Well, your experiment went extremely well.  It looks realistic, great job!  I hope to see more.

Toshi

Looks very good BD. One can really get creative specially with the mid to later war Jap aircraft using hairspray or salt for chipping and weathering. I have a few in my stash waiting.

I built this exact kit for the Japanese GB. It's a fun and rather simple kit to build and makes a good looking Zero when completed. I'll be interested to see the final reveal and your paint work on this one. Looking good.

BK

Great job so far Brandon.  This is an old kit and really needs some TLC.  That black base technique has come out nicely for you.  =]  doog used to be here on finescale for a while too I believe.  His site is pretty nice...I some times think how I'd hope to have one like it one day.  Anyhow, that undersurface came out very nice. Kudos! =]  I say it all the time...Painting is all about layering. =]

Looking forward to more.

Very cool BK, I like the mottling- I'm interested in seeing how she turns out. 

Looks really good BD! That technique does seem to make for more color variation which I like. I agree that preshading panel lines sometimes comes out too perfect. Looking forward to seeing more!

Toshi - thank you! I have the good fortune ofbeing able to rely on others. I'd never have thought of this on my own.

Plasticjunkie - Thanks. And yeah, I want to get the Tamiya A6M5 at some point and get creative with the chipping.

BK - Thanks. I think I remember you building that. Maybe around the time before your Corsair? I remember you did a great job on it.

Wingnut - I'll have to take a look at the Scooter. ALways loved the A4, and I don't think I've caught up on my reading in a while. Can't wait to see.

Bvallot - thank you. I had never thought about paint layering until I came back to the hobby last year. Before, I was all about hosing it on from a rattle can, slapping decals on and calling it finished. I now really enjoy the painting phase above all else.

Gamera - thanks! Update incoming.

Rooster - I think you said itbetter than I did - I don't find the perfection in panel line shading to be entirely realistic. I think it really adds life to a build, but I find it hard to be subtle with it, and I like the more randomized look I've seen others do, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Lawdog - thank you, and I'll have to give your panel shading and streaking a go at some point, because I look at your builds and half expect them to start up and taxi for takeoff.

-BD-

Ok, so here is an update after the past two nights of work (well, and a quick lunch clear coat session).

I got the clear sprayed on the paintwork (Alclad Klear Kote), and got to decals last night. I used the Tamiya kit decals for Saburo Sakai, and either the Zero didn't have many stencils, or Tamiya just didn't include them on the sheet (I purposely didn't look because if I found a stencil sheet, I'd feel compelled to buy it and apply it).

So this is where I left off last night:

This evening, I was able to seal the decals with another layer of Klear Kote right after work. While that was drying, I sprayed the cowling Tamiya German Grey, then hit it with some Tamiya NATO Black for shading. I think it's a bit subtle to the point of not seeing it, but oh well, I mostly got the slightly faded cowling look I was going for.

I originally followed the instructions and painted the wheel wells metallic blue (Alclad Polished Aluminum topped with Tamiya Clear Blue), but it seems they were more of a metallic green. Fortunately, painting Clear Green on the blue color looks pretty close to my eye (certainly close enough for me to not lose sleep over it).

Once the Klear Kote dried, I applied FLory Dark Dirt wash prety liberally, then wiped it in the direction of airflow once it had dried. It stuck on some of the raised panel lines, and I kind of like the effect, even though I wish all of them were recessed.

Next, I attached the engine and prop spinner shaft, then glued the cowling to the plane.

Here is where I am tonight - awaiting another clear coat to seal the wash so I can mask the gear bays for the respray with clear green.

One question - the instructions look like they call for the prop to be a dull aluminum on front and semi-gloss black on the rear. Is that how they were done?

Thanks again, everyone!

-BD-

The prop was aluminum on the face and brown with a grey tone on the rear. Mr Color actually makes the correct color for that. C131 "propeller color" IJN aircraft WWII.

Nice work on the paint, I like the mottled tone to the color. It makes it look sun faded quite nicely.

BK

BrandonD: Looks good to me, I like how the mottling turned out! 

BTW: I'd not worry too much about the wheel wells too much. The aotake was exactly what you painted it as- a translucent varnish applied over the natural metal for protection. When new it was bluish, as it aged it turned more greenish. Since you're not doing an old beat-up plane the blue is fine, you can add a little green if you want but I wouldn't add too much. 

Also BrandonK is right, the props were painted an anti-glare colour on the back of the blades sometimes, or the whole prop in other cases. To me it looks more of a rust colour brown but it's more a matter of painting it how it looks right to you. 

BrandonK - Thanks for the tip. I won'tbe able to get any Gunze in, but I'm thinking maybe Tamiya Dark Brown with a bit of something mixed in.

Gamera - Thanks. That saves me a step. Though since I already blued the insides of the gear doors I'm not using, I think I'll try a really thin clear green spray over it just to see what it looks like.

Wing Nut - thank you.

I think you did really good on the pre-shading. You can also do post-shading if you like, just dont get carried away. 

Random is good on the paint fading!  Looks nice.

The build looks great. I have did the black base on armour in the past but I always end up covering it to much. This one looks fine to me.

I also have this kit that I haven't built. I hear tamyia has released a up dated version that also is quite nice.

Love how the topside came out BD! Definitely gives a different look than straight panel line preshading. May have to try that with some post shading and hope it doesn't all get lost Looking forward to seeing it all finished!

Nice work Brandon, I am working on the same kit for some Group Builds but is not looking anywhere near as nice as yours.

Thanks for the kind words, all!

Well this is done (except that after the photos I realized I didn't paint the wingtip lights, so I will go back and do that now).

This kit was a lotof fun, and I had a blast trying the black basing technique. There are some areas where I think I need to improve upon it, but overall I'm happy and will be using it going forward.

The decals were typical thick Tamiya, so to get the panel line wash to sing in over them I actually scribed through them with a sharp No. 11 blade and then let the wash sink in.

Thanks for following along, and I am wishing I had put it into the Japanese group build, but I blew it on that opportunity. Oh well.

Here are the pics:

Thanks again for looking. All critiques welcome!

-BD-

I think the weathering came out really well.  Really nice work on the Zero.

Looks like you faced that same set of issues I did with my build. Great work, it turned out really nice.

BK

She looks perfect to me! The mottling looks great, I'm going to have to try it on my next monochromatic subject. 

BTW: I'll be kicking off Japanese Group Build V on Jan 1, 2016- as always you're welcome to join us. 

Thanks, guys!

Gamera - I don't have any other Japanese kits, but I've been eyeing that newish Tamiya A6M3 or A6M5 and want to play with paint chipping, so if I can find one for a decent price, I'll join ya. Thanks for the invite!

-BD-

No worries BD, we always run the GB for a full year so there's no rush at all. You'll love the new Tamiya Zeros, I built one and the fit and detailing is superb. Didn't finish it, though that's an issue with the aftermarket decals silvering and me not being sure if I want to just strip the paint and start over or not.