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A5M2 Claude (Special Hobby)


Zero77

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This book is ne of the Maru Mechanics series. Very good as far as I can tell from looking at the pics !

 

In France, they are sold on-line by Lela-Presse.

 

Hubert

 

Yep, there are at least two in the database, here and here. Good looking job so far.

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Thanks for your nice comments !

 

I've got a little further in the build. It's not a so easy build ! (not as i thought when i've started it !)

 

The fuselage and wings fit is far from perfect. I filled the gap with CA + microballoons (damn, this thing is hard as a rock, and pretty difficult to sand and rescribe, but maybe i was a bit too generous), then sanded with coarse grit, add a lot of putty to level it all, and sanded it again, and then a long rescribing operation. I've modified a bit the panels template around the aft, where there are the empty cartridges holes.

 

I'll try to add pictures this evening.

 

I've also retried to make the support rods for the engine cowling, with 0.33 nickel rod instead of the 0.64 plastic strips. The result is very nice and way more scaled. But it is very fragile as the glued surface is very tight even if i've flattened the rods ends... (i've already broken 3 or 4 rods... have to glue them again)

 

 

And another mishap : the position lights. The kit supply clear parts, so you have to cut the ones moulded in the wing (in grey plastic). The issue is that the clear ones are ok in lenght and depth, but almost 1mm too short in height. So impossible to use as this. I've seen on another build that the builder has used some toothbrush handle, moulded in clear red and clear blue. Good idea ! But i was never able to find this kind of toothbrush, now every toothbrushed have handles from the future, with many strange material. Impossible to find a simple good old toothbrush as they were in the 80's !

So i've found another solution : to use a clear resin casting block. The good point : it works. The bad point : i had to open several resin kits to find a clear resin casting block, and i ended starting a HPH P-63 kit.... (i'm ashamed !). Second bad point : clear resin is harded than plastic, and not very easy to shape without thinning the wing all around the light. I started protecting the plastic with masking tape, but i had to finish without this protection to make it flush, and then i had to rescribe most panel lines around it.

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  • 1 month later...

Here are a few progress on this build !

 

First, the way i've solved the position lights issue. The clear parts supplied in the kit were under sized and impossible to fit on the wings (too small in height, so there was a step impossible to fill with putty as the parts are clear). I've seen in another A5M build that a smart modeller has used clear blue and clear red toothbrush handles cutted to shape to make his own position lights. I've looked for this kind of toothbrush in several shops, but i wasnt able to find some. So i had the idea to use some clear resin casting block as an alternative. And it worked great ! The only problem was that the resin is harder than the plastic, so sanding the resin so shape it and make it flush with the model without over sanding the plastic wings was a bit tricky. Here is the result :

 

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Next i have to set up the signting scope. The supplied part has 2 little struts, but with these struts it cant go through the windscreen hole ! Too bad, i've cutted them, drill the sighting scope and fitted 2 small pieces of brass tube. So at the end of the build i'll be able to add this scope.

The fit of the wind screen is not good at all. I've firstly painted the windscreen and the cockpit cowilngs in aluminium, then scrapped off the paint in the gluing area, and then glued it with standard styrene glue (tamiya extra fluid). And then i've filled the huge gap with mr surfacer 500. The next day, i've sanded to get a continuous shape with the aft cowlings. I dont have enough references to know how it is on the real thing, but i'm happy with that.

 

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Edited by Zero77
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Now ready to paint !

I've started with the engine cowling. Actually, those japanese engine cowlings are not really black, but a very dark blue. So i tried to get a blue that looks black. I've made a mix of  flat, semi gloss black and royal blue, painted with thin coats. It worked pretty well, and the nice thing is that in the first coats, it looked a bit like Aotake, so maybe it's pretty close to reality :

 

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In the end, i've sprayed a slight coat of very thinned tamiya smi gloss black to blacken it a bit more. Now it looks black when you look at it, but looks bluish when you put it beside a really black object.

Edited by Zero77
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Now the fuselage.

I'd like to have one of those nice sightly golden A5M, as seen over China in the early months of the japanese attacks in 1937. It seems now to be pretty sure that the tint was the result of a yellowish protective varnish, certainly the first uses of the more known Ame-iro seen on some of the grey Zeros (which were therefore not really grey but a bit brownish grey).

 

So i've decided to use the same technique. Firtstly painting the aircraft with alclad aluminium, and then applying a yellowish varnish (actually it's a mix of xtracrilics clear satin, and tamiya clear orange, clear yellow and smoke). It worked pretty well, and i was able to get nice variations in the paint, with the nice sligh golden effect that i want, but depending with the lighting. Much better in my opinion than painting it directly with a golden tinted aluminium. great !

 

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As it was a varnish, i was able to make some paint chipping on the walking areas in the wing roots (i used AK paint chipping product) :

20141123_012927_zps2cad39b0.jpg

Edited by Zero77
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Next, the red areas and the hinomaru.

I've painted them all instead of using the decals, so i can have a better matching between the differents markings, and i can make a bit of paint chipping.

I've made the hinomaru with my Silhouette portrait cutter. It took about 5 minutes only.

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The red is a custom mix with gunze flat red and gloss vine red (to have it a bit "bordeaux"), with a bit of insigna red to tone it down and make it a bit more brownish.

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But when i've taken out the masks, i had a very bad surprise.... THe masking vinyl i use for custom mask is pretty strange. It is not very tacky and stick a lot less than tamiya masking tape. But it seems that it has a special power to chip paint, even with this lack of stickiness. I cant understand that. I've already encounter a bit of this kind of issue with my P-47, but then it was easy to correct (slight sanding with 2000 grit, then micromesh and a new coat of alclad). But now, my big problem is that i have this damn ame-iro varnish, so i cant do it the same way. I will have to think about it, as at the moment i still dont know how to correct that. On the wing, it's not a real problem as i can apply a pit of aluminium paint with a small handbrush and call it weathering varnish chipping, but in the fuselage, it's very tricky....

 

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I think i will hand paint aluminium inside the chipped areas, and then apply a varnish with a handbrush too. I think airbrush work wont be good for this kind of touch up.

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That's a shame about the paint pulling up Nicolas, but I'm sure you'll make it right. I often prefer to use one of Tamiya's rattle can silvers, rather than Alclad, for this kind of work, as they're pretty much bullet-proof.

 

Kev

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Kev, Aclads are usually pretty tough, i've never had any bad experience while masking it with tamiya masking tape. But with this masking vinyl, i always have at least a small bit of paint that peel off. That's really strange, as this vinyl is less sticky than the tamiya masking tape. I must react differently....

But you're right, next time i'd have to make a special paint job, difficult to touch up, i should at least make a primer coat of tamiya silver from rattle can, even if i dont like it too much (they are difficult to control).

Edited by Zero77
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Yes, Ron, but the problem with the airbrush is that i have a coat of aluminium and over it another coat of clear yellow varnish. So if i touch it up with airbrush, the overspray over the untouched areas will make them more yellow. If i cant correct it, i may mask the areas around following the panel lines, sand it clean and respray everything.

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