Eric, that's fantastic!!! I just watched 'The Eternal Zero' last week and was thinking about trying to build the adapted grandpa (sorry I can't remember his name) in Miyabe's Type 51 at the end where the engine blew out and he was forced to return to base sitting there looking at the photo of Miyabe's family and letter with oil spewed all over the windscreen. 

Very cool you used the old kit, I was looking at Hasegawa's kits produced with the movie logo on them, I'm not sure if they have the right bomb or not- I'll have to check this out. 

Again, super cool- thanks for sharing with us here - sorry I can't follow every GB. 

Fascinating story and very valuable tutorial on this excellent model.  TY for taking the time to explain it all.

Wonderful weathering, very convincing build. Super nice work.

BK

Love the results you got there!

Mike

Amazing story, amazing completion, amazing builder!

Toshi

There's a site in Japan - http://www.1999.co.jp - that normally carries instructions for kits for you to see in detail, even things long out of print. They have the Hasegawa "Eternal Zero" and it shows no bomb. Squadron and a number of other places still sell the resin bombs - not easy for me, but far better than nothing. (And cheap.) eBay has them too. The bombs are not made for a particular kit, so if you haven't bought it, I'd strongly recommend the new Tamiya A6M5 "Zeke" - that series has gotten excellent reviews and the one I have looks fantastic - much better than my Hasegawa. I'd guess price would be the same.

Thanks for kind words.

Eric

Been told by a guru at Aeroscale that Kamikazes lacked aerials and antennas. I thought that was the case, but couldn't find verification that was clear to me. I did know that the radio and guns were removed to help carry the weight of the bomb. Anyway, the aerial was out of scale and the angle wasn't quite right (EZ line - fine when I glued it but it pulled back as it fully dried.) Anymore sins I will leave for St. Peter.

There's also a detail pic of the wings that shows the pigment fading technique used. Much more visible in person - I'll use that technique again.

Thanks for information there Eric, should be easy enough to use the Tamiya kit since I'd only have to rig up the right tail insignia and I've got plenty of IJN decals in the stash. Much more sensible than paying extra for the Hasegawa kit just because it's the 'official 'Eternal Zero" kit. I probably have a bomb in the spares box but I'll give the resin aftermarket ones a look if I don't. 

Now I'm wondering if the Tamiya 1/32nd kit might work better since the figure would be bigger and easier to see and work with. 

I didn't know about the radios and guns being removed but it makes perfect sense in this situation. 

That is awesome worn  and chipped effect.  I have used the hairspray method with acrylics in the past and produces a very realistic look but this product takes out the guessing work about the hairspray brand and appears to give more control.

Will that product work at chipping an enamel top coat?

That's really nice. Chipping effect looks spot on.

Jay Jay

Fascinating story and very valuable tutorial on this excellent model. TY for taking the time to explain it all.

My words exactly! Well done, sir!

I don't have a clue whether Worn Effects would work with enamel - it is an acrylic product. Check YouTube maybe - there are a lot of segments on "hairspray technique" - and regular hairspray does work. Should note that while the product did what was asked, it did so after drying considerably longer than recommended. More to the point, most hairspray style weathering is done with a tooth brush or paint brush by wearing down the top coat. What I did took much longer. There are hundreds of microchips there applied, in essence, with a pinhead - the medium sized blotches are a collection of micro chips. I only used a tooth brush under the canopy. So it took a while.

Eric

I have a couple of Hasegawa Zeros and they're not much better than the ancient Tamiya that I built. The new Tamiya Zeros have come out in the last five years and are real gems. There is an A6M3 and A6M5 in 1/48 and an A6M2 and A6M5 in 1/32 (which came out earlier - about 2000). You can tell the old ones from the new ones by the price - the old 1/48s are about $15 and the new ones $40. The new 1/32s are above $100 - although the Zeros, being first, are lesser in cost. All of the new generation of 1/32s from Tamiya - (P-51, Spitfire, Corsair and Mosquito) have received crazy-good reviews. Doog just did the Corsair and said it was the best kit he'd seen. Space would keep me from going to 1/32 (a good scale for WWI). And I've probably got 30 1/48 fighters and several 1/72 four-engined planes - very good kits all. 

Not that Hasegawa doesn't make good kits. They better - next up is the Revell Germany rebox of the Hasegawa Spit IX/XVI.

Eric

EBergerud

I don't have a clue whether Worn Effects would work with enamel - it is an acrylic product. Check YouTube maybe - there are a lot of segments on "hairspray technique" - and regular hairspray does work. Should note that while the product did what was asked, it did so after drying considerably longer than recommended. More to the point, most hairspray style weathering is done with a tooth brush or paint brush by wearing down the top coat. What I did took much longer. There are hundreds of microchips there applied, in essence, with a pinhead - the medium sized blotches are a collection of micro chips. I only used a tooth brush under the canopy. So it took a while.

Eric

 

There's a video of Mig using the chipping fluid with Humbrol enamel over it, so it will work apparently.

The worn effects is just watered down chipping medium. It's the same stuff, less concentrated. So, it too should work.

The stuff is also pretty much hairspray without fragrance and some of the other things not needed for the modeling application. Which is why it works so similiarly.

Also, the chipping and worn effects aren't really acrylic. Acrlyic is a paint term (which doesn't mean waterbased contraty to myth) and they aren't paint.

I don't want to argue the fine points of chemistry, but I think "acrylic" can be used to refer to anything containing acrylic acid - a colorless liquid that will mix with a number of other liquids including water. Your paint is pigment suspended in an acrylic polymer agent. According to Golden, the oldest and one of the best producers of acrylic paints for artists (which work great on styrene if you figure out the correct mediums) their paints will mix with water, if you want to keep and oil or enamel like finish the emulsion cannot have too much water in it or the coherence of the paint will break down (exactly what you'd want if you wanted to emulate water colors). Hence items like airbrush mediums. Vallejo Model Color "Thinner Medium" is the same stuff - white in color but much thinner than its paint. Perhaps there is no water in either the polymer or the thinning mediums, but I wouldn't bet my house on it. A true acrylic is definitely water soluable. It is also non-toxic and unflammable. This is why many model paint gurus claim that both Tamiya and Gunze paints should be considered lacquers because they are both poisonous and flammable. If the solvents used in Tamiya are mixable with acrylic polymer they could be technically acrylics - as named. They do, however, act radically differently and best results are absolutely for sure certainly and postively gained by using Tamiya or Gunze lacquer thinners. The solvent based paints have some major advantages when airbrushing - they lay down nicely under any circumstances but really shine when thinned well over 50/50 and used for very low psi light coat painting.

AK describes Worn Effects as an "acrylic fluid" - no doubt to distinguish it from a solvent based product which most of their weathering products are. It takes little of the stuff to gain the desired effect and it is more consistent in effect than standard hairspray - I think it's worth the extra couple of dollars, but hairspray still works. (I wonder how well hairspray would have chipped if it had been left to dry for two days - AKs brew worked very nicely indeed - better for my purposes where paint coming off slowly was of great aid for micro chipping.

BTW: Golden has a new range of paints out called "High Flow" acrylics. They're a little like comparing Vallejo Model Color (quite close to Golden Fluid Acrylics) with Vallejo Model Air (close to Golden High Flow). But the Golden High Flow paints work like a charm on styrene - one of the best paints I've ever used. If I didn't have over 100 bottles of Vallejo I'd switch. And one thing - any acrylic polymer paint like Vallejo or Golden works far better for brush painting than does Tamiya or Gunze.

Eric

I experimented with the cheap hairspray I use for chipping acrylics with MM enamel paint and it works too. The only difference is that the water will not breach the topcoat as when using acrylics, which let's the water dissolve the hairspray for the effect. I sprayed the hairspray and dried it with a hair drier them shot some MM enamel. Waited about 10 minutes for it to dry with the help of the hair drier. I had to use a toothpick to scratch the paint so that the water could dissolve the hairspray otherwise it would not work. With acrylic paint is different as only moderate to light force with a brush is needed for the chipping effect.

EBergerud

I have a couple of Hasegawa Zeros and they're not much better than the ancient Tamiya that I built. The new Tamiya Zeros have come out in the last five years and are real gems. There is an A6M3 and A6M5 in 1/48 and an A6M2 and A6M5 in 1/32 (which came out earlier - about 2000). You can tell the old ones from the new ones by the price - the old 1/48s are about $15 and the new ones $40. The new 1/32s are above $100 - although the Zeros, being first, are lesser in cost. All of the new generation of 1/32s from Tamiya - (P-51, Spitfire, Corsair and Mosquito) have received crazy-good reviews. Doog just did the Corsair and said it was the best kit he'd seen. Space would keep me from going to 1/32 (a good scale for WWI). And I've probably got 30 1/48 fighters and several 1/72 four-engined planes - very good kits all. 

Not that Hasegawa doesn't make good kits. They better - next up is the Revell Germany rebox of the Hasegawa Spit IX/XVI.

Eric

 

Hey Eric, big thanks! I've been looking at HobbyLink Japan and their prices even with shipping are better than most everyone over here.

PJ: Good luck with that, seems like you're getting it figured out. I've used hairspray for awhile now but don't have any experience with enamels.

Guys, if you are interested in the Kamikaze, look up a book titled Dangers Hour, by Kennedy.  In it, the author was able to identify one of the 2 Kamikaze who hit the U.S.S. Bunker Hill and took her out of the war.  Very interesting and a little scary to think how easy it was to recruit the Kamikaze, and how easy it would be to use the same techniques today.  Awesome model work there, and thanks for the write up as well.

John

wow, thats some incredible chipping!!

Great looking Rei-sen!

Fantastic chipping job! Looks very real. Congratulations!

I just stumbled on this photo that shows the replica of the "Eternal Zero" built for the ground scenes. (No idea if it flies.) Anyway this is the way the film makers handled heavy weather on a real Zero.

Eric

EBergerud

I just stumbled on this photo that shows the replica of the "Eternal Zero" built for the ground scenes. (No idea if it flies.) Anyway this is the way the film makers handled heavy weather on a real Zero.

Eric

 

Fantastic photo Eric, thanks for sharing!

John: Thanks for the recommendation!

Love it. Excellent weathering and great description.