Tamiya A6M3 Zero (Hamp) Completed

No need for a long winded introduction, here's another plane done. All my words will be at the bottom, well most of them.

After undressing the canopy, I discovered a fog that had wafted from the rear. I hypothesize that when I glued the antenna in place and fixed the canopy over it, the fumes from the unset Extra Thin caused the slight fog wisp on the inside of the canopy.

Well there it is. It's only taken me about five months! The body received a final coat of AK Ultra Matte Varnish and the cowl and propellers, Winsor & Newton Satin Varnish.

I've got a couple of the Zero's greatest adversaries in the stash that hopefully I'll be getting to soon, the F6F-3 Hellcat and one of my personal favorites, the F4U-1 Corsair. Perhaps they will be up next? Maybe....? Along with the PR.IG that is in progress, I started another kit that you will find out about shortly.

It's that time again to go through what I learned for this build, it's been a few months so here is what I remember.

• I really didn't care for the mix of raised and recessed panel lines on this kit.
• The kit details were soft and delicate, too easy to be obliterated by primer and paint. 
• I think the instructions really led me astray by painting the interior Metallic Blue, I won't do that again in the future.
• Alclad Black Lacquer primer can be touchy and leave a rough pebbly surface. Maybe it was too windy on the balcony? Maybe it was a bad batch? Maybe it just dried before it hit the surface? Maybe I used "maybe" too many times in this post?
• Don't force an airbrush needle through an airbrush, otherwise you'll end up with a curl like the Wicked Witches toes.
• Don't use glue like Extra Thin or CA glue anywhere near clear parts, even if they are not touching!
• Humbrol Maskol works great on un-varnished acrylic surfaces, very easy to remove and leaves no residue.
• I don't know if I would say I perfected my wheel painting, but it was definitely the best I've ever done.
• Let a decal sit for an hour before using Micro-Sol. I used it too soon and a decal floated off the surface and then it was too soft to move without damage.
• Oil weathering is not as easy as it looks.
• Sometimes you have to push through problems on a project to completion, even though it may not be up to standards. If you've learned something along the way, it was worth it. Especially on a $14 kit.
• I really need to get that lightbox built, the final pictures aren't the best.

Thanks for checking in and I hope to see your web stats return soon!

Weathering the Zero and Final Assembly

I've been struggling to write a good introduction for this post just like most posts. There it was, the introductory sentence.

This post will cover the final weathering and assembly of the Zero as the title previously indicated. The Zero was already heavily weathered for its paint job, so there wasn't a ton to do in the way of post decal weathering. I'm sure there could have been, but I'm not that savvy in those dark arts as of yet. Oils always take forever to dry, not that they have been holding up posts, but it seems the final stages really drag on because of it. Here are the last few major bits of work on the Zero.

I used Mig's Dark Brown wash for the panel lines...maybe, I don't remember now. I didn't want to coat the model as the surface wasn't all that smooth after my primer debacle, so removing it would have been a challenge even after the gloss coats.

I spent quite a bit of effort pushing the decals into the panel lines. I'll be focusing on that again in the future.

The panel lines were cleaned up and I added Winsor Newton Yellow Ochre to simulate fading on certain panels. I saw this method in the FAQ Aircraft book, but it didn't really work out for me. You can't see any of it now, but maybe I'll try this technique again in the future.

More of the Yellow Ochre that didn't pan out. I have the pictures, I might as well use them!

In some reference photos I saw there was some considerable filth in these areas. I thought I would try a dot filter with different oil paints; Prussian Blue, Yellow Ochre, and Burnt Sienna. It didn't quite work the way I expected, but it turned out okay in the end.

This is when I realized, "Hmm, maybe too thick?" I just continued to wipe it until it reached an acceptable level.

Brownish-yellowy stuff.

The dry-fitted engine.

The cowl and prop dry fitted. The fit is so tight, I didn't end up gluing these parts. Plus it gives me an opportunity in the future to showcase the engine.

Slowly unmasking the windows.

I'll leave the remainder for the final reveal pictures in the next post.

Here is that oil weathering, it toned down quite a bit as I cleaned it off.

That's all for this week. The next post will be the last for this project. See you then.

The Zero: Painting Bits and Decals

I suppose it's been nearly two months since there has been any update on the progress of the Zero, at least in the form of posts that is. Here are the some of the little bits and decals for the Zero. Compared to some model kits, there really aren't a ton of fiddly bits that need to be glued on at the final assembly stage, which is kind of nice. Here are most of those bits and the decals.

I applied some Maskol to the edges on the back of the propeller before painting the Aircraft Interior Black.

The rear of the prop after removing the Maskol.

Just as a refresher, I primed the wheels with AK Gray primer, and painted the Aluminum color. I know I used a Tamiya acrylic, maybe it wasn't aluminum, but I really don't care for it as it looks too sparkly to me. Anyhow, I gloss coated the wheels with Alclad Aqua Gloss before applying some straight paint thinner around the rims. I then touched un-thinned paint to it so it would flow around the rim. I did that a couple of times to build it up and spread it from the rim. I also lightened the flat black with some white.

From there, I just painted the wheels keeping away from the rim. I think these are the best wheels I've ever painted! They are pretty near flawless, even in real life.

The otherside. Zoom in, I dare you.

The decals were applied with Micro Sol and Micro Set. It didn't seem right to have flawless looking decals on a plane that was so chipped up. When the decals were soft, I poked at them with a toothpick or a knife blade.

Another thing that I saw in the FAQ book by AK was using a watercolor pencil to simulate fading on the decal itself. It worked okay and was a slightly noticeable in real life. However, after the last dull coat it is hardly noticeable. I'll have to experiment more with this in the future.

Decals applied to the prop. I had one of the red stripes lift on me after I applied the Micro Set. The decal was then too soft to maneuver without damage. I just had to accept fate and move on.

The last shot of applied decals.

I believe that is going to be all for this week. Now I just need to motivate myself to write the last two posts. See you next week! Maybe.

The Zero's Rejuvination!

All looked lost at the end of the last post for the Zero. As I continued to cogitate on the situation at hand, I realized that I could just continue with acrylic paints. The main inspiration was AK Interactive's FAQ Aircraft Modelling book that I recently acquired.

Let's see what I was able to accomplish.

The instructions called for semi-gloss black for the engine cowl. The FAQ book gave me the idea to paint it a lightened aircraft interior black and then I shaded the panel lines with flat black. You can see it better in real life.

I used a silver colored pencil to create chipping.

The completed, chipped engine cowl.

I used Tamiya's Titanium Silver to paint the propeller.

On the backside of the prop, I painted aircraft interior black.

I peeled off the Humbrol Maskol that I put down prior to painting the black. I'll show you what I mean below.

After coating the model with the Alclad Black Primer, I noticed a panel line I scribed was crooked and awful. I filled the line, sanded it and rescribed it with the the help of an embossing label

I sprayed semi-gloss black around the cockpit area as directed by the directions. Can't you see the difference? I removed the masking and added the antenna.

I glued the cockpit in place with Kristal Klear. Model glue and super glue will cause foggy on clear parts. Ask me how I know!

The side was re-primed with AK Grey primer. It caught some of the semi-gloss mist.

Here is the Titanium Sliver that I used on the prop.

Future self tells me, I shouldn't have left all those black areas.

This purple stuff is the Humbrol Maskol I mentioned earlier. It is a liquid latex that I applied with a torn green scouring pad. It also smells really bad, not a noxious, attack your nervous system bad, but just gross.

This will provide areas of chipping after applying the top coat.

I sprayed medium grey on the bottom. I realized that I really don't have the appropriate grey to spray, but I just wanted to move this project forward, plus the kids were gone for the weekend so time was of the essence. The next Zero will be better.

The finish of the bottom coat was terrible, the black primer had a rough and pebbly texture. I took a high grit sand paper and sanded it down. I would say the finish on the bottom is 80% improved. Some areas still have issues but they were difficult to reach, like under the fuel tank. Here I did some pre-shading with Tamiya Smoke.

Bottom coat re-applied. I think I should have put the coat on a little heavier. There was primer and paint down already, so I was concerned it would start to get thick and obliterate the very fine panel line detail. I'll nail it next time around.

For the top portion, I pre-shaded using the base coat of IJN Green. I put it down pretty heavy to show through the base coat.

The base coat of IJN Green is down. I added some lemon yellow to the paint, as I didn't have any white, to do some post shading inside the panel lines. It's tough to see in the pictures. I would have preferred adding white.

This is where the magic happens. I rubbed off all of the latex masking with my finger.

Zeros paint really took a beating in the Pacific and I wanted to heavily weather this aircraft and experiment with some new techniques. The areas on the outside of the wings and on the elevators, looked pretty clean after this. I took the same silver pencil I had for the engine cowl and created chipping effects on the panel lines. I don't have a good picture of it here, but you'll see it in the next post.

I masked off the leading edge for the Lemon Yellow highlights.

I added a little bit of Maskol to the leading edge before painting.

It came out fairly well.

Now for the chipping.

I'm becoming very familiar with cleaning and dissembling the Infinity. It's really a beautifully crafted airbrush. After recently dissembling the Infinity and the Badger I realized the difference between an $80 airbrush (that I got for $40) and a $250 airbrush.

Quality wise, I think this aircraft will have defects greater than my last aircraft, the Spitfire. I've tried a number of things different here, so I suppose that should be expected. I also learned that when you are spraying with metallics it's best to thin them more than you would for regular acrylic paints. Since the Zero had black primer, I think I should have applied the Titanium Silver all over instead of leaving some areas black. I see why grey or white is the preferred primer base for aircraft.This kit was $14, so I'm not too disappointed. It's all about the learnings.

That's it for now. It is on to a coat of Aqua Gloss and decals for the next post. See you then!