This is Tamiya’s old 1/48 Zeke. A pretty good kit all in all. The canopy was a pain to mask/paint because of its size. Also, on EVERY build, I always break off the antenna at some point prior to finishing. So, I had to glue that back on and make it look clean. I put the weather to her and I hope I didn’t overdo it (that seems to be the hot debate right now[:-^])!! The carrier based ones were cleaner than the land based ones. So, I’m deciding if it’s too much. Comments always welcomed and thanks for looking…
Nice build Wulf. The weathering doesn’t appear over done to me. Recent research suggests the color was not the light grey seen on most models, but it still looks correct to me. I mean, Tora Tora Tora wouldn’t have gotten it wrong…right ? [:)]
I agree Rick…seems like there are several shades of this particular plane. Hard to know which way to go. I ended up mixing my own color as best I could.
Hey Wulf, nice work! What shade did you use for the interior?? I think your weathering looks pretty appropriate. As for land based being dirtier than carrier birds, that seems so backwards from what I’m used to lol.
How did you make your aotake(sp?). I ask because it looks very blue compared to what I’ve seen on other builds.
Weathering looks spot on to me! Really seems to capture the look. When I built that kit, I painted it the same color.
As for the “correct” color, Brian Criner talks quite a bit about it in the “modeling the Mitsubishi A6M Zero” from Osprey. It looks like a weird greenish yellow to me. Supposedly, it is available from White Ensign Models, but I have not checked. They also talk about it on the J-aircraft page on the web.
Here is a pic I took of an A6M-2 at the USAF museum in Dayton, OH. Seems to have that greeninsh shade.
The pictures of the “aotake” appear very bluish, not the more metallic aqua which is marketed.
I’ve seen an intersting review where the modeler mixed equal part blue and green, then added 50% clear and painted the mix over a silvver/aliminum base. It gave real depth to the aotake color, which was very realistic.
I likethe exterior color you used, only becuase I grew up with that being the standard color for a Zero. I’ve seen many articles stating it shold be a more caramel color, and the ones who say that have a much more scientific approach to their suggestion than mine (which is “I think it should be gray”!), so they are probably correct, but I always stick with IJN gray myself.
[tup] Good job Wulf. I like the grey, that is what I grew up with being the right colour for a Zero. And the colours were always a little different place to place and batch of paint to batch of paint. All that aside the fact is you have a good looking bird and the weathering is fine.
What colors and ratios did you use? I’m working on the same model and will eventually get to the painting phase. I can agree with the others, the color of your zero is what I usually think of as being the “right” color. It looks great, and I don’t think it looks to over-wethered from where I am.
