11, those differences are not very difficult to reproduce. The Italeri kit is very simple in its fitting and most of the seams actually mimic part of the clad covering design so it was easy to fill and sand. With the conversin done and the model assembled I set for the painting process.
Usually all of my cockpit and detail painting is done by brush, leaving the airbrush for the camo schemes and partial weathering. Painting the innards was done in several steps. The most important was to mix my own shade of interior blue/green since I was out of Tamiya's clear blue. I mixed Tamiya Blue (X-4 if I recall correctly) with H-191 Chrome Silver and gave the interior several layers until I was satisfied with it. Other colours used were black and silver for picking up dials, levers and general wear. Insignia yellow and red for knobs and the cover paper found on old decal sheets was used for the seatbelts. Once glued onto the seats, they were painted H-41 and H11.
Next were the wheel wells, engine firewalls and landing gear. A base coat of H-191 was used inside the wheel wells, followed by Tamiya'2 Clear Green liberately applied. For the landing gear itself I used H-33 and H-191 for the retraction struts and ModellMaster's RLM 63 Hellgrau for the rear one.
Since I was doing a Model 11 serving in the Southwest Pacific Fleet around 1942, changes in camo were taken into account. An overall coat of MM's RLM 63 was applied, followed by a dense amount of mottling and squiggles of MM's RLM 83 Dunkelgrün. Both colours are a good match for a faded, chalky IJN Gray and a pre-1943 IJN dar olive like green. Gloss varnish from Revell's enamel range was used in beetween the two colours for the decals were applied before the dark green. An easy and realistic way of doing the usual "aura" we see in this particular kind of camouflage
After looking for suitable decals and failing to find anyone, I sprayed some Heller's French A.F. roundels (best refered to as "cocardes" ;o) ) with H-60 in a random way to give them a chalky look too. After drying properly, they were applied using Humbrol's Decalfix. Once the mottling was over I put the tail numbers on, also a decal dungeon discovery.
The pictures were taken for a project I share with a friend, www.legionmodelismo.com.ar so take a look around and then press the "Back" button. Unless you already have this blogspot in your favourite links, wich would make ME doubt of yor sanity both as modeler and net surfer. Please, also enjoy the watermark specially made for Legion. Any resamblance to a Whermacht arm-band was not a coincidence...
So, without further a-do, the model itself:
On the next installment and since I don't seem to be able to add more pictures, you'll find a few detail photos regarding changes made to the kit, painting techniques and close-up snapshots that a 3-footer model should never have to endure :o)Good luck and good night,
The modeling underdog
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