Brandon I wish....lol, but this one has been a walk in the park compared to the Hasegawa Type 21 I built a few years ago. Other than the usual issues with the wing-fuselage joint, it was painless.
I then preshaded the panel lines with XF-1 Flat Black. I then sprayed the leading edge wing ID stripes with XF-3 Flat yellow enhanced with a touch of XF-7 Flat Red and taped these off. I also painted in the red "do not step" warning rectangles with XF-7 and taped these off with thin strips of Tamiya tape. Past experience showed this to be much easier than the flimsy decals for these.
Since I always have trouble with Japanese Hinomarus (the meatballs) decals setting properly, I thought I would try my hand at painting them in. I sprayed the general area with XF-7 then took out my trusty circle template. I used a fresh Exacto and carefully sliced out the appropriate sized circles in Tamiya tape, which was fastened to a piece of mirrored glass. I was surprised how easy this was. I need to find a metal template though for I don't know how well mine will hold up under many many Hinomarus...
My research showed that A6M3 models in the South Pacific (Rabaul and Bouganville, etc) were either all "olive green" or dark green over olive green, at least according to the "jaircaft" website (awesome by the way). I took olive green as the elusive "Amer-hiro" caramel-like color and painted the underside with XF-76 Grey Green thusly.
Then it got the usual menagerie of streaking and post shading. A bit of XF-1 Flat Black was added to the post shade solution for the exhaust streaks which wanted to stick out. I also lighted the fabric control surfaces by adding XF-2 Flat White to the XF-76.
These were Navy planes so for the upper surface I chose XF-61 IJN Dark Green. I wanted to simulate sun fading, so after I sprayed it straight, I added XF-57 Buff and lightened panels.
I then did my normal streaking effect and also faded out the control surfaces. I used the same technique on Boyington's Corsair which I was pleased with. Here we are after all the tape has been removed. It looks like the wings have been taking a beating from the sun. The cowl was painted XF-1 Flat black with XF-8 Flat Blue added to simulate Mitsubishi cowl color.
Now its time to address the Sakae 21. Hasegawa does a nice job on it, to include separate push rods, but it needs wiring. I used styrene rod and stereo wire for this.
First, everything was sprayed in Alclad Dark Aluminum. Using a picture as reference, I added the wire points with the rod styrene as seen here.
Next the (stereo) wires themselves were chopped, pre-shaped, then added to the points and run to the cylinder heads using instant superglue. Use "pointed" tweezers to make your life less miserable with this. Kidding aside, this goes quickly once you get the wire cut and bent to the right sizes(s).
The push rods were painted black and gear box in Neutral Grey. Once painted, do the following in this order:
1. Testors Gloss Coat (barrier for the wash)
2. Detailer wash
3. Testors Flat Coat
4. A blast of Tamiya Smoke (X-19) full strength for a used appearance.
Done
Thats a brief overview. For an in-depth step-by-step look at how I rig my radials, go here..
http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/2/t/149327.aspx?sort=ASC&pi240=1
Now if I could just decide on a particular subject. A6M3 decals are slim pickings and not very interesting. I can't justify buying a whole sheet for just tail markings. I may raid my two Tamiya kits in the stash...
Joe