In about 1,100 posts, this is, to my loss, the first time I've visited this room. It just so happens that last night I had a typical Tamiya nightmare. And this one counts, because it's being done for money and reputation as well, because it's part of an assignment for (Mumble, mumble) Well-Known Foreign Model Magazine. Flying is my hobby, but scale modeling and researching those models are my passion. Journalism has always been my profession. After a long lay off, I'm taking another dip into combining my profession and my passion, and have taken on more work than I can handle.
But enough of the boring part, that was just so you'd know what's at stake. I won't go into the details of what the feature is about, but it involves making two A6M3's (among four total 1/48 builds for this one project). I started Zero No. 1 using a fine old old warhorse in plastic, still in production, still one of the best bargains in modeling, the Tamiya series of Zeroes that came out in the late 70s, early 80s. They've risen steadily in price until my modern number came up to a staggering $14.00. From box art to, yep, the decal sheet, not one thing has changed about this series of Zeroes since its release. Not even the box. My build was the clipped wing Type 32, and it was to be built alongside a much newer kit, the Hasegawa A6M3 Type 22, which, in real life, actually came out after the type 32, but that's a different story. They just put the wing tips back on, basically. I wanted the two zeroes so I could compare one type of decals with another type of markings.
What in God's name was I thinking using an old Tamiya kit for this project, to illustrate a plane with markings right out of the box? Not that their latest decals have improved much. But considering how many transluscent decals we get with no adhesive on the back, here we get decals that are the texture of vinyl and are seemingly held down with expoxy of some sort. I mean, if you don't position them exactly where they belong on the first pass, you can forget it, buddy. Especially on anything the size of a hinamaru or larger. I wound up stripping off the attractive wide blue and yellow fuselage and tail stripes, which were ruined, and using the scheme with nothing but a mixture of black Japanese and Western characters. And, even after a good coat of Testors semi-gloss laquer had had a full 24 hours to cure over a Polly Scale gray, the surface still became sticky under the usually very benign, tame Micro Set and Sol. Well, I know Tamiya's decals, and I know they'll wrinkle up almost to a wad, and I know that usually, if you don't mess with them, they will, like magic, settle right down to nice round hinomarus. They did. But all else was ruined, and I don't know yet how it's going to stand up to close up color photography (BTW, if you live in my area, and are a model photographer, and need some good international magazine exposure, my email's right here. Ha, I broke a rule, I just know I did!)
Anyhow, to wrap up this saga, to replace the really destroyed and necessary markings, like the data plate under the leading edgeof the horizontal stabilizer, I robbed the Hasegawa kit, whose marking didn't interest me anyway.
But now I need to find some new ones, and I can't seem to find a good supplier of AM decal sheets for WW II Japanese types. One reason is the really pitiful lack of accurate historical records on such things as striping and stencils, which is another thing addressed in the article. If anyone can steer me toward some good A6M3 decal sheets, I'll forever be in their debt, which is worth about...squat. But if you ever need markings, and I got em, they are yours. I've been piling up on that kind of thing lately, unsolicited review copies of this and that in which I have duplicate copies.
Thanks for hearing my tale of woe,
Tom