1/72 Hasegawa Mitsubishi G4M1 'Betty'

by Borislav Delov

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Here is my Japanese attack bomber “Betty” from Hasegawa.  The kit was built mostly from the box with some modifications. These modifications include: 

I motorized the twin-engine bomber— there are two pager motors with the counter-weight removed and a watch battery in the base.  The seats are from Ju-288 because they looked a lot like the seats of G4M1.  Nose gun replaced with hypodermic needle and the top round antenna made from wire. I dropped the rear control surfaces and cut the cowling flaps for added realism.

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The “random” paint peeling effect is achieved by painting the whole aircraft with silver paint (Floquil “Bright Silver” in this case) followed by a coat of Future.  Then, after the Future was dry, I dabbed a brush in “Liquid Mask” and started masking the areas I wanted. When all was dry I applied a coat of Tamiya XF-11 J.N. Green on the topside and Tamiya XF-19  Sky Grey on the underside .  Then with an X-acto knife I peeled the masked areas.  The smoke stains were done by first spraying the area with Flat Black then "streaked" with Tamiya XF-62 Flat Earth.

I was able to "restore" sanded down rivets by lightly pressing the teeth of a resin cutting tool into the surface.  This works great because there are blades with different size teeth and curvatures. Just compare the rivets to the teeth spacing and kind of roll the blade across the seam.

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I did the base from solid pine wood sealed with natural stain then weathered with dark stain.

Borislav

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Photos and text © by Borislav Delov