Completed: Tamiya 1/48 A6M2 Zero

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
1

Hi all,

I bought this kit because it was $15 and I didn’t have anything Japanese. It’s the old kit from 1973, and while it was probably fantastic for its time, it lags a bit behind now.

Still, I thought it would be fun to build, especially since I wanted to practice a new painting technique.

I didn’t bother too much with the cockpit, as I planned on doing the canopy closed, and all that framework will hide much of it anyway.

Assembly was pretty quick. There were decent gaps at the wing roots, but I just used tape to force the wings into position, and it seems to have held up well. Not sure if I have too much dihedral, but it looks about right.

I masked the canopy while watching Eternal Zero, which I learned about in reading Eric’s post on his fantastic project made with this kit (which I won’t come close to, skills-wise).

Now for the painting. I have never thought uniformly shaded panel lines are the way I wanted to continue building models. I like the technique, and I think it can look really good, but I wanted to try black basing with much more randomness, a technique I read about at doogsmodels.com.

After shooting black paint over the whole model, I went back with Tamiya IJN Gray-Green and shot a randomized pattern to give it a really hideous mottled look. It’s great for practicing airbrush control for those Luftwaffe schemes, by the way.

Once I got to this point, I thinned the paint pretty heavily (45 drops of Tamiya lacquer thinner to 12 of paint) and sprayed blending coats over the model until the pattern looked more like an airplane.

This is where I am now:

(Those aren’t the gear doors I’m using. I have them in place as a mask, and painted the other doors accordingly).

I think I went too heavy on the blend coat, and I left it more contrasty on top. We will see which, if either, I actually like when decals are applied and additional weathering, panel line wash and clear coats tone down the effect.

I will either be building this one as one of the Pearl Harbor attack planes off the Akagi or as Saburo Sakai’s mount.

-BD-

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Well, your experiment went extremely well. It looks realistic, great job! I hope to see more.

Toshi

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Looks very good BD. One can really get creative specially with the mid to later war Jap aircraft using hairspray or salt for chipping and weathering. I have a few in my stash waiting.

4

I built this exact kit for the Japanese GB. It’s a fun and rather simple kit to build and makes a good looking Zero when completed. I’ll be interested to see the final reveal and your paint work on this one. Looking good.

BK

5

BD, looks great. The black basing is an interesting technique. I really like the look of it and picked that from doogs too. Using on the A4 Scooter in a nearby thread. Wonder what to call that technique when done for a white bottom. Negative black basing? White basing? Whatever, it works nice. Yours does not look like you were too heavy. I was a bit on mine.

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Great job so far Brandon. This is an old kit and really needs some TLC. That black base technique has come out nicely for you. =] doog used to be here on finescale for a while too I believe. His site is pretty nice…I some times think how I’d hope to have one like it one day. Anyhow, that undersurface came out very nice. Kudos! =] I say it all the time…Painting is all about layering. =]

Looking forward to more.

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Very cool BK, I like the mottling- I’m interested in seeing how she turns out.

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Looks really good BD! That technique does seem to make for more color variation which I like. I agree that preshading panel lines sometimes comes out too perfect. Looking forward to seeing more!

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Nice work so far Brandon. I tried that black basing technique on a Spitfire and ended up blending everything too much. I must say I still prefer the preshading and streaking, but thats me. Those are still nice kits and I think I have the same one somewhere in the pile.

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Toshi - thank you! I have the good fortune ofbeing able to rely on others. I’d never have thought of this on my own.

Plasticjunkie - Thanks. And yeah, I want to get the Tamiya A6M5 at some point and get creative with the chipping.

BK - Thanks. I think I remember you building that. Maybe around the time before your Corsair? I remember you did a great job on it.

Wingnut - I’ll have to take a look at the Scooter. ALways loved the A4, and I don’t think I’ve caught up on my reading in a while. Can’t wait to see.

Bvallot - thank you. I had never thought about paint layering until I came back to the hobby last year. Before, I was all about hosing it on from a rattle can, slapping decals on and calling it finished. I now really enjoy the painting phase above all else.

Gamera - thanks! Update incoming.

Rooster - I think you said itbetter than I did - I don’t find the perfection in panel line shading to be entirely realistic. I think it really adds life to a build, but I find it hard to be subtle with it, and I like the more randomized look I’ve seen others do, so I thought I’d give it a try.

Lawdog - thank you, and I’ll have to give your panel shading and streaking a go at some point, because I look at your builds and half expect them to start up and taxi for takeoff.

-BD-

11

Ok, so here is an update after the past two nights of work (well, and a quick lunch clear coat session).

I got the clear sprayed on the paintwork (Alclad Klear Kote), and got to decals last night. I used the Tamiya kit decals for Saburo Sakai, and either the Zero didn’t have many stencils, or Tamiya just didn’t include them on the sheet (I purposely didn’t look because if I found a stencil sheet, I’d feel compelled to buy it and apply it).

So this is where I left off last night:

This evening, I was able to seal the decals with another layer of Klear Kote right after work. While that was drying, I sprayed the cowling Tamiya German Grey, then hit it with some Tamiya NATO Black for shading. I think it’s a bit subtle to the point of not seeing it, but oh well, I mostly got the slightly faded cowling look I was going for.

I originally followed the instructions and painted the wheel wells metallic blue (Alclad Polished Aluminum topped with Tamiya Clear Blue), but it seems they were more of a metallic green. Fortunately, painting Clear Green on the blue color looks pretty close to my eye (certainly close enough for me to not lose sleep over it).

Once the Klear Kote dried, I applied FLory Dark Dirt wash prety liberally, then wiped it in the direction of airflow once it had dried. It stuck on some of the raised panel lines, and I kind of like the effect, even though I wish all of them were recessed.

Next, I attached the engine and prop spinner shaft, then glued the cowling to the plane.

Here is where I am tonight - awaiting another clear coat to seal the wash so I can mask the gear bays for the respray with clear green.

One question - the instructions look like they call for the prop to be a dull aluminum on front and semi-gloss black on the rear. Is that how they were done?

Thanks again, everyone!

-BD-

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The prop was aluminum on the face and brown with a grey tone on the rear. Mr Color actually makes the correct color for that. C131 “propeller color” IJN aircraft WWII.

Nice work on the paint, I like the mottled tone to the color. It makes it look sun faded quite nicely.

BK

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BrandonD: Looks good to me, I like how the mottling turned out!

BTW: I’d not worry too much about the wheel wells too much. The aotake was exactly what you painted it as- a translucent varnish applied over the natural metal for protection. When new it was bluish, as it aged it turned more greenish. Since you’re not doing an old beat-up plane the blue is fine, you can add a little green if you want but I wouldn’t add too much.

Also BrandonK is right, the props were painted an anti-glare colour on the back of the blades sometimes, or the whole prop in other cases. To me it looks more of a rust colour brown but it’s more a matter of painting it how it looks right to you.

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Well done sir. Paint looks fantastic.

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BrandonK - Thanks for the tip. I won’tbe able to get any Gunze in, but I’m thinking maybe Tamiya Dark Brown with a bit of something mixed in.

Gamera - Thanks. That saves me a step. Though since I already blued the insides of the gear doors I’m not using, I think I’ll try a really thin clear green spray over it just to see what it looks like.

Wing Nut - thank you.

16

BD that looks great. Nice subtle weathering. I have a tamiya mix for propeller color Brown 7 parts red 3 parts black 1 part. Hope it helps. John

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That’s a nice job on an old kit there. I prefer post shading myself, but I do like that mottled look before the final coats.

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I think you did really good on the pre-shading. You can also do post-shading if you like, just dont get carried away.

19

Random is good on the paint fading! Looks nice.

20

The build looks great. I have did the black base on armour in the past but I always end up covering it to much. This one looks fine to me.

I also have this kit that I haven’t built. I hear tamyia has released a up dated version that also is quite nice.