Review Build Mike Builds a Zero - a 1:48 Eduard Zero, eventually

[Mike]

After reviewing this puppy here the other day, I thought I’d give it a go at actually completing a model for once.  It’s a nice-looking kit and I like the Zero, and I also like Eduard’s kits, especially their recent ones.

 

I started following the instructions (I know, weird eh?), and prepped the fuselage halves with the instruments and boxes, stripping off the moulded-in detail that’s replaced by the PE parts from the sheet to give it a bit more finesse. A lot of the PE is pre-painted so can’t be put on just yet, so I moved onto the rudder pedals, and here I made my first mistake.  If you glance at the instructions, you might think that you just have to remove the pedals by nipping them off.  That’s not the case, as I found out when I offered up the new PE pedals.  I’ll fix the damaged part later, but pinched another set of pedals from the other set of sprues, nipping off the front of the pedal then sanding and scraping the arms back and attaching the new pedals.  I’m also using the 3D Printed Brassin seat, which you can see here along with the resin wheels and the bronze gear legs.  That was work of a few seconds, and I attached the brackets to the frame, offering up the seat to ensure they were in the correct place.  The adjuster has the semi-circular track nipped off and replaced by PE, with the front face curved to match the sides.  After annealing it in a flame, I found it fitted one of my rolling “pins” perfectly and once that was done I secured it with a tiny amount of CA applied by blade.

 

The cockpit floor has an equipment box moulded into it, which has some of the detail removed and replaced by four T-shaped controls later.  They’re pre-painted too, so I drilled some 0.3mm locating holes in the top and left them off for now.  The clear panel in the floor fits well, and even includes two pieces of kabuki tape for each side.  GS-Hypo cement secured that in place, then I added the detail bits to the floor in the suggested order.  The same removal of the front detail was needed on the cockpit sides, and again on the instrument panel, then the guns were mounted onto that weird-shaped replica of the ammo feeds.  You can quite easily get those the wrong way round if you’re a nitwit, so take care.  They fit well one way, and while they’re setting up, align them so they’re both pointing in the same direction.

 

 

The fuselage halves have a little bay for the arrestor hook, which fits really well and can be glued into one half of the fuselage for painting before you close it up.  The same can be done with the landing gear bays, and these fit really nicely into the lower wing with a bit of care.  The inserts with the blisters fits incredibly well, with a bit of flash, and I mean a tiny fraction of a millimetre around the edge of the hole making the fit absolutely perfect.  I also made up the elevators with a very slight droop in the flying surfaces, then made up the two banks of pistons of the Sakae engine as separate sub-assemblies for painting, and possibly adding some wiring if I have time.

 

I was really looking forward to making up the cowling on that jig, and I wasn’t disappointed.  Each part was test-fitted just to be sure, but there was very little prep-work needed, just a bit of care with the application of the glue.  The finished cowling is superb, to say the least

 

I put all the resin/bronze components of the landing gear set through the sanding/chopping up process, and made up the drop-tank, which also fits together really neatly, but has a seam running through the filler cap depression.  I reamed that out a bit and punched out a 1.9mm circle of 0.1mm styrene sheet, putting it in with some CA so it didn’t melt, and using a pointy bit of Blutak to hold it steady during gluing.

 

It's all waiting to be primed now, which is the next task after cleaning my airbrush

 

Couldn’t resist doing a tape-up after all that fun with knives and glue:

 

 

 

I’ve got a bit of research to do on colours, but some of you chaps have already got a thread going on the subject, so I’ll ask any questions there rather than muddy this thread

[Bob C.]

I'm with ya, Mike.  Been working on Eduard 1/72 Fokker D VII and MPM/Toko/Pegasus H-B W.29 since end of last year (?).  I've had some setbacks lately, so what were going to be sure thing completions are in doubt.  If I don't get at least one done, I will tie your record (for not completing the Zero).

 

So I guess I should get back into the hobby room and get working.

Bob C

[k5054nz]

I'm eagerly awaiting the A6M3 Model(Type?) 22 boxing so I'm following this thread with great excitement.

[Mike]

I've just found a handy pic of the Zero's seat from another thread on here that's a bit more useful on the placement of the back end of the belts than their sheet.

 

 

That'll come in handy

[LorenSharp]

Mike actually getting a chance to build a model.... and at Christmas time no less, be still my beating heart! No wonder  the U.K got buried under snow. A certain warm place down below( and I don't mean Australia) must have finally froze over.

I am definitely in for following this build. Carry on, Mike, carry on don't mind me, I'm over here -------------> watching.

[Mike]

5 minutes ago, LorenSharp said:

the U.K got buried under snow.

I must have emigrated then, as there's none here 😭

[LorenSharp]

they were reporting all kinds of snow there recently. But news does travel rather slowly here. Just got word that Dewey lost to Truman in the election.

[Mike]

6 minutes ago, LorenSharp said:

they were reporting all kinds of snow there recently.

Top be fair to you, we did have a smattering here, and we usually miss out on most of it thanks to the Welsh mountains soaking it all up before it gets here.  Shame too, cos I like snow

[DonH]

This looks like great fun and I will enjoy watching from the back of the bar near the dart board.

 

Rudder pedals...hmmm.....are you going to see them when all is buttoned up? My guess is not.

[Mike]

7 hours ago, DonH said:

 

Rudder pedals...hmmm.....are you going to see them when all is buttoned up? My guess is not.

Probably not, but it’s all good fun, and taxing on my wobbly hands. I lost count of the number of times I juggled the parts during the process

[Bozothenutter]

"I have some research to do on the colours.."

 

Wel that's it then, not getting finished this year! 😉

[Mike]

I've been monkeying about trying to sort out the interior colour, as I don't have any suitable shades in the paint stash yet. I've picked a few shades, and will be trying to get hold of those before Christmas to prevent any hold-ups.  Meanwhile I've been applying some Aotake to the few areas that require it on this model.  The Gunze shade is quite bright, and I've also been putting some aluminium on the engine and other parts.

 

I decided that rather than ignore the slightly damaged rivets and raised panel lines on the drop-tank, I'd remove most of the raised detail and replace it with a combination of Archer rivet decals, and pre-curved stretched sprue of an appropriate diameter.  So far I've re-applied the raised lines, as I figured they'd be tougher than the rivet decals, and I could re-sand them off if it didn't work out.  I've just finished doing the two under the bottom, and they look OK from what I can see.  I've just given them a quick coat of primer, and one is a perfect thickness/height, while the other might need a little adjustment once the glue and paint is dry.  I'll try and post a few pics later on

[Mike]

I've been doing a little bit of modelling!

 

I'm still waiting for the paints from @JadlamRacingModels so I've been shuffling on with the rest that doesn't require much in the way of airframe specific paint colours, so that involved the engine.  I blatted a bit of Gunze silver at the block, and then covered it up with some of this new AMMO Acrylic Wash that I've had in for review for a while.  It's difficult to review a modelling product when you've not done any modelling though, so this has been my first chance Anyway, I sealed it with some gloss varnish, and tried to decide whether I could be bothered to put a wiring loom in there or not.  Just to make a rod for my own back I gave it a go, and about an hour later and after much swearing, I've got a rudimentary loom going on.  I used coated wire so I don't have to paint it later, and the front wires kind of go where they're intended, while I'd advise everyone not to look too hard at where the rear ones go. I figured that it's unlikely to be seen by anyone sane once it's in the cowling, so

 

That's the thing about taking macro photos of your work.  It makes them look SOOOOO rubbish! In 100% vision it doesn't look so bad, but when you blow it up that big, you can see it's inexpertly applied chunks of wire on a grubby bit of plastic.  I gauged the "actual size" version in the corner by eye according to my 24" screen, but YMMV

 

 

I've also been doing a bit of detail painting, but that's a bit limited without the cockpit and underside colour, so it's been mainly Aotake turquoise and silver undercoats for later (minor) chipping here and there.  Oh, and the drop tank has now been re-riveted and seamed to my satisfaction (almost), and just needs a light sand of one last bit of flatness before I can paint that too.

[jackroadkill]

On 18/12/2021 at 23:14, Mike said:

Top be fair to you, we did have a smattering here, and we usually miss out on most of it thanks to the Welsh mountains soaking it all up before it gets here.  Shame too, cos I like snow

 

As a denizen of said Welsh mountains, I'd be quite happy for you to have every flake of the damnable stuff that lands in my vicinity!

 

Good work with the engine; I must start doing some scratchbuilding like that myself.

[Mike]

16 minutes ago, jackroadkill said:

Good work with the engine; I must start doing some scratchbuilding like that myself.

Compared to proper scratch-building, that's child's play Bloody fiddly child's play though!

[Mike]

Another slivver of progress thanks to the RM not delivering my paints 😭 I got the Aotake in, and painted the various bottles around the cockpit, finishing off the details last night. 

 

 

I sincerely doubt that any of that work will be seen once the model is together, so it's going into the category called "I know it's there".

 

I'm currently performing a mixture of wondering what day it is, and painting up the black cowling and main gear legs, beginning with a very dark grey as a base from which to build on.  The cowling was presprayed with silver so I can do a tiny amount of scratching of the panels later, just to give it some semblance of wear.  I'm guessing the aircraft were in decent condition at the beginning of WWII, with none of the paint peeling problems of late war, but I'm guessing that there had been a little weathering thanks to the journey and the mechanics being a little clumsy.

[Mike]

Me blimmin' paint's gone and arrived!  Nine colours from the Tamiya range (for a change), all Japanese type shades, as I've realised I have quite a few kooky-looking prototypes, such as their Komet, 262-alike, Seiran and a few others.  I'm also hoping I've still got my Dinah squirrelled away somewhere.  A lovely looking bird that is available for viewing at IWM Cosford

 

[Mike]

Well.... it's officially next year, so my total for 2021 was

 

0

 

Go me! I didn't stop working on the Zero completely though, I just had another migraine, its hangover and an appointment at the hozzy this morning. I know! NYD! I wouldn't have believed it myself if I hadn't had the letter.  A very spooky quiet hospital, but some very nice staff giving up their NYD to sort me out - plus some wages of course

 

The cockpit isn't far off done, just needs a coat of gloss and a light wash.  I'm too tired to do that today, so that's for another session.  I think it'll be ok

[March]

Ooooh, same total as me! I’m hoping to improve on that score by at least 1 this year…

[Mike]

16 hours ago, March said:

Ooooh, same total as me! I’m hoping to improve on that score by at least 1 this year…

I dares ya!

[Mike]

I managed to finish off the cockpit last session, which is mostly OOB, but for the instrument panels, which I swapped out for the 3D printed SPACE alternatives that I'd got on hand and wanted to have a go with.  I really like them, so that's my endorsement!

 

I'm not 100% I've got the interior colour right, but I'm past caring now.  It looks OK to me, and I imparted a little extra brownish tint with some filters before I finished it off.  I scraped off a bit of paint here and there to expose the silver undercoat, to give it a used but not worn-out look, as befits an aircraft from the early war period that had been at sea for a few weeks training.  Here's a splodge of pics:

 

 

The cockpit and wings have been glued together into separate assemblies too, and the insert over the guns goes in perfectly.  Eduard's plastic engineering really is up there with the best these days I'll leave the glue to set up a bit longer then deal with the seams, which shouldn't be much work because they're almost invisible already, which is nice.  Once the wings and fuselage are together, it's paint and landing gear that are left.  There's a grave danger of me finishing a model

[Mike]

I'm half way through dealing with the seams on the fuselage, and have painted the fuselage inside the canopy in a few shades of black/grey, overcoating it with some clear gloss to toughen it up for masking later.  The cockpit interior just slides into the fuselage from below, and fits neatly in place.    Looking at the pic below, I'm going to guess that we'll be able to see the Aotake section at the rear of the wings, so that bit of work might well have been worth it

 

 

I've not painted the sills, as I'll do those by hand later, adding a bit of scuffing where the pilot gets in & out, exposing the fuselage colour below.  That's the theory anyway

[k5054nz]

As a potential customer for the A6M3 I'm glad to see you're back into it, Mike - looking good!

[Mike]

I've managed to get most of the assemblies ready to be primed, and have masked up the canopy using a Tface mask for the inside and out for the first time.  It was a pretty easy task if I'm honest, but in hindsight I'd do the outer surface first to obtain better alignment with the inside where the frames are usually much less defined.  lesson learned I sprayed some black on the inside, waited for it to gas off and then removed the inner masks because it would be a helluva job after glueing them in.  In an unusual case of my memory working, I had already painted up the gunsight, but forgot to add the little backup ring sight, so there's ups and downs.  I also put the DF loop in the back, leaving it overnight so the super glue didn't fog the glazing, then fitted the windscreen and rear canopy with GS-Hypo cement, which is a watch crystal cement, and doesn't eat into the plastic or risk clouding it.  I'm going to pose it with the canopy open, so I'm using the closed canopy section as a mask, which is why it's not masked up and has a big X drawn on the inside so I don't mistake it for something useful.  I'll tack that on with some more GS-Hypo before I start spraying primer around.  The Tface masks also include wingtip light masks, so I popped those on too, and just like all the rest they fitted perfectly.

 

 

The engine, prop and drop-tank are all ready to go, and I'm going to prepare the landing gear next.  There's a dwindling number of parts left to add to the model.

[Serkan Sen]

The cockpit and instrument panel details and painting looks awesome Mike. I will follow with great interest (although not my era)...

Serkan