The Zero's Engine Build and Painting

For as much effort as I put into the engine for the Zero, I thought it should have it's own thread. Plus, I have a bunch of pictures to use, so here it is!

The engine looked a bit vanilla out of the box even for me, so I thought, "Why not detail it?"

Here are the little bit of stretched sprue I used to add the pushrods.

Added pushrods and tapped some holes for the ignition wires.

You don't even know how much sprue I stretched to get enough and a consistent width. It was a lot.

Once I had a length and width I liked, I folded over some tape to cut them apart. Otherwise, when I would cut the little piece off, it would ping into oblivion.

Added the little pieces in between the pistons.

Front and rear piston sections.

Bwah! Wires, wires, wires.

Primed. As you can tell, this was done way before the Hanomag was complete. I never did get through models quickly.

Sprayed with Model Master Acryl Gun Metal.

Painted pushrods and top of the pistons with Tamiya Flat Aluminum. I brush painted Tamiya and didn't have too much problem. I thinned it with Tamiya thinner and added a drop of Flow-Aid.

All buttoned up.

You've probably seen the wires move around a lot. That's because they did. Getting the wires to where they needed to be was an absolute pain. I modified my approach a few times along the way.

Some wires continue to be fiddly and may need to be re-glued. I have since discovered that the wires going over the top of the rods will be a problem when sliding the cowl on. I suppose we shall see!

Thing Two's Testors 1/32 Subaru Impreza WRX STi

And now for something completely different.

The younger son, we'll refer to as "Thing Two", has been wanting to put a snap model together. As we were at the local craft store, I told him he could pick out a model. He ended up picking out Testors 1/32 Subaru Impreza for about $10. I've been trying to find a way to get him involved since he has been talking about building a model and his older brother is beginning to build them.

During the build, there were some "Dada" moments were I had to step in and help, but overall, he did pretty well on his own. The kit itself was okay, a mix of screws and snap together.

Here was an exchange with Thing Two and myself one morning just for laughs.

Thing Two: "Mama, I love you."
Father: "Do you have anything to say to Dada?"
Thing Two: "Yes. What's for breakfast?"

The box had a clear cover so you can see the parts. I forgot to take the picture before opening.

Here is essentially all the parts.

Thing Two is putting in the gear box.

The cockpit....or whatever the inside of a car is called.

The body is metal and the innards are plastic.

Putting the wheels on. I had to step in here because it required some considerable muscle. I wasn't too impressed with this setup because as I pushed, the plastic around the wheels began to crack.

Snapping the clear part into the body.

Screwing the bottom portion to the body.

A functional model!

That's about it. All told it was probably a 10-15 minute job. No paint or glue required!  The rear spoiler lasted about about a day before it broke off. Oh well.

I bought a 1/72 P-51 Mustang for him to snap together. As I'm typing this, I haven't given it to him yet. By the time you are reading this, he has probably assembled it. I'm sure I'll post something soon, well, eventually.

Zero Cockpit: Primed, Painted, Finished

Here is the second installment of the Zero build. We'll be handling the priming and painting of the cockpit for this go around. Without further ado, here it is.

Primed with AK Interactive's Grey Primer.

Primed up. It's best to let this primer cure for 24 hours before painting.

Tamiya's Metallic Blue for the wheel wells.

More Metallic Blue for the inside of the wheel well doors.

The Tamiya instructions state to use Metallic Blue for the cockpit. I haven't really seen any reference photos with Metallic Blue on the interior of Zeros, but a lot of them are in black and white anyway. I probably should have went with cockpit green, but I'm not changing now.

Here's that Metallic Blue decision I made. I'm just following the directions man!

I painted the areas with Semi-gloss Black and the silver is Tamiya Flat Chrome. I was concerned with brush painting Tamiya paint as I have read a lot of people complained about it. I just took a little bit, added a drop of Flow-Aid and a few drops of thinner and I didn't have a problem.

I lightly dabbed the Chrome to simulate the chipping...or was it flat aluminum?

Instrument panel decal on, then I put the control stick in.

It was then given a slight treatment of Mig's Dark Wash.

Interiors done and dry brushed.

Cockpit glued in place...for now. (More on this later.)

The fuselage glued, taped and clamped.

Now we are moving along...the posts at least. I'm much further ahead at the moment, or not. It depends, I scheduled this to auto-post a little while ago. Got to spread out the content! Thanks for looking in.

Tamiya 1/48 A6M3 Zero Underway!

I started building the Zero. Actually, I started building about two months ago, March 15th to be exact, and this post has been sitting in draft for quite some time. I'm going to make an effort to get caught up, but in the meantime, lets get started!

The cockpit disassembled. The instrument panel is flat as the detail will be applied via decal.

Partially built.

Yeah! Completely built!

No sense in waiting around. Let's get the wings together.

All together.

Wee, it's a plane!

I'm dreadfully behind on posts. Much more is done, but this will be enough to whet your whistle.