So here is my first real WIP, I usually forget to take pictures along the way. I want to thank the folks that helped answer my questions in another post. This is my first kit from Tamiya and I think I like it. The kit seems to be fitting together really well, and the two figures are really detailed. Heres what comes in the box…
And I love this picture sheet. I’m going to do the color of the top one…
I’ve already started work. I have the cockpit finished and in the plane. I spent a while painting all the little details of the cockpit only to realize that they are invisible with the pilot and especially when you stivk it in the plane, so I snapped some pictures first…
I have glued the pilot in, put the cockpit in the frame, and attached the wings. I had a bit of trouble with the big wings and the tail wings but a little bending got them mostly in line. I filled the seems using masking tape to keep it from getting messy, another tip I learned from here. I’ll post some pics later. Let me know what you think so far.
Looking good so far! I’ll be watching this one with interest as I just added this to my stash over the weekend and also plan to do it in the earlier white scheme. Interested too see the next batch of pics. Good work!
Well, here ya go. I took some shots of the pilot in the cockpit, a shot showing the gap at the wing joint, and a couple of my puttying technique.
Now I’ve since sanded the putty but I have a problem. This happened to my F16 too. When I go to sand the wing joint it flexes and opens a crack again. Any tips on how to stop this?
I think I’ve mixed my color but its not on there yet. More pics in a few days probably. Thanks for looking and let me know what you think.
Your Zero is looking great. I just recently completed the exact same kit and posted some pics a few days ago. Yeah, those wing root seams were a bugger to deal with especially the step between the the wing and fuselage. I dealt with it by building up successive layers of Squadron white putty and 2 or 3 rounds of wet sanding. I also used a tip I learned here that helped a lot and that was to take a silver paint pen and “draw” a line of paint over the sanded seams. The silver paint easily brings out any pits or gaps that require additional work. The panel lines near this area on my build took a bit of a beating and thus I learned I need to hone my rescibbing skills. Masking those seams should help you alleviate a bit of that issue as I applied my putty without doing that. I’m really looking forward to more pics of your progress. Keep on keeping on.
I tend to use superglue on wing joints because of the flexing problem, or glue the top wing halves to the fuselage first and then back up the joint with plastic strip. That also helps get the minimum gap. When I apply putty, I tape off on both sides of the joint so only the minimum putty is applied, which means less sanding and the least loss of surface detail.
Its funny you ask this very question. I’ve got the kit on my desk at work. I do some building over my lunch hour and just today I was working this very issue. You are a step ahead of me by having attached the wing to the fuse but what I’m doing right now is LOTS of dry fitting of the two parts. I’m sanding thickness away from both the fillet and teh wing depending of which of the two is higher. I’m just about to where I’m very happy with the dry fit. (This process took most of todays lunch break.) I’m making an educated guess that this seem is also a panel line formed by the wing and fillet. (I have to get back to the USAF museum this week and take a look for sure.) My plans are to use the Tenax glue and then come along afterwards with medium CA to fill the gap. With luck I can re-scribe the joint back in after the fact. My technique will be to gently push the CA into the gap while wet to form both a bond between the two parts and possibly leave a small seem. We will see how that works and I’ll get back with the verdict. With luck I’ll get to that this week. I still have to work around the wing seems (top and bottom) and check for stupids.
The Zero is looking great. Keep it up! I tend to do a lot of dry-fitting, sanding, scraping, and gentile bending before glueing. If there is still a gap (there always is isn’t there) I go for the thick CA or the putty or Mr. Surfacer 500 depending. I realy don’t enjoy sanding and I am no good at re-scribing so this tends to be the point that I get “distracted” and start another project.[sigh]
