Got a little more done on my Zeke today (1/32nd Tamiya kit). Gere is a photo of the completed subassemblies (except for paint):

The landing gear doors with those metal hinges were a royal pain in the butt to assemble!! There was no easy way to do it, and it took me about an hour of trial & error to finally figure out a way with two pair of tweezers to hold the hinges while I glued the two door pieces together. Looks very real afterwards, but I sure wish they coulda designed it so that it assembled easier.

My next step is to spray some paint, mainly that wierd greenish-blue metallic color that Japan used on the wheel wells and other interior areas of the Zero. Then more gluing of parts. Stayed tuned.....

AA & Gary: Those both look great guys!!!

BTW: Only the exposed areas like landing gear bays were painted with the aotake. The interior of the fusilage etc was left in plain aluminum.

I had to screw up it so maybe you guys can profit by my mistake...

Finished my new tool A6M2b Zero from Airfix.  love the kit, just wish the canopy was poseable.

John

falconmod

Finished my new tool A6M2b Zero from Airfix.  love the kit, just wish the canopy was poseable.

John

 

Excellent Zero John   like the colors

Thanks for comments guys, sorry for the actual smaller pictures but i'm tired of free hosts that change the conditions terms (photobucket , flickr..) , actually use postimage that have no good links for larger images and smaller preview, so i upload pictures at reasonable size to not cover the forum posts 

BTW almost all my works are at good resolution on my facebook account 

https://www.facebook.com/silvio.petrolo

John: Great job!!! Putting you up on the roster now. Beautiful work and thanks for joining us!

Mecha-G has been finished and sitting here since I went on vacation a couple months ago. Pulled him out, washed him good and sprayed the first coat of black primer for the Alclad II metal finish.

falconmod

Finished my new tool A6M2b Zero from Airfix.  love the kit, just wish the canopy was poseable.

John 

Great work, John!!

Got a little more done on my Zeke over the past couple of days - mainly masking off the glue sites/areas in the wings, and where the wheel wells are to be glued once the painting is over with. If this kit was 1/48th or smaller, I wouldn't have bothered with the masking. But, with all the details in this kit, plus all the areas that get glue AND paint, plus the incredible fit of this kit, I found it necessary for the masking. I could've just painted, then scraped the paint off of the areas that need glue, but then I run the problem of scraping off plastic along with paint, which means possible gaps/ill fits, which would mean filling said gaps. So, I figured it would be better (and easier, it seems) to mask off the glue areas. It was actually enjoyable, as I got out my Tamiya masking tape (tan in the picture), Tamiya Masking Tape For Curves (white), a new X-Acto blade, and put on some background music, and just relaxed and concentrated on the masking. Took about 4 hours, off & on, but it was fun.

I'll be spraying that weird color on the above parts either tomorrow or Saturday.

Gary Mason

Gamera

Mecha-G has been finished and sitting here since I went on vacation a couple months ago. Pulled him out, washed him good and sprayed the first coat of black primer for the Alclad II metal finish.

 

Looks good, Gamera! Is that a Japanese cushion he's standing on?  heeheehee!!

Gary Mason

Gary: Interesting, I just scraped the paint off mine where I meant to apply cement. Your masking looks like it would work much better though. Looking forward to paint!!! 

And thanks, nope just a regular bedspread. First place I found to plop him down for the photos. 

Thanks for the comments on my Zero!  I may have you add a 1/72 Hobbyboss A5M2 Claude to my list when you get a chance.  I'll have pictures next week.

John

falconmod

Thanks for the comments on my Zero!  I may have you add a 1/72 Hobbyboss A5M2 Claude to my list when you get a chance.  I'll have pictures next week.

John

 

Sure! Will go do it now. 

Got some major painting done over the weekend, mainly all the stuff that needed semi-gloss black, and aotake. As a side note, my Japanese daughter-in-law explained the meaning of "aotake" - "ao" means green, and "take" means bamboo, so it literally means "green bamboo" when translated to English. She didn't know why that paint color (actually, it's an anti-corrosion coating) was called that, though. Anyways, below is a quick shot of almost all the parts that got some paint this weekend. Sorry for not setting it all up properly for a photo-shoot - I was in a hurry. Hope to have more done and posted by next weekend.

Gary Mason

Oops -forgot to add this:

For the aotake, I mixed the paint according to the Tamiya instruction sheet - 75% metallic blue, and 25% metallic green (3:1). Actually, it called for clear green, but I didn't have any, sooooo........

For the semi-gloss black, I didn;t have any of that, either, so I mixed 50/50 flat black and gloss black (all Model Master paints), and it came out pretty darned good. I'll get some close-ups of the black soon.

Gary Mason

That looks good Gary, you're making great progress now! 

Latest progress on the Zero: pilot is painted and ready to install

Gamera>  Finally got the Pearl Harbor P-40 finished, so it's time to do the Pearl Harbor Zero to go with it!  Add me to the roster with this Hasegawa Mitsubishi A6M2b Zero Fighter Type 21.  Thanks!  I'll add pictures of the sprues and stuff later.

Gary

AA: Nice work on the pilot there! 

GAF Gary: Cool! Just put you down and welcome! 

Latest on the Zero: completed pilot and cockpit installed, fuselage mated to the wings, and the underside has been sprayed with an all-over coat of IJN Gray (Mr. Hobby H62)

Armor_Aficionado

Latest on the Zero: completed pilot and cockpit installed, fuselage mated to the wings, and the underside has been sprayed with an all-over coat of IJN Gray (Mr. Hobby H62)

 

Dang it, Armor! Slow Down!! I'm not even half-way through with my Zero yet!! 

Made a little more progress this past week. The wheel wells/bays are glued in, with all the other hardware that makes the landing gear operational. Unfortunately, once it's all glued in place, you can't really see the mechanisms for the operational stuff, so only one picture today.

You'll also notice that the motor mounting frame is glued in place in the front of the fuselage. I recommend that you glue the two frame halves to the small horseshoe-shaped item first, instead of how the instructions recommend that you assemble them - much easier my way.

The landing gear doors that are attached so far are also operational - those metal hinges, even though they were a slight hassle to get right, look really nice and accurate. The fact that they're operational is a miracle, 'cause I figured that I'd get superglue all over them trying to assemble them! But, just had to have some patience with those steps.

Hoping to have more pictures by the end of tomorrow - working on my Zeke some more today and tomorrow.....

Gary Mason

GAF

Gamera>  Finally got the Pearl Harbor P-40 finished, so it's time to do the Pearl Harbor Zero to go with it!  Add me to the roster with this Hasegawa Mitsubishi A6M2b Zero Fighter Type 21.  Thanks!  I'll add pictures of the sprues and stuff later.

Gary 

SHOW OFF!!!!!       Heeheehee!! Man, I wish I could build 'em that quickly! I've only got one completed this year (Hasegawa SR-71), and this second build-of-the-year for this here group build is taking me forever. Glad that you're able to add to your display shelf on a regular basis!

Gary Mason

Devil Dawg

SHOW OFF!!!!!       Heeheehee!! Man, I wish I could build 'em that quickly! I've only got one completed this year (Hasegawa SR-71), and this second build-of-the-year for this here group build is taking me forever. Glad that you're able to add to your display shelf on a regular basis!

Gary Mason

LOL!  Did I mention it took me 3 years to build that P-40?  Started it for the "World At War GB" back in 2016 and just finished it up a few days ago.  Don't talk to me about quick!  I'll be lucky to get this one done by the end of the year, God willing and the creek don't rise. 

I am looking at everyone's Zero builds for color ideas.

Gary

PS> I was just looking at cockpit interior colors over at Aviation of Japan.  Trying to find something in my stock that I can use for Mitsubishi green.

Here's the kit I'm building.  I'll be doing the version from the carrier Zuikaku.  It was in the 2nd wave of the Pearl Harbor attack.  The sprues have been washed and I'm studying colors now before I begin building.  As you can see, it's not an overly complicated kit.

The kit does contain a standing figure, though I don't know if I want to paint it or use a seated pilot figure from a Tamiya Zero.  I have a Hasegawa A6M5 in the stash, so maybe I'll save him for that.

Gary

AA & DD Gary: Those look good guys!!!

GAF Gary: Nice kit! Personally I find the Mitsubishi cockpit green close enough to USAAF interior green I just use it.

Gamera

GAF Gary: Nice kit! Personally I find the Mitsubishi cockpit green close enough to USAAF interior green I just use it.

Funny you should mention that.  I was comparing my stock of Green colors to images from the Aviation of Japan site for Mitsubishi cockpit color by holding the bottle up to the monitor.  The USAAF Interior Green came closest, but it's still a little light.  I think I'll try spraying the cockpit flat black before I apply the Interior Green to see if that will darken it somewhat.  Stay tuned!

Gary

GAF

 

 

Gamera

GAF Gary: Nice kit! Personally I find the Mitsubishi cockpit green close enough to USAAF interior green I just use it.

 

 

 

Funny you should mention that.  I was comparing my stock of Green colors to images from the Aviation of Japan site for Mitsubishi cockpit color by holding the bottle up to the monitor.  The USAAF Interior Green came closest, but it's still a little light.  I think I'll try spraying the cockpit flat black before I apply the Interior Green to see if that will darken it somewhat.  Stay tuned!

Gary

 

Sounds good to me.

I normally pre-shade the cockpit by painting it all one colour and then when assembled spraying a little lighter shade down from the top.

GAF

 

Gamera

GAF Gary: Nice kit! Personally I find the Mitsubishi cockpit green close enough to USAAF interior green I just use it. 

 

Funny you should mention that.  I was comparing my stock of Green colors to images from the Aviation of Japan site for Mitsubishi cockpit color by holding the bottle up to the monitor.  The USAAF Interior Green came closest, but it's still a little light.  I think I'll try spraying the cockpit flat black before I apply the Interior Green to see if that will darken it somewhat.  Stay tuned!

Gary 

I noticed that US Interior Green was really close to the Japanese cockpit green, too, based on pictures of an unrestored A6M5 hanging in the Air & Space Museum, so I used Interior Green for my build. It ain't a contest build, so it's close enough for me!

Gary