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Zero Floatplane; A big Rufe Rufe! Finished; well almost.


georgeusa

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Looking good so far and that float is damn good. Looks like the airbrush is doing it's thing without any problems unlike mine yesterday. I know, I should have cleaned it before use and I always bang on about it, shame on me. :fraidnot:

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George,

Nice work on the trolley.

Ground equipment tends to

be used & abused & unloved

so wear & tear is always evident.

I'd add more weathering to the float,

But that's just me.

(BTW Aluminium doesn't rust. Don't tell the others)

Didn't this one have fixed wingtips?

regards

Pete

Oops. Going to have to look into that aluminum thing. Rats! The kit comes with folded wing tips. I just haven't permanently fixed them yet. It is on my list of things to do.

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As did the Arri P-40.......................................but lets not get into the "Mauve" Zeros debate again its sooooo1970s. LOL :chair::fool::fool::fool:

I think Pete knows I have no problem with building a very pink aircraft! Remember the F-22!

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Decal and trolley update. The airframe was given a coat of Future. Also, the front cowl was given its coat of black paint. Then the decaling was done. An in progress picture . . .

decal1.jpg

And the finished goods . . .

decal2.jpg

decal3.jpg

Given the decaling done on the IdolM@ster build I did the day before I did this kit, it was a breeze. In fact, it just seemed too easy to do. The decals, though thick, are responding quite well to the Micro Sol and they look pretty good. Sometimes it is so hit or miss with Trumpeter decals. I also applied the decals on the trolley and it is now officially finished.

finishtrolley2-1.jpg

finishtrolley1-1.jpg

After looking at the pictures, I added some more weathering to the inside portions of the frame and they now match the outer frame condition. Next up, weathering this little puppy. As always, all comments are welcome.

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I understand the red on the float. It's not rust, of course. It's the terra cotta colored primer showing through from underneath. (This is the source of the Myth of the Mauve Rufe.) However, on some Japanese seaplanes there was an intermediate coat of khaki-brown just above the terra cotta primer. See the wings of the Nakajima-built Zero at the Imperial War Museum. It does not usually show in great quantity, unless there has been very long term erosion of the finish.

And you may want to bear this in mind about weathering floats and flying boat hulls: The part that takes the most violence is the planing surface underneath that strikes the water on takeoffs and landings. (Besides the impact of landing, the water rushing over the paint at 90+ mph creates a vacuum. It is enough to rip off hatches and bomb bay doors when an airplane ditches.)

Still, the Japanese did not want bare aluminum airplane parts to live in salt water for very long. If your plane is on a trolley, it means the maintenance men could get it out of the water to attend to that.

You've improved the trolley a good deal. You're moving right along. Good work.

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Tom,

I appreciate you giving me a wonderful rationalization for the redness on the main float. (Even though I put it there to represent rust. Sshhhhh. Don't tell anyone.) I have not yet finished beating up the bottom of the main float as it will be very much the worse for wear with paint chips and dings. Thank you for all the help you have given in this build so far. it really has been appreciated.

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Colour me very impressed.

Speaking of colour,

Brown propeller blades?

The kit instructions call for silver propeller blades with a silver spinner. I'm not real sure about that one. That said, a cursory internet search has shown a lot of kits done with a silver spinner and propeller blades. The propeller blade colour facing the cockpit is black however.

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For the prop, have a look at the brand new Rufe float planes on deck of seaplane tender Kamikawa Maru in the photo on (is it page 1?) of this thread. Those are some months before your dark green plane, George. Circa July-September 1942. Those should all have the short propeller spinner. On a dark green plane, the chances are somewhat better that it would have the longer spinner (although not necessarily so, as seen at bottom of page 77 of FAW 6). Either way, the spinner will generally be bare aluminum or coated in clear lacquer or silver paint. So will the forward surfaces of the blades. Anti-glare on the back of the blades would be good in matt dark gray. No chance of black after all that UV damage and other wear and tear. (Note that the cowlings of those brand new planes on deck are not pitch black. Think in terms of dark grays for the cowlings of new planes.) Will your plane have a matching dark green cowl?

You are right to think of red mahogany-coloured paint for the prop and spinner for some 1944-45 Japanese navy planes, but probably not for Rufe, which went out of production at about the point the mahogany ones started to be fitted to some Nakajima-built Zekes, etc.

If you prefer a main float with very unhappy paint, there is some photographic evidence for it. Luckily for you, it happens to be a photo of a plane to which unit you have ascribed the trolley, Number 802 Kuu. (Those stencils on the uprights name the unit. Those scale maintenance men were quite ambitious to spell "zero" using the kanji 零!)

Edited by Tom Hall
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Last update; finished; well almost. The finishing touches for this plane were done. The main float bottom was weathered some more.

weatherbottomfloat.jpg

While I was at it, I weathered the bottom side of the main float some more with some algae stains and salt water stains. Next, I moved on to the flaps. The wing flap innards were given a base coat of paint.

paintflaps1.jpg

And then the fabric tail surfaces were lightened from the rest of the grey.

paintflaps2.jpg

The fabric surfaces of the wing flaps were also lightened.

paintflaps3.jpg

In the above picture you can see some of the weathering that was done to the base paint on the wing flap innards. And I made the oil cooler intake out of a straw and some very thin plastic card stock.

oilcoolerintake.jpg

I still need to trim a bit more of the card stock inserts, and then this will slide into the hole in the main float. That is after I drill it out! Speaking of drilling out, the wing tip navigation lights were drilled out and then the appropriate colors inserted into the clear portion.

idlights.jpg

Then all of the floats were attached; the wing tips were permanently put in place; the propeller installed, the canopy pieces were weathered and installed; the machine guns painted; and the ladder installed. Most of the weathering was finished also. And here is what it looks like.

finishpreview1.jpg

finishpreview2.jpg

finishpreview3.jpg

finishpreview4.jpg

finishpreview5.jpg

finishpreview6.jpg

finishpreview7.jpg

finishpreview8.jpg

finishpreview9.jpg

finishpreview10.jpg

finishpreview11.jpg

All I need to do is add some exhaust stains, gun blowback stains, the i.d. lights and the radio antenna and this beast will be completely finished. Oops, I also have to install the oil cooler intake, almost forgot that. And looking at the pictures, I think on the wing floats some sort of darkening weathering must take place. So will do some finish weather. Once all that is done, I will do a proper RFI. As always, all comments are welcome.

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Looks great George,

The weathering is spot on and although I`m not a big fan of Japanese aircraft I do like the Rufe and I love the scheme with the camouflage and silver/grey fin. I have an old 48th scale Tamiya kit which I might do in a similar scheme having seen yours,

Cheers

Tony

Edited by tonyot
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Tony,

Thanks for the complements on the build. It is not close to your skill level, but I am still learning even at my ancient age. As soon as I get through my shelf of doom builds, I am definitely going to tackle a bomber command build thanks to the numerous ones you have just recently done. Out of all the kits in the stash (and there are far too many), the front runners are the Tamiya 1/48 Lancaster, the Revell 1/48 Ventura and, I know this is an odd one, the 1/72 Frog Armstrong Whitworth Whitley Mk. V. The other option is to do the 1/72 Sunderland by Italeri and Airfix side by side. I have all of the White Ensign AM sets for the Airfix.

I hope you are feeling well and getting about without problems. I look forward to your next build!

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Tony,

Thanks for the complements on the build. It is not close to your skill level, but I am still learning even at my ancient age. As soon as I get through my shelf of doom builds, I am definitely going to tackle a bomber command build thanks to the numerous ones you have just recently done. Out of all the kits in the stash (and there are far too many), the front runners are the Tamiya 1/48 Lancaster, the Revell 1/48 Ventura and, I know this is an odd one, the 1/72 Frog Armstrong Whitworth Whitley Mk. V. The other option is to do the 1/72 Sunderland by Italeri and Airfix side by side. I have all of the White Ensign AM sets for the Airfix.

I hope you are feeling well and getting about without problems. I look forward to your next build!

You haven`t seen my models up close!,......Either of those combo`s would be great and I`ll look forward to them,...although the old Airfix Sunderland might be worth leaving in the box? My latest build is half way down the page below yours here,........another Ventura,......but with little interest showing!

Cheers

Tony

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