Japanese WW2 fighter at Legends this year?

Thanks very much guys! For the foreseeable future I have a few more single-engine J-birds on the menu and I also hope to finish my Corsair this year.

As for the Tojo, the Maru Mechanic drawings were indeed the best I could find, though while working on my model I deviated from them a few times were I believed necessary. Nothing too major luckily. The Ki-27 was more challenging. Again I started off with the Maru Mechanic drawings, but they had a serious flaw with the forward fuselage (which is straight, not curved, in top view). While just about all other drawings did not have this curvature error, they have the forward fuselage too narrow which in turn distorts the entire cowling (too much bulding/pinching effect). The Maru drawings also showed the droptanks incorrectly (they’re aligned vertically, not perpendicular to the dihedral as per drawings), amongst other things. I got there in the end though.

Btw, here are the RC Tojo videos I am referring to: http://www.youtube.com/user/tojoflier

That RC Tojo is indeed pretty impressive!
I do wonder what drawings he uses. When I built my 3D model I quickly discovered that no set of drawings I found was accurate – not even factory drawings. It was as much as a 3D reconstruction as it was 3D modelling.

Hi Ronnie,

I think you may be referring to the Ki-44 build by Scott Schroeder. A full thread on the build of this very complex model can be found on the RC Scale Builder web site at the link below. You will have to register with the site to view it however. As I recall Scott eventually settled on the drawings found in the Maru Mechanic series of books, not sure of the artist’s name. The model is complete but, so far as I am aware, has not flown yet.

http://www.rcscalebuilder.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=6521&PN=2&TPN=1

i can vouch for ronnies ki27,

when you lot finally see it you will be gobsmacked, it’s fantastic:D

by the way ronnie the ki44 is one of my favorite jap single engined aircraft.

when you doing a twin engined steve?
don’t dare tell me to do it, i have enough on already with my seahawk, boomerang and the long term dove/devon drawings:o

Bah humbug, fantastic stuff as always 😀

What’s next on the cards?

Hi Ronnie,

Gareth Hector: We are in agreement! I was astonished by his Typhoon attack piece a year or two ago. I’ll have a look at John Wallin’s work.

I think that you’ve raised your own bar with the Ki-27, and the oil staining on the Ki-44 shows great attention to detail. I’ve noticed on oily fuselages how the staining is often irregular and narrow, especially if an oil leak emanates from a particular place and runs down a channel in the fuselage. The addition of ground debris, general staining, and paint chips can also add to the realism. The Shuttleworth Spitfire Vc was a marvelous example of the ‘weathered’ look before it was pulled for a rebuild. Charles E Brown took some great images of weathered aircraft during WWII. There is a particular Sea Hurricane colour photo that sticks in my mind to illustrate this point.

Thanks for giving us thoughts on your work, Ronnie. we will continue to follow your artistry with interest.

Thanks very much!

What is raising the realism of your work? The increase in computing power, or how you learn how to harness PC power to ever greater effect? Or is it a bit of both?

Computer power would help making it less frustrating, but fact is I am working on a seven(!) year old single-core dual processor machine. It’s just about coping… 🙁

Naturally I learn new stuff as I go along, which helps, but the main difference between models I make now and models I made a few years ago is simply the amount of time I’ve invested in them. The Ki-44 took four times as long as my Mustang from 2004 and still more than twice as long as the TSR2 from 2010.

The next step of improvement for me would be to optimise this detail (i.e. only put there it where it’s appreciated), be slightly less obsessive about accuracy (if you were to measure the Ki-27 model I’m working on now you’d find the gap between the aileron and wingtip to be precisely 8mm as per construction drawings…) and once I buy a new PC I shouldn’t have to wait half a minute for my viewport to refresh every time I spin the model around! :rolleyes: But more importantly I need to focus more on the artistic side of things again, before I become a rivet counter rather than an artist.

Mind you, realism isn’t a goal per-sé! It’s “art” after all. But it’s fun bringing “dead” planes to life. And for the Ki-44 and Ki-27 I also generated scale drawings from the 3D models, which I want to be as accurate and detailed as possible. Because if anything is frustrating for 3D modelling, it’s inaccurate “scale” drawings. I’d say that more than 99% of scale aircraft drawings is not accurate (enough) and this drives me slightly nuts…

Which other artists that employ your medium do you admire most? I do have someone in mind, let’s see if we are in agreement…

Gareth Hector without a doubt and ironically because he also masters just about any other technique, being it 2D digital, oils, acrylic… Incidentally he also illustrates Osprey books, so you’ve no doubt seen his work.

Another awesome digital aviation artist is John Wallin, though he doesn’t use 3D software, but paints in Photoshop. John also demonstrated to be equally skilled at oils, though he simply prefers working digitally. I can’t blame him, it’s far less mess! 🙂

As for skilled 3D modellers, there are plenty! Just check out some of the work being done here: http://www.military-meshes.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=4:
Some truly insane stuff going on there, check any of the Mi-24, AH-1Z, F-14, SR-71A, Phantom, etc, etc…

No worries, it’s there, very small in front of the horizontal stabliser: JA4411! 😉

Truly a Master Craftsman! Astounding work, once again, Ronnie. A couple of questions, if I may…

What is raising the realism of your work? The increase in computing power, or how you learn how to harness PC power to ever greater effect? Or is it a bit of both?

Which other artists that employ your medium do you admire most? I do have someone in mind, let’s see if we are in agreement…

Thanks a lot guys!

The Ki-27 I’m currently working on has even more detail (the engine and landing gear for starters), but the Ki-44 was definitely a step forwards in terms of detail compared to my previous 3D projects. This allowed me to come up with something approaching photorealism.

Someone is currently building a very relistic remote control Ki-44

That RC Tojo is indeed pretty impressive!
I do wonder what drawings he uses. When I built my 3D model I quickly discovered that no set of drawings I found was accurate – not even factory drawings. It was as much as a 3D reconstruction as it was 3D modelling.

Next time, don’t forget to add Japanese civil registration…I believe they’re fairly strict about that sort of thing.

No worries, it’s there, very small in front of the horizontal stabliser: JA4411! 😉

Next time, don’t forget to add Japanese civil registration…I believe they’re fairly strict about that sort of thing.

I must admit I didn’t believe the ‘story’, but I’m in as much disbelief about Ronnies’ creation, it is absolutely incredible and I can’t quite get my head around the fact that it is artwork/computor generated creation.

Someone is currently building a very relistic remote control Ki-44, some of the detail workings are on youtube.

Over the years I’ve learned to take Ronnie’s threads as an opportunity to marvel at his astounding skills with computer drawing programmes…and less of a news source 😉 Stunning work, Ronnie, that Ki.44 had me fooled. Awesome detail.

Boomerang ??

Looks like a rear end stretched Boomerang to me.

Bill T. 😉

Have a look at some of Ronnie’s artwork, he does very impressive 3D models: http://digitalaviationart.com/skyraider3d/index.htm. That might answer your question 😉

So what is that a picture of then?

I think shigatsu baka is japanese for April fool’s,shame though because a Tojo would be awesome,great work

Shigatsu baka!!

It looks genuine due to the anteni on top of the vertical stabilizer which most RC models dont have. if it indeed fake then thats my day ruined 🙁

Fake….looks just too perfect! And those control surface deflections would indicate they’re not taking it easy with it!

If it is indeed flying and going on a small tour of europe it would be great to see it in a tailchase with TFC’s P-40B.

Hum, hum… fake :dev2: !