Thursday 4 February 2010

Gilding The Lily ~ Part One


Hot on the heels of Gary Wenko's review of the new AZ 1/48th Kawasaki Ki-48 Lily kit in the IPMS UK JASIG Corner Bulletin #4 come these stunning images of the model as built by Japanese master modeller, researcher and artist Hisao Saitoh. Details to note and enjoy are the overall Hairyokushoku (ash green colour), olive green "snake weave" mottle, the prop colour (and lustre), engine details and the interior colour which is just visible. Superbly achieved and absolutely convincing - as well as a very interesting table top companion for Hasegawa's Kawasaki Ki-45 Toryu.

The aircraft depicted is from the 8th Sentai in action over Burma from bases in Thailand with the unit's distinctive "Octopus Eight" tail insignia. All the markings are painted, not decals, using hand-crafted stencils. What a beauty!

More "Gilding the Lily" posts on large scale Ki-48 details to follow.

Image credit: ©2010 Hisao Saitoh via Ken Glass

3 comments:

noel said...

Hello Nick;
I have to agree that the prop and spinner color on this Ki-48 "Lily" look so much better than the washed out red brown "brick" color often seen on other Japanese airplane models.
The nicely done figure adds to the presentation as well.
Kind Regards, noel

Stefan Sjöberg said...

Very nice, indeed! The "snake weave" mottle is just superb. Great!

Best regards/Stefan Sjöberg

William Reece said...

Wow! Master modeler indeed! This is really a nice rendering of this airplane. Your notes on the colors are very instructive. Thanks to all involved.

William