As I said in my last posting, it is time to start catching-up the rudder to the rest of the figure. . .
In my initial rudder posting, I provided some of the backstory and the rationale driving this project. The rudder belongs to an Imperial Japanese Pfalz Dr.I. After immersing myself briefly in the early history of Japanese military aviation and the colours and markings of the same, I came up with my 'design":
Now you know what the "medium sky blue-grey" is all about. It was one of the first unit identifiers used in the IJAAS, and it was used by a sentai stationed in the northern sectors in the ‘30s. The kanji is gi (as a contraction of giri: ”to serve one’s superiors with a self-sacrificing devotion” or “the burden hardest to bear”). It is one of my favourite Japanese values.
As much as I would have liked, free-handing the brush-effect of the kanji twice(!) is beyond my abilities, to say nothing of patience. So I took a slightly lower road and made some custom decals. These are now printed and sealed, and will hopefully be applied over the weekend.
The golden Imperial chrysanthemum on the top section of the rudder is much less straightfor- ward. I am still working-out the best way to execute this . . .
More to follow. . .
UPDATE 10.02.17. . . The quandary of the Imperial chrysanthemum is no more! And the solution was actually quite simple. After sleeping on it, and mulling it over for most of the day, I decided that the best option would be applying decals over paint, printers' ink to be precise. So I painted the top section of the rudder in pale gold (which most closely matched the Japanese gold leaf that I have), and printed the red foreground on clear decal paper. Application of the solution will be much more challenging than devising it!
I hope to begin decaling over the weekend. . .
UPDATE 13.02.17. . . Decaling of the port side (away from viewer) of the rudder is now done! Half way there!!
UPDATE 16.02.17. . . Decaling of the rudder is DONE!
“When the cost of a hobby exceeds the fun and doesn't attract new people, the game is over.” -
Oscar Koveleski, August 2003
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