Pearl Harbour 70th Anniversary GB

Lookin' good RRB. That is the exact kit my friend is building. For the wheel wells, you could always do a light dry brushing in silver, I think. Oh, and though your engine looks great, I think you need to add a bit more wiring to all the cylinders, and not just add wiring to the ones in the back.

Thanks, I suppose I should add more wiring. But I am afraid of going over board.

just google "A6M2 engine" or any combo thereof. You will get a bunch of pics.....

I'll probably make the push rod cover tubes out of copper wiring. There issue two push for cover tubes per cylinder, one on each side of each cylinder.

SuperNova:  I noticed there were a lot of parts with the NO boat that weren't used!  I wondered about that.

I wasn't able to find a lot of information on New Orleans during the Pearl Harbor period, so I intend to build her pretty much as is from the kit. 

Even the paint schemes I could find on the web were conflicting.  The only thing I found consistent was that horizontal surfaces were 20-B Deck Blue; otherwise, some sources indicated 5-S, others 5-N.

I'll probably go with 5-N.

after a bit of sanding, major assembly was finished and the windows were masked! Off to the paint box!

CallSignOWL

after a bit of sanding, major assembly was finished and the windows were masked! Off to the paint box!

Decals sealed and a little bit of weathering added to bring out the details.All I have left is to install the prop and finish the canopy (which is taking forever) and this one is done.

TD4438

 

CallSignOWL:

 

after a bit of sanding, major assembly was finished and the windows were masked! Off to the paint box!

 

Is it a real PITA masking the canopy like that with larger scales? It never worked for me in 1/72.

 

I do canopies stripe by stripe. I cut out thin strips of masking tape, lay it across one entire horizontal frame of the canopy, then trim where the framing is. Then I move onto the next horizontal line. Once that is done I do thin strips along the vertical frames, trimming away the tape where the frames go. basically I outline where the masking needs to go. Then, I fill in the panels with little squares of tape. Its tedious, but works pretty well. I dont do the entire frame in one shot.

...does that make sense?

The first completed kit of 2012 is ready for action.

Looks great! I like the idea of having those stands. 

You did a good job masking the canopy, I hate masking the canopies. I'll have to try owls method of masking canopies.

For what it's worth - I mask canopies very much like owl.  The only difference is that instead of filling in between the vertical and horizontal tape strips with more tape - I use liquid mask (micomark, maskall, etc).  I think the advantage is that the liquid mask seals the tape edges (inside anyway) so there is less chance of paint bleeding under the tape.

Great looking Zeek!

I build in 1/72 almost exclusively and do my canopies the same as owl. It can be very tedious with the WWII "Greenhouse" types the results pay off. The other problem is some kits don't have the option of Die cut mask.

I have been plugging away on the Val from Fujimi. Ran into to some seam issues. For some reason Fujimi placed the seams for the underside of the wings in the middle of the flaps and ailerons. This left a very nice "ledge" where one shouldn't be!! As I write this I am waiting for some Mr. Surfacer 500 to dry so I can sand some more. Here are some pics:

I am really looking forward to getting into the Hasegawa kits!

Wow, those are some strange spots for seams, good luck!

Got some major work done yesterday! I have the seams pretty much taken care of......after a couple primer coats and some sanding I have only 1 or 2 areas that need minor filling.

I primed the plane in white due to the light color of the IJN grey. I am still debating any type of preshading. Most of the pics show the planes as pretty "clean." The canopy was the most difficult thing to mask as the window are tiny and there are a lot! Here are some pics. I hope to pain the IJN tonight or tomorrow.

Looks great, I'm doing a three layer preshading type method that doogsATX showed me, For my zero.

1- paint your plane the colour you want it. Thinned normally.

2- add 50-50 white and the original colour. Thinned normally. Then spray that colour inside all the panels avoiding the panel lines.

3- thin heck out of your original colour (the colour you want it too be) and spray it on lightly so it only just colours the white.

I hope to paint my Zero tomorrow, today I've got to mask the last piece of the three piece canopy.

Hmmmm, I might have to give that a try. Thanks.

paint's on! I didnt do much pre/post-shading because the planes were in fairly good condition at Pearl Harbor. So its just light grey all over with a black cowl.Because I had raised details, I sprayed the rivets like a pre-shade, then once the paint was dry, lightly sanded off some paint, leaving the black to show through on the raised detail, resulting in rivet-y goodness!

While that was curing, I worked a bit on the landing gear, adding brake lines:

I also added colored plastic to the wings for the formation lights. I cut out where the lights would go, broke off a piece of colored plastic (and shaped a 90* corner to fit) then super glued it into place. I then sanded it do fit, the polished it back out. (you can also see the effect of sanding off the top layer of paint from the raised detail)

Mine should be painted tomorrow. Today I have to mask the front piece I the canopy, research a bit about the salt crystal method and if I'm going to give it a try, spray on AS-12.

Let it cure overnight then I'm ready to paint!

My decals shattered when I dipped them in water, so I needed to find other means to mark my plane. Since my friend was coming over the next day (she too was doing a Zero kit), I decided to paint my own markings. The decals in my kit were for a plane that it seemed a number of people in the GB were going to do, so I painted a different Pearl Harbor scheme. It turned out pretty nicely too!

a bit of touch up was needed on the circles and where the masking tape pulled up a bit of paint, but I like the result!

CSO that's the way, girl! I too have tried painting my own markings, Japan being a good place to start, and it really produces superior results. I am still looking for drawings of my tower.

I have thought of painting decals on before. Japanese markings would be much easier than something like RAF or US.

I hope my decals don't shatter

Very creative and eye catching way of weathering, Ms. Owl.  Painted markings turned out very nicely.

I almost always use Microscales' liquid decal film whenever I even suspect the decals might be old and prone to shattering.  It doesn't seem to increase the thickness of the decal, so they still look good when applied, and it has saved many irreplaceable markings.

I may have to look into getting some of that decal film...there's been a number of kits where my decals shattered.

Anywho, Im settled into the dorms now, and only just got around to downloading the finished pics of the Zero. Enjoy!

and a few more for fun:

OWL

That looks sweet. I like the affect of the wash, did you use pastels in the wash?

I'll update the front page.

What a sweet bird!

Beautiful job on this one.

thanks guys!

RRB: after the wash was applied, I dabbed little splotches of enamels all over the plane (grey, brown, blue, yellow. etc.) then wiped it with a paper towel dampened with thinner. That blended all the colors together and gave the plane a "streaked" look.

whenever i attempt to do something like that it turns out all sloppy. Well done, i couldnt do anything like that.

My cat has spotted some progress on my Zero, unfortunatly my computer is uploading pics 0KB per second.

i finished masking the canopy and I sprayed the zero in AS-12 ready for salt crystal application tomorrow.

Cute kitty, RRB.  What's his/her name?

Progress on the NO boat.  Assembly step #1 included making up the three main batteries.  These are 8 inch 55 caliber guns.  Here's the result.

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Unfortunately, the middle barrel in the middle turrent pictured was cast somewhat undersized and distorted.  I didn't have a substitute so just used what was there.

Colours are WEM Colourcoats:  5-N Navy Blue for the vertical surfaces and 20-B Deck Blue for the horizontal surfaces, including the life rafts and the blast bags.  After painting, I dried brushed the high points with lightened 5-N, then applied a thin black pin wash.

I've made some progress with other parts of the superstructure but won't post photos till each is finished.

Thanks for looking.

I'll be watching this closely,checkmate.