Airfix 1/72 Mitsubishi Zero A6M2b-21 (from Dogfight Doubles)

[AlasdairGF]

And more... doing a lot more of this than I thought I'd be able to... to be fair, though, I brought some work home that has remained un-done!

Here's the result of the painting - thinned the Humbrol 90 down quite a lot and did three coats. In the end, The Boy got bored off after one coat, so I got to do the rest myself! Quite pleased with the result, hardly any visible brushstrokes and the panel lines still clear after 2 x primer and 3 x paint.

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The moment of truth...

...unmasking the canopy. Gulp.

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Not looking too bad! You have to get in really close to see the iffy bits...

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That's quite highly magnified, though, so I'm not that worried. Might fiddle around with a toothpick on some of the lines, but suspect this is the point when I should leave well alone... we'll see.

There's one tiny bit where the Hu85 "coal black" bled onto the fuselage from the cowling - by the fiddly bit around the gun barrels. Will do some judicious scraping and re-touching here.

Generally, though, am v pleased with how this is going.

Next, clear gloss varnish and decals...

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[AlasdairGF]

Oh, and have now added the prop assembly. And... you can see the Curtis P-40 Warhawk in the background that came in the same kit. Well, sort of, if you squint a bit.

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[flyjoe180]

Nice work Alisdair. Your masking turned out well mate. Your Kiwi in laws would be proud, nice recovery on the nose masking.

 

[AlasdairGF]

Managed a bit more this evening - had got a couple of coats of Humbrol Clear on in fits and starts over the past couple of days (with the plane hidden under an upside-down plastic mixing bowl to keep the dust off... The Loved One does give me some odd looks at times...). Left me free to sit down for a while this evening and throw some decals on.

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The plane is actually currently being held prop end up as I try to MicroSol some tiny decals onto the prop blade roots:

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Some of these decals are ridiculously small. Here's a magnified tail:

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Unfortunately, the smallest is just about hidden in the shadow of the stabilizer here, but the black one on the rudder wasn't exactly massive. Given the colour scheme, though, any missing decals are going to be pretty obvious. When I did the P-40B Warhawk, I ended up just not putting a bunch on because you couldn't see them against the dark brown body colour, not even with a magnifying glass.

So - nearly there. Don't have anything to matt the models with at the moment, any recommendations? Currently all looking far too glossy!

 

[AlasdairGF]

Yep, I've been loving this kit, Rick. The Typhoon glared at me from the shelf the other day, but I'm on a promise to not get any more models for a while. What will I do when this is done?! I'll be devastated! Perhaps you can put up some snaps of it when you're done?

 

[flyjoe180]

Lovely work Alasdair. As for a matt coat, be careful there. I did the old Airfix Zero A6M2 for Saburo Sakai and did research on the paint finish. The Mitsubishi factory applied overall paint was Gloss Grey Green, I-2 Tsuchi-iro (FS24201) for the metal parts. On fabric covered surfaces the colour was also a gloss paint, Gloss Grey Green J-3 Hai-iro (FS24424). I dulled mine slightly with a light spray of matt coat but left it with a satin finish which suited the scale look I think.

 

[eddiesolo]

Nicely done, looks great. The little fiddly bits are trim tabs IIRC. Great build from me, really enjoyed watching this come together.

Si

 

[AlasdairGF]

Decals done... but for some reason all photos this evening were really poor quality! Will do some weathering next - but not much...

The plane's markings are of one of the plane flown by "Lieutenant Saburo Shindo, Lead Aircraft of Carrier Division 1, Air Superiority Command, 2nd Strike Unit, carrier Akagi, Operation Al, Pearl Harbor, 7th December 1941" (direct from Airfix website). I have it in my head that the moment preserved by this model is shortly after the photo below was taken: With Saburo having climbed to cruising height, en route to Pearl Harbour as leader of a bomber escort in the second wave, tanks full, and no-one with any clue as to how the day would turn out.

I suspect that the planes of the IJN would have been in good nick that day, though they had been at sea for a couple of weeks no doubt doing drills etc, so the weathering will be limited to some light exhaust staining on the underside, some hints of staining from the gun ports and a slight wash or pinwash to bring out the panel detail and hint at some early grime buildup!

Anyway, this is the 'before' shot:

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Will take some better shots when I'm done. Is it the practice to post final shots elsewhere or in the build thread?

 

[Alan 45]

I always liked the zero and you done a great job on that

 

[stona]

Will take some better shots when I'm done. Is it the practice to post final shots elsewhere or in the build thread?

It's entirely up to you.

I usually post an "almost done" like yours (looking good BTW) or one snap shot of the finished model in the build thread and then do some decent shots, or at least the best I can manage, in a "completed" thread. You can always include a link back to the original build thread for anyone who might be interested to see how the model was built and went together. It's useful for someone contemplating a build of the same model to see how you got on with it.

Make sure you don't accidentally post in the competed section for group builds or Ian will tell you off!........

Cheers

Steve

 

[AlasdairGF]

So it's done! Photos in the Completed Aircraft forum. Thanks to everyone for comments and advice, it's been great doing this "in public". If there are any other newbies out there considering doing a build thread like this, I'd really encourage it, lots of fun and support from everyone.