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Airfix 1/72 Zero


Si2

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Just started this little kit straight after the Kate.

Spent today adding a few extra parts to the cockpit. Thinned and drilled the seat, added two yellow handwheels, some levers, some boxes on the fuse side and a bit of pipe on the floor. I have no idea what they are but they were in my reference picture 😀.

Adding the seatbelt tomorrow. spacer.pngspacer.pngspacer.pngspacer.png

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Aha, yes, I've seen that build, it's great. Interesting to see the dials on the left hand 'armrest' area. The Airfix instructions show these, but there isn't a decal. I've had to try to paint them on. I am looking at doing one of the planes on the Techmod 72059 sheet, I really like the grey green colour. I really understand what Navybird means when he says you spend hours trying to work out what shade of paint to use :) I only use acrylics, so it's tough to work out a good colour match for the Mitsubishi light grey/green colour. I'm hoping by the time I have built the airframe I will have made a decision and ordered some paint.

 

Edited by Si2
missed a number
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Wow, I've already been relegated to page 2, you guys are a hard working bunch.

Yesterdays progress consisted mostly of scraping plastic to clean up the parts.

I made up a few sub assemblies and I spent a good few hours pondering the main colour and what else to put in the cockpit, and whether to have an open cockpit or not and how to do that.

Typical IJN plane stuff.

Here is my progress shots.

1 - I scraped the wheel well covers down to get the step on the outer ege and also to thin the visible edges. The parts ended up very delicate so I cleaned up the wheels and stuck the whole subassy together, now it's all rigid and ok. Need to add the hydraulic pipe later. The parts on the blutak show one modded and one not.

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I cleaned up the cowl as there were steps where the slide section didn't align properly and some of the panel lines were missing.

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I stuck the engine together and painted it black for an undercoat. I cut the wing tips off so I can add a bit of interest and fold them up, which probably means I should have the cockpit closed as the aircraft would probably be stowed with the tips up, not waiting for the pilot to get in.

I scraped the big annular rings from the drop tank and I pondered cutting the control surfaces off so I can move them. But I only got as far as dragging a number 11 blade through tem a few times. My black plastic cement did a good job of highlighting them.

 

This is my pile of bits going in to this evenings session...

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The fact that Im missing a few bits from the cockpit side walls is bugging me... but I need to move on.

 

Edited by Si2
bad spulling
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On 23/07/2020 at 08:15, Si2 said:

I really like the grey green colour.

Hi @Si2,

 

This is a great build so far, and I'm looking forward to seeing it progress.

 

Apologies if I'm telling you what you already know (which I expect I am!), but Tamiya do an IJN Grey-Green acrylic, the rattle can reference is AS-29. Don't be put off by the colour of the cap, which is darker and much more blue-green than the actual shade.

 

Kind regards,

 

Mark

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I'm down on page 3 today, maybe I need to post more than daily :)

Day three on the Zero was spent adding a few more details while I wait for the paint to arrive.

Firstly I drilled out the exhausts. I later thinned the side walls too.

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I worked on the cockpit some more, adding that left hand lever thingy that I was miffed wasn;t there in the kitt, and what looks like a chain drive sprocket to the side wall.

I also added the seatbelts made from some tin foil and made a better job of painting the instrument on the side wall.

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By this time I was happy enough with the cockpit to stick the fuse together.

 

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I also stuck the wing surfaces togetherand painted the engine.

 

Then I looked at the landing gear and added some brake lines made from wire.

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Then stuck the fuse to the wings and added tail planes. I cut the elevators so they would droop nicely but I left the trim tabs fixed.

I sprayed the cowl as an undercoat in satin black.

And this is how it looks now.

 

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I need to sort out the wing ends where the tips leave the internal structure exposed and then add the tips.

I will leave all the landing gear off until I'm done.

 

Day 4 will be mostly spent at the allotment :)

Hopefully my paints will turn up on Monday and I can start to get that main colour on.

I have ordered a selection of greens and greys from Vallejo, although I am now tempted by this Tamiay AS-29 spray :)

 

 

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Johnv, many thanks for the reply and the pictures of a stunning build, is that an Airfix kit? The finish is stunning.

With my brush painting I'm unlikely to reach that standard, but it is wondeful to see.

 

I have discovered with IJN planes it can take longer to decide on a colour than to build the model.

I'm colour blind and pretty lazy, so I'll just have to take a punt at something that looks OK and go for it.

 

It's fantastic to read so much research is going on to determine what the colours were. It's very heart warming to see that people feel so strongly about getting it right.

 

Si2

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I spent yesterday on the main colours. Firstly sanded the aircraft with some 2500 paper to remove the finger prints, cement spillage etc. Then filled the cockpit with tissue and sprayed the whole airframe with Halford Satin Black.

Then moved on to the main colour.

I use a big brush, Vallejo Air colour and lots of coats.

This is after four coats. I tend to go very thin on the paint and sort of dry brush it on.

I have ordered a Chinese cheapo airbrush to see if that makes things easier. I have a big compressor and tank already.

I've spent ages looking at pictures of the wheel wells, the folding tip detail and the nav lights.

These little details will be a challenge to get lookinig good.

With regards the wheel wells, I have come to the conclusion that Mitsubishi planes were body cooloured in the well rather than the transparent green/blue anti corrosion coating.

I am happy to be corrected on that though :)

The lights look either transparent or painted depending on the aircraft. I heard rumours that the starboard side is blue and uses a yellow buld to get green?

The folding tips are an area that has a ton of detail to be added, I will make a semblance of it.

The exposed section always seem to be coated in the blue/green stuff though.

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I've no idea if the paint colour is suitable, I'm so colourblind I have to read the pots.

The missus says it's a good match to the pictures I have :)

 

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All Mitsubishi A6M2 Zeros were the fuselage color in the wheel wells and inside

of the gear doors. Nakijima A6M2 Zeros were "the blue bamboo color" a metalic

greenish blue protective coating used on aluminum, similar to our zinc chromate

green.---John

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On 31/07/2020 at 03:40, Johnv said:

All Mitsubishi A6M2 Zeros were the fuselage color in the wheel wells and inside

of the gear doors. Nakijima A6M2 Zeros were "the blue bamboo color" a metalic

greenish blue protective coating used on aluminum, similar to our zinc chromate

green.---John

Thanks John, that;s good info.

What about the area insdie the wing at the tip fold area?

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Well I finally finished this kit off. It was a trial, I got very down on the finish, the decals were a real headache for me. I messed them up a lot and struggled. Anyhow, I just couldn't really get my mind around finishing.

SO I took a deep breath and just went for it.

I bought a cheap airbrush from ebay and used this as an excuse to try out the brush.

I did very little weathering on this kit because I liked the colour and I thought it just looked ok quite nice and neat.

Not much more to add in the way of WIP, just fitted everything, sprayed, added a few streaks of black weathering powder and gave a satin coat final seal.

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