toadwbg

This was a common fit problem even when those kits were relatively new! Tip I learned, bond the upper wings to the fuselage first. This will close the gap there first. Then add the lower wing. Any mis-alignment or tolerance stack up is pushed to seams that are easier to manage.

I'm headed out on a work trip to Japan this week, my first time there! I expect to come back with a few model kits in my luggage

Went out turkey hunting this AM but only got gobbles... Re-painted the cowling and fuel tank. This time I used my fingernail and a 2400 sanding pad to chip away at the paint, came out much finer as I wanted. Not as much aluminum to see here right now but I might add more chips. l layed down the first base-layer of paint with the trusty Iawata airbrush, I started with the underside grey. I chose Tamiya X-12, which has a slight green tint to the grey paint that I like for the A6M5. Tamiya sprays down like a fine wine. I thin about 1:1, my thinner is 90%+ ISO alcohol, some retarder and a couple drops of Future (Floor Wax) to add some semi-gloss sheen.

I decided to glue in the removable covers for the working gear feature. Once I'm done painting, the gear will stay open permanently in ground display. Although these parts fit like a glove, I decided to screw them up by trimming and filing them for a little better fit. I pretty much made them worse! So I had to do a little sanding, filling, and blending in. This is the most sanding I've had to do on this otherwise excellent fitting kit.

Thanks for the advice on the paint chipping techniques fellas. I decided to strip the paint and give it another go. This time I'm just going to "chip" with my fingernail and some 2400 grit sandpaper. Stripping the Tamiya acrylic from the lacquer spraycoat was easy, about 20 minutes in a bath of Simple Green, diluted 50/50 with water and it washes right off.

Decided to try the paint chipping. My method involved first "stipling" areas typically wear paint chips off with liquid Micro Mask, than I airbrushed over with Tamiya Acrylics. I use a bit of Future (Floor wax) mixed in my paint for a touch of semi-gloss and it can help improve airbrushing. I sprayed a good coat, let them dry overnight and than used masking tape to pull off at the paint. Maybe worked too well.... I got the desired semi-random and jagged look but instead of getting lots of small chips I get lots of LARGE chips and paint removal. Too much? Not certain if I want to strip the paint and try again or not. After these photos were taken, I tried scraping smaller areas with a 1500-grit sanding pad and my fingernail, this improved the overall effect by adding more small chipped areas. I think I'm going to go with this.

Loops amazingly like my own Stuka I did a couple years back. If I can find a link I'll post it for comparison.

Insane level of detail!

Decided to throw this on the fuselage to see how it's going to look- it is marvelous! I sorta now want to display the Engine instead of putting the cowling on: I decided to tackle the cowling a bit, there is a small PE fin that goes into the turbo intake, what a PITA! Lost it to the carpet monster and created a new one out of stock plastic: Used Tamiya TS-30 Silver leaf for a base aluminum coat on the cowling and prop. I will probably heavily paint chip the cowling as seen in many historical photos.

Completed some detail painting on the radial engine and added the exhaust stacks, went together with no problems this time. There is a very thin ring, part C1, that goes on the back of the engine which supports the exhaust stack routing - careful with this part! Mine broke in 3 places and I had to mend and convince it back into shape. It did all work out with some luck. I got some more weathering to do back here, and paint touch-ups yet.

Tamiya USA came thru and I got the replacement Sprue D in the mail last week. Turkey hunting has been a bust so far and it rained most the day yesterday pretty hard, so back to work! This time I just assembled the engine per instructions without painting. Build first, paint second. I did some test fitting with the exhaust tubes and Viola- everything fits great this time! Painting: Should I paint the entire engine assembly Aluminum first than pick off black details, or Black first and pick off Aluminum details? I've done it both ways before and decided this time on Aluminum as it is the dominant color. I than gave it a good wash of black to fill all the recesses, add shadow and a hint of weathering. I will pick off the black details next:

No work completed in the last couple of weeksbecause Spring has finally sprung here in Iowa! Camping on the weekends, Turkey hunting, and daddy day-care while the wife has been traveling for work. Hoping for some bad weather so I can get some modeling done! I did contact Tamiya USA and ordered a replacement engine sprue so I can take another swing at getting it right. Sprue was like $14 with shipping, not too bad.

LOL, me too. I call sloppy seconds!

Minor Disaster.... Got time to put in the exhaust tubes on the engine and they do not line up! Something is completely wonky and I think I know what it is. The multi-piece engine is "keyed" so each and every piece is clocked into the right position. I got to putting on the rear case and found it would not fit correctly, it was 90-degress out of phase. I knew something was up and as I tried the first 2 exhaust stacks with a lot of dry-fitting I figured out something smelled really bad. So I tried back-tracking and pulling the engine apart, but we all know this doesn't work well once everything has been glued, bonded and painted. Total FUBAR. I need a new engine. Actually what i need is completely a new engine sprue, so I am trying to contact Tamiya USA customer service. Used my Google-Fu and got a web page and E-mail address only to get a post-master reply that that address no longer exists! UH.... If anyone has tips on where to reach Tamiya USA customer service, please help! By chance, I should be headed over to Japan for Work next month, maybe I'd have better luck getting a spare sprue from Tamiya in Japan?

Great detailedbook, I'd highly recommended it. I have yet to be dissapointed in any Aero Detail book. I pick them up on Ebay when I can.

Minor disaster- I washed the model to prep for painting and got water into the gear and flap bays that are the Aotoke color. The Lifecolor did NOT like getting wet and started to bubble and peel! NO! Some of it scratched off to the touch. I tried to avoid panic and let everything dry overnight. Viola! looked like new again in the morning except the areas I touched. I will just have to touch up some areas and I should be good to go again. Lesson learned, try not to let Lifecolor paint get water-wet again on the model surface.

Next are the covers over the guns/landing gear mechanism Tamiya has. They provide a tool for this but I found you can pry out the gear legs on their own once assembled also, so not sure you need these covers removable. I hate to have removable covers as with most kits they don't fit flush and stand out. However, as you can see below, they fit FLAWLESSLY on the Tamiya kit. Amazing engineering. Not sure if I'm going to glue them shut or not.

Landing gear is one of my modeling nemesis! Usually its saved to last because it's so fragile and frustrating. Tamiya makes the landing gear on this kit interesting and robust however with metal legs, screws to hold them in, and the retraction mechanism which actually works well. Very complex but the instructions walk you thru it well. To top it off, it all fits splendidly in the closed position- no need to mask! Love it. There maybe is a small misfit in the closed position on one side. TIP: Had I put the gear doors on AFTER I put the closed gear in I think this would have solved it. [/url]

Been working on this just a little bit when time allows. Turkey hunting season is coming up and but want to finish this first! Lots of focus on the engine, this is a mini-kit itself and worthy of being displayed. Seems like the only thing missing are ignition wires, not sure if I'm going to add them by scratch or not yet. I have a few references on the colors of the cylinders, seems some are all silver/aluminum some are black. I went with aluminum and did a nice dark wash of black, looks good in-scale to me.

Your right, they stand out in the photo a bit, just the way the flash and camera capture the light. Probably going to leave them be. When parked and under the aircraft they may not be as noticeable.

Dang this thing is gorgeous. Definitely on my to-do list. In fact I have the Trumpeter kit half-built and am not sure I'll ever finish it after have seen the fine Tamiya kit built.

Buttoned up the engine mount forward of the cockpit, again everything clicks like clockwork. Here you can see the provision made for rotating the working gear at those wing cut-outs. Not a fan of having them as separate removable features. I'll decide more after some trial fit this week.

Time for the engine, much like the cockpit, this is a finely detailed and intricate assembly that's intimidating at first. Do lots of dry-fitting and note the keyed features that get the alignment fixed correctly. The head scratcher here is how and when to paint? I prefer to assemble as much as I can before I paint within reason. After careful study, I broke apart the engine sub (sans-exhausts) down to 2 separate subs: I'll airbrush everything aluminum first than pick-off black details.

Nice pics, looks like the captured Zero from Alaskan islands?

The landing gear is pretty interestingly designed and engineered. Follow the instructions carefully and do some dry-fitting. I've read different reviews and articles on this kit that some of the gear doors should be the underside grey for Mitsubishi built Zeros and the Aotoke for Nakajima Zeros. I just followed the kit instructions. Honesty I just really like that Metallic blue-green color and wanted to show as much as I could.