Ok, I’ve been trying to decide which way I should go on this one. I’m finishing up the Tamiya A6M2 Zero and I don’t know if I should fill the natural seam line (and glue joint) formed on the upper surface of the wing where it meets the fuselage. I know your saying to yourself, why not Dave???
Even though it may not have been an actual panel on the real A/C, there is indeed a line formed where the wing fillet meets the upper surface of the wing. Oddly enough it is roughly where the natural seam line is on the model as well. Using my logic, this seam could stay in place and would not be technically incorrect. Am I as usual missing the boat on this one??? Should I fill the seam line because it would look out of place on a 1/48 scale model?
That seam line on the Tamiya kit (and Hasegawa’s as well) does fall on a real panel line on the airplane. The Zero used a formed sheet metal fillet fairing between the wing and the fuselage but I believe it was riveted in place, so the seam would be no more prominent than that between any other skin panel on the airplane. So, a skin line there is accurate, but it can’t be very prominent to be in scale.
My seam is clean, but I’m trying to decide if removing it all together would look more pleasing to the eye than trying to keep it there. Obviously its not as precise as the kits recessed panel lines.
If the real thing had a seam line where the wing-fuselage oin occurs, then so should the model. What I usually do in these circumstances, if the kit is well-fitting, and the seam only shallow, is to run some typewriter correction fluid along the seam. then, when it has had a minute or two to dry, I use a cotton bud dipped in isopropanol to remove the surlus correction fluid, leaving the seam itself with only the shallowest indentation.