Zero Progress: 1/48 Tamiya A6M2

Here’s an update and some photos on my bird. Almost ready to go to paint except for some stupid seams that need fixin’.

Here’s the photos of the seams. I didn’t carelessly cut the parts of the sprues or oversand, I was actually extremely careful (maybe not careful enough hehe.) but ended up with seams on the left wing as well as this one area of the engine cowling. The rest of the cowling lines up good, and the other joint between the fuselage and the wing is nice as well. Should I just use the technique Swanny outlines on his website to take care of this (fencing I think)? Or am I just being anal about this and they aren’t really as bad as I think they are?

Thanks and I look forward to hearing your comments!

If you’re going to paint the light grey scheme, you might to spend more time on the seams, they will not go away. It will be work but you will be glad you did. Since the nose cowling will be black, they won’t be so noticable there.

Andy

You definitely want to clean up those seams. Conventional fillers, putty or gap filling CA, should do the job OK.

Regards, Rick

Hi! I just finish mine and I encounter the same problems; putty, sanding & patience worked for me. I did mine in Akagi attack group colors (aluminum w/red details).

Just one question…The interior color you used looks greenish to me. Is it supposed to be “aotake” (metallic clear blue)?

Anyway, looks great!

I’m not really sure there was a standard color. I have only seen Zero’s with green and grey cockpit interiors. I have never actually seen a photo with the clear metallic cockpit. This website shows the metallic clear blue color in the wheel wells and right behind the engine cowling on the picture to the left. However, they show the cockpit to be a darker grey.

http://www.fargoairmuseum.org/historic-aircraft-a6m2-type-21-zero-6544.html

Another website shows a the scheme that I used. Dark green cockpit with grey instrument panel. This plane, however, was assembled from 3 wrecked aircraft, so authenticity may be lacking.

http://www.pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/a6m/5356/zero-cockpit-interior.jpg

Here is yet another example of the green/grey cockpit.

http://www.aeronautics.ru/archive/wwii/books/cockpit/Mitsubishi%20Zero%20A6M3.jpg

I haven’t found any shots with the metallic blue cockpit as the instructions specify. That doesn’t mean it didn’t exist though. Anyone with an expert knowledge of Zero’s care to clear this up for us?

Thanks for the comments by the way [:D]

Ortiz - (I’m not an expert by the way haha) japanese aircraft colors are about the hottest topic you can get into… www.j-aircraft.com has enough data on it to make your eyes glaze over!

The majority of Zeros basically had two colors for the cockpit interior, a Mitsubishi interior green which was a slightly darker variant of US Interior green color, and the Nakajima interior green which was a closer match to RAF interior green maybe with a smidgen of white added.

Later Zeros like the A6M7 were possibly/probably aotake.

Here’s a link to some threads on j-aircraft about it:

http://www.j-aircraft.com/faq/interior_colors.htm

Late war Zeros might have had aotake interiors regardless of model, due to the shortage of paints and/or time to get them to the front at that point.

Oleander13

Gaps at wings root can be tough sometimes. If a test fit shows minor gaps with upper and lower wings in place, try making the adjustments for a good wing joint fit and glue the upper wing in place first. There is usually a decent mating surface to get the right dihedral. Then mate the bottom wing section to that assembly. If the gap is real bad you may need to add a spreader, or 2, to bring the fuselage side of the root out to meat the wing.

9 times out of 10 I will remove the locating pins on any part that goes together as 2 halves… like a fuselage. Tape a sheet of 400 or 600 sandpaper to a very flat surface, a piece of glass works great, hold the fuselage or whatever down evenly and give the mating surface a light sanding… do both sides. You will have a flat gluing surface and if the parts need some adjustment it is easier without the pins.

In the front shot of you Zero the right side is a bit higher than the left so you are dealing with a possible gap and a step. In the top shot the right side is back a bit I think steps are harder to deal with than a gap. There is no rule that says the whole fuselage must glued up all the same time. Align and glue the top seam and after it cures, then do the bottom. I use Tenax and after the glue had softened the plastic, a gentle squeeze and some will ooze out. After that hardens it files or sands nicely. I rarely use putty on a fuselage seam.