Fanes

Great to see progress on that de Havilland Hornet!

Building continues in sloth speed. I already mentioned above that the left hand console needed some additions. Again the Tweak List was invaluable to get close to a Nakajima configuration. This time it was mostly removing stuff and adding some 0.2 mm copper wires. With that done, only the IP needs to be prepped for the Quinta decals and then the cockpit should finally be ready for some paint!

Pastor John from AIMS offers them in resin: https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/AIMS32P35

Tiny little bit off topic, but I wanted to share what I'm working on besides all the fiddling with the Tamiya Zero. I decided to have a little side project that's pure fun. Meaning: no super detailing, no strive for accuracy and definitely no pressure to deliver. Since there was from time to time some interest in Star Wars stuff in the non-LSP-section, this little bust might be familiar to some other fans: It's a 3D printed model - not the best print unfortunately. You can see the resin with the first layer of primer on. THis was followed by a lot of grinding to get rid of all the print lines. Right now the following coat of primer is drying and I'm looking forward to painting Boba Fett's armor. I might start a thread over in the right section, but I don't plan on doing a strict WiP because that seems sometimes related to my losses of motivation.

Thank you very much for the kind words guys! Currently I'm goiung with the flow and oh boy, this seems like complete insanity. Little overview on the plumbing on the cockpit floor. I went with a busy look - not with accuracy. There's too much going on in the original cockpit to really figure out what goes where. A little detail I'm quite proud of: the small box on the floor with the four handles. Tamiya gives you the configuration post 1943 with only three T-handles. Luckily you get the A6M5 cockpit floor as well. So after a quick cut, there are now four handles, as there should be for an early Nakajima built Zero-Sen. The starboard cockpit wall is now complete with all the wires added. Switching to the port side now. Not so much going on, since there aren't that many changes from the stock configuration. Simply added a boatload of wires to the fuse box; scraped of the details from it to make it ready for the Quinta bits. The small lamp was cut from another Tamiya part and wired up. The trim tab mechanism got a chain made from twisted, annealed and compressed 0.2 mm copper wire - will add the trim tab wheel after painting. The side console is only dry fitted, since there's some more work ahead. So far I only scraped of the details on the front part - again for the Quinta 3D decals and cut off the dynamometer on the rear that I had already glued on. Had to add the six lightening holes of course. Some more small stuff still along the road, but the fun has defintely returned to the bench.

I'd be happy, if my thread couzld be moves as well. Thanks a lot Joachim

Oh well, it's been a while. Work and some personal stuff kept me from continuing with my Zero-Sen. I'll try to continue this build but since the GB has ended, moving the thread to the WiP section would be much appreciated. Cockpit conversion This will be quite a big chapter because there will be quite some work necessary to get an accurate representation matching "my" Zero. Actually it was kind of overwhelming, when I realized the amount of small details that vary between different A6M2s. The Tweak List has all of them - one simply needs to know what's applicable. As said on p.1 I'll build a Rabaul based, Nakajima built A6m2 from 252 Kokutai. According to the Pacific Profiles book the first wave of Zeroes (only five Model 21s) arrived at Rabaul on November 9 in 1942. They lost quite a big amount of planes before they left for the Marshall Islands during February 1943. Because my chosen subject was photographed at Lakunai airfield near Rabaul, a prodcution until autumn 1942 seems likely. Enough with all the words let's move on to cutting some plastic. I started with the starboard sidewall because it features most changes from the Tamiya kit. There are a lot of good references in Sean's (Madmax) WiP from p.3 onwards: If you haven't seen this one - take a peak. In my opinion it's one of the most beautiful Zero-Sen builds I have ever seen. The radio equipment, as well as the RDF equipment and the morse key had to be left of. Unfortunately, there are some shelves that need to be cut off. Creating new stringers from plastic sheet seemed like the easiest option. The unforgiving macro shot shows all the little shelve thingies and mounting points, that were created from plastic strips and sheet. I'm not really happy since most of them are somewhat sloppy, but that's the best I could do in two sessions. Next up will be adding cables and plumbing to get the whole thing to look alive. I hope to be able to keep the momentum, but there's a constant struggle between doing the subject justice and doing anything at all. Cheers, Joachim

Most impressive and precise painting, Quang! I especially like, what you've done with the emblem. Using multiple masks for the different colours, instead of assembling the whole mask piece by piece seems to do the trick. If some nitpicking isn't too daring: it looks like there's some paint bleed on the rudder's trim tab and a small line of white paint on the starboard fuselage cross from mask misalignment. Cheers, Joachim, who will follow your beautiful build more closely in the future.

Will do the same as soon as this month's paycheck arrives!

Shame - I was really looking forward to an IM Me 410

Great paint work Tolga! In case you want to go a little crazy: the loop antenna on the belly isnt't a solid part, but consists of 2 thin rings.

Gentlemen - we have an engine! After the washes a flat coat from Tamiya acrylics was misted on and afterwards the assembly went on. Everything went silky smooth, except for fiddling with all the ignition wires. Getting all of them in the drilled holes on the cylinders needes two sessions and a lot of touch-ups. There's some Aotake as well Alclad Aluminium covered with transparent blue green mixed from Tamiya clears. As you can see, only the front face was carefully painted and wired. The rest will be invisible. As the next step, I will take care of the cockpit to represent a Nakajima built and land based Zero-Sen.

+1 for the set from RP-Toolz - I can't imagine scratch building anything without it anymore.

Exactly - I used my RP toolz punch-and-die. Can't imagine scratch building anything without it anymore

There has been a lot of babysteps on the past days - all not overly photo worthy. But now the engine is completely painted and has recieved a pin wash mixed from oils (still need to clean them up). Up now nothing has been glued. It's just a dry fir for you mates: While the oil colur is curing and use the time until I can apply a clear coat, I turned to other small stuff. For example the spinner and prop. Both were painted on a gloss black base. The spinner recieved a thin coat of Tamiya lacquer Silver and the prop blades were done with Alclad Duraluminum. Oncy fully dry, the rear facing sides will get their dark brown colour onto a layer of hairspray to be able to chip the paint off. I guess, the Rabaul based Zero-Sens saw some heavy action and lots of dirt and dust. Speaking about land based airplanes: Many of them flew without radios to save weight and since they weren't working properly. The Tweak List for the kit calls out what to leave off and one thing is the RDF reciever. Since its shelf has a lot of lightening holes, I made my own shelf from styrene sheet. Right now, I'm collecting all the parts that will be painted in Aotake to give them a black base followed by a layer of Alclad. Really want to this in one go, so there will be a lot of prep work necessary beforehand. Cheers, Joachim

What a beauty! Your Spit looks decently weathered without having a worn out look. I especially like the streaky and oily belly and the prop blades. Keep on going Quang - it's a joy to watch

Although it was defintely not that much good days for outdoor activities, progress on the Zero is slow. There's another project (a new roadbike) which needs time for the assembly as well. On the plus side, the ignition distributor is finished, even though it took many more hours than anticipated. Here it is wired up with all 28 lines in their small brass tubes. Of course I had to redrill most of the tubes because of the burrs from cutting. Additionally some of them pinged off from the bench into oblivion, but I guess the effort is worth the result. Afterwards I apllied a primer (the Tamiya one for metal) to hopefully increase paint adhesion. This was followed by a gloss black base for all the engine parts and for some other parts, that are ready for paint, too. I hope you're still on board and that this wasn't the most boring update so far

Andreas - I may add, that you will get a discount from ArtScale once you've registered with them. I've paid 107€ + shipping. Unfortunately they shipped my Spitfire to my old address yesterday. So, we'll see, if I get my kit in a near future..

Indeed, it's rather bench than cycling weather. Although we had a nice and sunny afternoon yesterday, I chose to proceed with the ignition.

I have to agree a 100% with Ernest here - fantastic work. Did you use the one piece, or two piece spark plugs from Anyz?

Oh boy, it's been a while since I intended to start this build. Unfortunately, every single time I opened the box to start a sudden loss of mojo kicked in and I just put the box back onto the shelf. After being sick at home for a week, the motivation was finally there and work began on the engine. I intend to leave the cowling on, so this will be no super detailing but just the visible stuff. The Tamiya kit is lacking the prominent baffles on the cylinder heads. If you want to display the full engine, eduard is your friend. I simpoly needed the front part. Since cutting 14 identical items from styrene sheet isn't my strength, I resorted to my Silhouette cutter and here we go: The front row recieved some pipes and lines from copper wire as well. The rear row won't, because it'll be virtually invisible and I really want to finish this build in time. Another lacking part is the ignition distribution ring. Tamiya provides 7 thin and 4 thick stubs and that's it. Since one does need to add 14 ignition leads and 4 lines to the magnetos in the back, that's not going to cut it. I shamelessly copied Alex' approach with the sort brass tubes (0.6 mm and 1.0 diameter). I made a start, but had to leave it there because the work is really fiddly and my concentration isn't on par yet again. I hope to keep this thread rolling and will show a painted engine in the next update. Joachim

Fair point with the landing gear, Ernest. Most builders seem to opt for the Aires resin wheel wells. My plan is to use the Tamiya parts and assemble everything fixed without any of the movable features. We'll see how that will work out.

Well, looks like I'll be buying a Revell Hurricane after all

At the beginning of this GB there was a lack of Zeros, so I started looking into the subject. The Tamiya kit was set early (even though I got mine 2 days ago), since I wanted an easy build - at least compared to the struggle with a Revell Spitfire.. The dark green over grey schemes of the A6M5 aren't my cup of tea. So an A6M2 in green-brwon-grey (J3) was basically set. The standard ones - Pearl Harbour etc. - have been so many times, that I started looking for something else. During my research I stumbled uppon the small scale kit from eduard with a field applied camo: Eduard being eduard, doesn't provide any useful information to the subject and I couldn't find any pictures in my references and the internet. So, that's a nono. Talking about references: I have "A6M Zero Aces 1940-43" from Nick Millman as a general ressource and the Pacific Profiles No.5 for more specific stuff. I plan to get Nick Millman's early Zero guide, too. Thumbing though the Pacific Profiles, I found an interesting one: Profile 70 is a Nakajima built A6M2 from 252 Kokutai with a quite unusual camo, that gets denser from front to aft. I guess, I'm set.. What material will be used? of course the beautiful Tamiya kit (my first) a Quinta cockpit set, that came with it eventually some parts from the Montex mask set (was ion the box) more likely: masks cut on my Silhouette eduard stencil decals eventually a set of HGW seatbelts resin wheels - are there any for the A6M2? That's it for now. I'm off to buy the necessary colours and looking for a set of resin wheels. Cheers Joachim