Gamera, yes it is the 1/24th scale kit. Actually, I plan on building a kit for this GB. I will let you know shortly.

Edwin, I did not scratch build the entire engine, just numerous parts of it. In hind sight, I think it would've looked even better if I opened the cowling vents too. Oh well, at least I branched out to a subject, brand, and build I have not previously done.

All in all great fun, and this GB is fun to watch too!

Ben

Rolling over from P.VII, which I left ingloriously at the below status

Wheel wells were painted with the classic metallic blue/green and then masked off.

Then I spent half a day for the masking of the canopy and wind shield. After this procedure, I made visits to a good ophthalmologist and to my shrink, in order to get over it. I could never imagine tamiya tape strips could be so small

The plane was sprayed with a custom made orange (combining yellow RLM04 and insignia red from Gunze).

Some paint chipping was applied and masks removed, a coat of tamiya gloss clear and everything is now drying nice and quietly.

Edwin: Looks great! Love that kit, one of the best I've ever built.

Ben: Cool, looking forward to you joining us.

Zvezda: Yak! Gives me a headache just to look at that canopy, fantastic job masking, it came out great! Love the trainer orange, and the chipping looks just right!

Gamera

Edwin: Looks great! Love that kit, one of the best I've ever built.

Thanks, Gamera!

So, gentlemen, I started working on the pilot figure. As mentioned earlier, how the pilot turns out will determine if I do the Zero with landing gear up or down

This is a great kit, however the seated pilot figure is not close to the standard of the rest of the kit. There are other figures (standing) provided with the kit that look a lot better. I thought of performing some surgery to swap the head, torso and arms with the seated pilot. Close examination dashed this possibility. Think the standing figures might be a later add on to the kit, and are a little larger than the seated pilot. After swapping, doubt the figure would fit well in the cockpit. 

So, any of you gentlemen can point me towards a source for Japanese seated fighter pilots? Did a bit of a search and results were a little disappointing. 

Thanks much for any leads

Zvezda

Agree with Gamera. The chipping looks great! Just one comment. Think a little chipping at the fuselage especially below the canopy area would make it look even better. Just my humble opinion

Edwin: Other than the Hasegawa pilot set none come to mind. I'm certain someone makes a resin pilot in 1/48th, I know they have them in 1/32nd. Let me look around and get back with you. 

PS: I looked around and only found two seated pilots: 

One six figure set from ModelKasten with two seated. 

And a single figure here.

For a seated Japanese pilot, both of Cliff suggestions are quite good.  The only other one I can think of off the top is a CMK resin offering of Saburo Sakai.  It's specific, but don't see why it can't be used as a generic figure.

It includes the seat, control stick, as well as the option to equip him the oxygen mask, separate arms, goggles, and a square like object - map pad??  I have one of these in my stash, and it also has painting instructions listing Humbrol colours.

item#F48150

regards,

Jack

Thanks for the leads, Gamera and Jack. I’ll be sure to check these out

Thanks Jack, looks like a nice figure! I've used a few from CMK and was impressed by the detail and quality. 

Edwin: Good luck! 

Right,

If someone can tell me how to mix the colors:

Mr. Color 125, 126 & 127

I am happy to join with this kit from Hasegawa:

Svenne

Gamera

Thanks Jack, looks like a nice figure! I've used a few from CMK and was impressed by the detail and quality. 

Edwin: Good luck! 

 

Order placed for the Modelkasten set. Fingers crossed that the seated figure will fit well in the cockpit. 

Svenne Duva

If someone can tell me how to mix the colors:

Mr. Color 125, 126 & 127

 

Svenne

 

125 is a blue black colour for the cowl (as well as the front combing and rear decking underneath the canopy) - so that one is simple.

The other two are both cockpit colours:

126 is the interior shade of Mitsubishi built aircraft

127 is the interior shade of Nakajima built aircraft

No idea about the mixes, but any sugestions would be hit and miss  since we don't know what paints you are using.  Maybe try this paintchart:

https://www.paint4models.com/index.html

regards,

Jack

Thanks Jack for jumping in there! 

Svenne: You can mix or buy the blue-black for the cowling. I just spray mine black and then overspray the upper sufaces with a little dark blue so it has a little blue sheen to it in the light. 

The interior cockpit colour of Mitsubishi Zeros was a yellowish-green. It looks enough like USAAF interior green I just use that. Nakajima Zeros were more of a grey-green. It's close enough to RAF interior green I just use that for these. 

There is a slight difference between the dark green and light grey used for the exterior colours on Zeros between the Mitsubishi and Nakajima aircraft but not that much if you don't want to worry about it. Pretty much any paint line should have paints marked IJN topside green and underside grey. 

Edwin: I've bought a few ModelKasten figures and been pleased with the quality. Hope they work out for you. 

I am sorry Jack.

It's Tamiya.
Slowly moving towards Vallejo but would like to make use of the Tamiya gear if I can.

Svenne

Hello Gamera,

I am sorry that I started this of on the wrong foot.

I know there is a difference to Mitsubishi/ Nakajima, and my problem is the Nakajima interior Green.

Seems the community agrees that Tamia XF-71 is a close match to Mitsubishii Interior Green.

Nakajima looks close to RLM66 to me. And then again I have been told it is not :|

Thank you!

Svenne

There is some digital sample colours here, but unfortunately Tamiya makes no equivalent Nakajima cockpit paint:

https://www.cybermodeler.com/color/cockpit.shtml

If I were to mix my own utilizing Tamiya brand, their Buff would be the main base colour, and maybe just a little Olivegreen and then take it from there?

regards,

Jack

Thanks Jack!

I will start mixing ;)

Regards

Svenne

Thanks Jack, and sorry Svenne if I was confusing...

Anyway: Mechagodzilla came the other day. The box is much bigger than I thought - that's a foot / 30cm ruler there. And the box is stuffed full of sprues!

I did a little work on him yesterday, hopefully I'll get a little more done this weekend.

Svenne, you are welcome, and hope you come up with something to your satisfaction.

-----------------

Cliff, that looks like a lot of parts, and a lot of fun.

 Oh, and can you put me down as TBA, not sure yet what I will pull from the stash.

regards,

Jack

Gamera

 

Man, that is looking so cool! . Have fun with the build

Jack: Sure, I'll go put you down now. 

And thanks guys, this should be an adventure (that's one word for it). I'm slowly assembling the head and trying to see if I can work a LED in there somewhere since the 'eyes' on the movie version are lighted. 

Here is my pilot for the A6M5 zero, reporting for duty:

The hasegawa kit is a beauty of a kit!
Looking forward to this :)

Svenne 

Svenne: He looks ready to get into action!

Hello Gamera,

Never seen one of those before - have you built something similar?

Looks very detailed with clean multi-colored molds - I am intrigued 

Thank you for those links Jack,

They have been and will be very usefull.

I went back to an old reference, Tamiya's "colors where used" chart and decided to give their "early" range a go:
https://www.ipmsnymburk.com/tamiya%20mixing/MixTamiya.pdf

So here is a sample, I think that XF-14 is a pretty close match to the Cybermodeler Cockpit Color Guide:

This is intended for JA grey Lower side of the Army plane.

The chart suggests a 2:1 mix of XF-62 and XF-4 (OD and Yellow Green).

I am fresh out of XF-4 ( the bottle is from 2003, still a 23ml ) so I will have to go to the LHS before I can submit a sample.

Svenne

Looking good Zvezda1980,

How did you achive the chipping effect?

Svenne: Looks pretty close to me. 

First time I've built something like this, so it should be an adventure! 

Ben: Terrific kit and detail. Looking forward to seeing your talents unleashed in this GB.

Gamera: This thing looks scary (and cool as hell)!

Edwin: I agree with you 100% and the chipping was indeed applied on the fuselage as well.

Also an oil wash was applied, but I think I regret this, cause the panel lines from Tamiya are a bit out of scale and after the wash they look like sewage drains in the workshop where mechagodzilla is having his annual major overhaul.

Zvezda, that is looking sharp.  You can always go back in with panel wash made from the base paint colour to knock back those dark lines.  Essentially it would act like a filter.

regards,

Jack

Hi Zvezda

Chipping looks great!

As for the panel lines, as what Jack mentioned, you can tone it down with a wash of the base color. You can also try a light grey wash within the panel lines, to lighten those black lines. Good luck!