Steve , I took my time studying your pictures. Woaw!!! I think even the guys at Kure naval yards who built the original would be impressed! I am really looking forward to the next phases of this epicus metallicus.

GraySnake, we must build a couple of winter snow dioramas to cool off a bit. Last week I destroyed a perfectly applied (until then) painting on a Hellcat, with heavy drops of sweat suddenly unleashed from my - apparently overheated - head.

I love your Type61, this seems like a very nice classic kit and your interventions are to the point.

GAF, thank you , most of it will not be visible inside the Kate's deep fuselage, but I enjoyed the whole procedure.

I finally put everything together, and started test fitting it into the fuselage. For the moment I quit everything and head off to air conditioning and cold beer.

Zvezda: Thanks for going ahead. Your results look great!!!

I know what you mean, it's been pretty hot here too, running 90F/33C lately.

Sorry my posting is going to be a little off for this week. I'm on vacation/holiday and the wi-fi here is pretty bad.

The last email I got from the mods is that things are a little crazy for them due to the whole Corona Chan mess. I'll give them a few weeks to see if I can get back on with my original handle before I relaunch this GB with another post. Thanks for the ideas and support guys!!!

Thank you Zvezda

Steve,

Hey! You're welcome!  Always happy to impune someone's mental health!  

I haven't posted an update on my A6M5a since April, so I guess it's time to show my progress (if any).  I've only gotten back to it for the last month or so, and there really has been no unusual or difficult problems to mention.  It's been going together fairly smoothly.

Here's where I left off in April:

And here's where she stands now:

I think this image gives a better idea of what the color looks like in person.

At the moment, I'm trying to cobble together enough decals to finish her.  My efforts to print my own have not been very successful, so I'm scavenging a few from other kits.

You will notice the base coat is on, and I've skipped the "chipping" techniques and just used silver paint applied with a toothpick to indicate loss of paint.  I didn't go too overboard with the "chipping", just enough to give it a less than new look.  I probably will add some more around the cowling and prop before I finish up the decals and give it a coat of dullcoat.

The only technique worth mentioning is the canopy frame.  I sprayed a piece of clear decal paper with the base coat (Hunter's Green) and then cut thin strips (of slightly varying widths) to lay across the frame lines.  This has worked out fairly well.  On the front wind screen I used some vinyl tape (lighter green stuff).  I'll paint over that when I finish it up in the base color.  After the dullcoat, I'll attach the canopy and add the bottom edge framing next to the fuselage.  Still need to add all the fiddly bits, but they go on last!  I've learned my lesson about breaking parts off.

Probably won't be another update until she's finished.  Thanks for looking!

Gary

Gary, I have a ton of Hinomaru decals because I always paint them anymore, is that what you need, or is it tail markings of some kind.

The Zero is looking good. 

Greysnake, 

Thanks!  She's coming along.

John,

The hinomaru are fine.  I have those.  It's some smaller Japanese labels that I need.  I'll get by.  

Note to everyone.  I'm unable to log in from my main computer.  First Firefox went out, and today Opera.  I'm  logging in on my tablet now which is not ideal.  If you don't hear from me in a few days it means I'm locked out.  Send word to Enash!  

Gary

Well, you know how things are going along smoothly, and you're making great progress on a project, and you think everything will proceed according to a plan, and then the gods laugh in your face and something happens that screws up all your work and you're left holding a disaster of epic proportions?

WELCOME TO MODELING! 

I must admit I didn't see this coming.  I (in my blessed ignorance) thought things were going along swimmingly.  I had finished up the weathering on my A6M5 Zero and had set it aside for the night, thinking I might think of something else I needed to do in the morning.  When morning came, I could not think of anything else to do before applying dullcoat (except NOT attaching the canopy as I had done before on another project), so I grabbed a can of Testor's dullcoat, set the model up and gave it a good coat.  No problem there and it seemed to be working fine.  However, when I went back to check on it about half an hour later, to my horror I found that the paint for the Zero had crazed on the wings!  WTH!  Apparently, Testor's dullcoat and the Krylon brand of paint I had used for the base coat did not agree, though suprisingly the fuselage was fine and only the top of the wings had undergone this strange reaction.

I must admit, I thought about throwing it in the trash, but the frugal part of me said no.  I tried sanding, but the paint still looked like alligator skin.  I thought about just accepting it and claiming "Well, of course the paint is crazing!  It's a Japanese Zero!" but decided that was out of the question.  So I began the laborious task of separating the wings, removing the landing gear and using an X-acto knife separating the top half of the wings from the bottom half (which was fine).

Right now the top half of the wings are soaking in purple stuff and I'm going to try to get that paint off and try redoing them from scratch.  Not sure how it will turn out, but I'll give it my best shot.  I admit this is a lot of work that I sure didn't want or need.

It does mean, however, that I will need some hinomaru (1/48th scale), so if that offer still stands I will take you up on it.  I'll send you a PM if the offer is still good.

MODELING IS FUN! 

Gary

Of course, Gary.

Thanks, John!  PM on the way.

The wings have been stripped of the Krylon paint, although the "Purple Stuff" didn't even scratch the primer.  Go figure!  When I can, I intend to re-prime and paint them.  Heat and humidity being the main hold-up there.  Meanwhile, I'm starting on another GB project that I've been putting off for awhile.

Gary

GS,

Thanks!  I'm too stubborn (or full of *hit) to give up so easily.  Luckily, the parts separated well enough, and it gives me a chance to correct some minor things that I was ignoring till now.

The 61 is looking splendid.  I did want to ask if the Japanese had a camo scheme at this time?  Not knowing much about Japanese armor, I've assumed that the post-war tanks were merely a OD like the Americans.

NOTE: Checking back earlier, I see you're going with the two-tone scheme.

Gary

Greysnake: That looks fantastic. Really looking forward to how the camo comes out. It's more trouble to paint but I like the look much more than the plain jane OD green.

Gary: OUCH!!! That blows. I've been there, done that, got the t-shirt- yet it's really annoying when you're basically DONE and that happens. Kudos to you for not flinging the model across the room, I really need to work on anger management issues. Best of luck on getting her repaired.

And WHOA, looks like the IT guys fixed my account- just posted you to the front page Zvezda!!!

GS> I'm retired so my sleep patterns are a mess.  Up all night, sleep during the day.  Of course, there's the bathroom runs... 

I see the white over-spray came out well.  Nice work!

Gamera> Glad to see you back, and your account restored.  Hope you had a great vacation!

As for the Zero, I managed to get the wings re-sprayed early this morning.  They're fine and are curing at the moment.  When they've dried sufficiently, I intend to run a test on one.  The "Hunter's Green" is actually Rust-O-Leum paint (not Krylon).  I have a can of Matte Clear Rust-O-Leum so I'll give it a try and see if it reacts better than the Testor's dullcoat. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Gary

Gary, I haven't seen a PM from you about the decals yet,

jeaton01

Gary, I haven't seen a PM from you about the decals yet,

Hmmm, I sent one two days ago.  I wonder what's wrong now?  I'll send it again, and send one to the e-mail address you have listed under your profile.

Gary

Sounds good Gary, looking forward to more photos of your Zero.

Greysnake: Ohhhhhhh, that looks good!!! BTW I switched to a gravity feed airbrush with a colour cup years ago and I'd never switch back. The jar on the bottom just seemed way more finickly on getting the paint mixed perfectly to get the siphon tube to work.  

One of the other nice things about the colour cup is if using something already fomulated for airbrush use like ModelAir you can just squeeze a few drops into the cup and spray if you only want to spray something small. With the jar I always had to make up more paint than I needed just to give the tube something to pick up. 

GreySnake,

The Type 61 is coming along very nicely!  You are doing justice to an old kit.

The weather here in Hawaii has been hot, but not like last year.   I think the humidity is not as bad, because while the temperature in my room has gotten up to 87 F (30 C), it doesn't feel crazy-crazy-crazy hot.

I have two gravity feeds, both Badgers.  One has a small cup, the other has a large one.  I like that they are very easy to clean.  I also like that they handle low air pressures better than suction feed.  The suction feed 150's are mostly in the drawer, bless their long lasting hearts.

Graysnake, that's looking nice! I'm not familiar with that vehicle at all.

Ok, so I've been slowy but surely making progress on my Mitsubushi ki-45, starting with the cockpit of course.  Seeing Steve's crazy PE adventure, I was inspired to use the complete Eduard PE interior set - I usually just use major pieces, but this time i went all out even with those extremely small handles.  Thankfully, they are starting to put a few extras pieces in the fret

Of course, once you go down this rabbit hole, all those panels looks strangely 'naked' and screams for piping and wiring.  Way too much empty space, especially behind the recon camera, it's a rats nest of hoses/wiring back there. Even though you can't really see that too well once closed up, but is a sickness right ?

Misc copper wiring and solder was used, The 'netting' in the middle is actually a piece of pe grill from a Revell Stealth Fighter cut up and a piece of plastic card thinned and shaped will stand in for a cloth covering underneath.  The recon camera was just a plain blob, so misc left of PE and some old reheat brand panels were added.

Finally, painted up:

Ok, you have to STOP sometime, because you can always add more stuff.  Some more dirt and weathering on the floor and I'll close this up this weekend.

Waikong>  That is impressive!  My cockpits always look so... messy.  Can't wait to see the rest!

Gary

Waikong: Oh WOW! As Gary said what a clean beautiful job on the cockpit! And I love the extra detail you've added. 

I wasn't going to post another WIP image, but that was before I had to disassemble the aircraft and redo the wings.  Here's a shot of where she stands now.

Taken with my camera, I think this image gives the best idea of the color of the model so far.  Still not finished, but much closer.  I need to finish framing the canopy, adding small bits (guns, pitot tube, weights, antenna wire).  First I want to do some touch-ups and some additional weathering.  Then I'll try finishing up the pilot model.  I'm not so enamored of that suit color, so that will probably come off.

Anyway, getting closer to being finished (God willing!).

Thanks for looking!

Gary