A6M2b Zero - shades of grey

[LSP_K2]

10 hours ago, Madmax said:

Kev, that Doyusha kit does look like it will be fun to build!

 

As far as references, my personally owned Zero specific ones are these:

 

 

I also refer to books such as John Dibbs' "Warbird Legends", and the relevant Osprey publications. The internet has some interesting avenues to disappear down, and I have found some very useful material on Japanese Instagram links to museums in Japan. The problem I find is that I spend more time staring at my computer screen than building the model . The Zero is challenging from a research point of view. There is so little untampered evidence left, that the (incorrectly) restored aircraft become the benchmark. Fortunately much has been done to subsequently correct this, and researchers like Ryan are busy changing our understanding of the subject.

 

Enjoy it,

 

Sean

 

Excellent. Thanks for that. I do have a few of the FAoW book(s), but not the two others that you show, both of which look very interesting.

[kap64]

On 11/1/2019 at 10:32 AM, Madmax said:

Thanks for the interest Gents!

 

Ryan, thanks for checking that I am on track, but more importantly a big thank you for your suggestions. Having done a bit of sleuthing I can tell that the Nakajima grey A6M2's are like mystery fighters. I don't understand why they are so scarce in photographs, or at least sporting a visible tail number - after all, Nakajima built virtually the same amount as Mitsubishi in 1942, and nearly double in 1943. I bought this book as a PDF from Osprey Publishers last week, and what a fine reference work it is. It was published this year, and Ronnie Oltshoorn's artwork is superb. It features c/n 1503, but is the ONLY Nakajima built A6M2 out of 32 colour plates! Surely that says something.

 

 

Here are some examples of what I mean about missing tail numbers...

 

 

 

 

This one is possibly _ _ - 109, but the unit code from the background tail is hard to make out.

 

 

I had a look at c/n 3471 and prefer it to c/n 1503 since it has a Houkoku number and only a simple (red?) fuselage band. It looks like a fascinating subject to research.

 

There is another that I would be interested to know more about, and it is c/n 5451. "Pacific Wrecks" says it was painted with green upper surfaces and grey lower surfaces, but I think that may be a cut and paste mistake since it was built in November 1942 and the green/grey colours only applied from March 1943. They also say later in the paragraph that it was delivered to the IJN as a Type 0/A6M3, but it would appear that it is an A6M2.  It's story, although not nearly as interesting as Uncle Paul's, is also appealing from a post 1960 point of view and the scramble for wartime airframes by restorers. Apparently there is a tail number for this one: W1 - 150, Houkoku Gou 1053, and no other markings that detract from the Zero's clean lines. Could this be the holy grail, or is it actually an A6M3? 

 

Let me spray another coat of Aotake on the oil tank in the meanwhile. They do look very dark.

 

Cheers,

 

Sean

 

  

Hello, which book are these photos and the engine photos from?

[Madmax]

Thanks Mark and Lothar! Very pleased that you are enjoying it.

 

On 1/4/2020 at 5:02 AM, kap64 said:

Hello, which book are these photos and the engine photos from?

 

Hi, all the photo's except for the Zero on the ferry are very finely reproduced in the book "Zero Fighter" with the black cover - most of these on two page spreads. It is a brilliant photographic record of the Zero in wartime service. Here is a sample of the picture quality: https://rarebooksjapan.com/?p=27153  (this might interest you too Kev...)

 

The photo's I used for this build thread are all readily available on the internet on sites such as Rod's Warbirds (now called: http://www.warbirdphotographs.com) and this one: https://www.worldwarphotos.info  Pinterest is another source that I can't seem to avoid - the search algorithm is powerful in that one! No wonder I lose hours of building time to the almighty screen 

[Madmax]

Fortunately some of my remaining time did go to the Reisen. 

 

In his tweak list, Ryan says it straight: "The functioning landing gear badly compromises parts E53 and E54 and are best replaced with aftermarket wheel wells." 

 

So, I have the Eduard A6M2 "exterior" set in etched brass and thought that may well do the trick, but you will see some difficulties associated with that too. I think a resin replacement will probably be the simplest fix, IF IT FITS! The engineering on this kit is incredibly precise, and any modifications come with some downline reminder why you can't mess with it. Plastic thickness vs the real aluminium thickness means that cockpit and wheel-well space is one of the major challenges in detailing all model aircraft.  It looks to me that Tamiya were trying to get maximum depth from the wheel-well so that the gear can retract fully. To this end, the roof of the well is a three-part affair that includes the fuselage side in the middle, but the whole roof is not at the same height and it is full of ejector pin marks.

 

 

I started to experiment with the the brass bits, but soon realised that the configuration of the lightening holes is incorrect, and that it is actually just a very fiddly process to get the ribs in place and cap them. Some of the brass will still be of use, so I elected to modify the kit part without compromising its strength - since it does hold the gear in place!

 

 

The roof of the well was scraped clean and the gear pivot arm glued in place in its fully extended position. No springs and things anymore...

 

 

I carved around the ribs from one side to create the illusion of the capped ribs. Painstaking process but not impossible.

 

 

This is how the lightening holes are configured from what I can make out.

 

 

A bit of scraping and some added brass/styrene helps refine the thick kit doors, since they have to accommodate functioning hinges. Mine won't.

 

 

On a totally different note, here is some of the skin work on the fuselage and wings. It is only done with sandpaper so as not to get too deep by scraping first. It is quite difficult to get it to look convincing, and may well not be to everyone's taste. I think that it does tell the story of the aircraft however, as many who flew it (including the famous test pilot, Eric Brown) commented on the "oil-canning" of the skin. He reportedly said it made a sound - "like the sound produced when one pushes on the side of a large biscuit tin." 

 

 

 

 

Back to the plastic for me...

 

Sean

[Uncarina]

I am continuously impressed by your work Sean! From reference links to your build techniques, this has been one of the most educational build logs I have read.

 

Cheer,  Tom

[IainM]

I replaced the wheel bays on my kit with the Aires resin bay, as I was planning on only having the u/c in the extended position. I wish now that I had taken your approach rather, but hindsight is 20/20 vision
The amount of thinning, cutting, scraping, etc, etc and then the engineering required to fit the kit u/c to the resin bays was completely over the top....a good lesson in modelling and building the skills, but if I had to do it again - no way!

[Thunnus]

Superb work and quite a resource for anyone building an A6M2.  The references shared here are over-the-top good!

[LSP_K2]

2 hours ago, Thunnus said:

Superb work and quite a resource for anyone building an A6M2.  The references shared here are over-the-top good!

 

I agree 100% This will really be something special, no doubt about it.

[A6M]

Sean, you are working at a good pace, I'll try to keep up with my detail postings. The four images below look at the wheel wells and some of their plumbing. I think all the comments on the attachments are self-explanatory. I'll try to post the LG strut and wheel well cover later tonight.

 

I'm disappointed to hear that the Aires wheel wells are a problem. I have a set of them and had hoped to make things easier for myself by using them instead of reworking the kit details. But at least I now am forewarned before I start chopping into the kit. 

 

Ryan

Note that the drawing below is of an A6M5 wheel well.

 

 

[IainM]

7 hours ago, A6M said:

Sean, you are working at a good pace, I'll try to keep up with my detail postings. The four images below look at the wheel wells and some of their plumbing. I think all the comments on the attachments are self-explanatory. I'll try to post the LG strut and wheel well cover later tonight.

 

I'm disappointed to hear that the Aires wheel wells are a problem. I have a set of them and had hoped to make things easier for myself by using them instead of reworking the kit details. But at least I now am forewarned before I start chopping into the kit. 

 

Ryan

Note that the drawing below is of an A6M5 wheel well.

 

 

Yep, sorry to burst the Aires bubble, but the kit is so finely engineered that the AM bays create far more issues and engineering head-scratching problems than I thought was worth in the end. Look, the detail in the Aires bays are far superior to what the Tamiya kit has, but if I had to do it again, I would go the route above and just modify/detail the kit bays to an acceptable standard. The AM bays and the wings of the kit themselves had to have so much resin and styrene sanded/scraped off that I could literally see through them. Then there's the issue of engineering the gear legs to fit into the AM bay - you can't add them at the end and hope there's enough mating surface on that delicate resin to hold them properly - I ended up building blocks inside the wings to hold a pin which I attached to the gear legs - so I had the legs attached before I mated the upper and lower wing halves, but could swing the legs inside the bays for painting, etc, then right at the end CA'ed them in place at the pivot point.
Another issue is the retraction arms for the inner gear doors, those need to be put in before you mate the upper and lower wing halves, as well as those for the little covers at the gear legs.
The AM bays (even after all that sanding) create a bit of fit issues at the wing root/fuselage join.

I suppose if you really want the Aires bays in then you can work around it (I did and I'm by no means as good a modeller as some of the people here), but IMO I don't think its worth the issues involved. I wouldn't again.....

[spyrosjzmichos]

Beautiful work Sean!

And the stressed skin effect looks lovely!

[Madmax]

On 1/7/2020 at 4:28 PM, Uncarina said:

I am continuously impressed by your work Sean! From reference links to your build techniques, this has been one of the most educational build logs I have read.

 

Cheer,  Tom

Thanks for your continued interest Tom!

 

On 1/7/2020 at 6:08 PM, IainM said:

I replaced the wheel bays on my kit with the Aires resin bay, as I was planning on only having the u/c in the extended position. I wish now that I had taken your approach rather, but hindsight is 20/20 vision
The amount of thinning, cutting, scraping, etc, etc and then the engineering required to fit the kit u/c to the resin bays was completely over the top....a good lesson in modelling and building the skills, but if I had to do it again - no way!

I had my suspicions about resin wheel wells, and this has confirmed what I was concerned about. Thanks Iain.

I too have had my hands full with stunning looking resin am parts that just don't fit, or compromise the integrity of the kit's engineering. Very frustrating...

 

On 1/7/2020 at 7:40 PM, Thunnus said:

Superb work and quite a resource for anyone building an A6M2.  The references shared here are over-the-top good!

Thank you John. I'm not sure how you get the time to look in on other's posts given the amount of models you tackle and the level at which you build!

 

12 hours ago, A6M said:

Sean, you are working at a good pace, I'll try to keep up with my detail postings. The four images below look at the wheel wells and some of their plumbing. I think all the comments on the attachments are self-explanatory. I'll try to post the LG strut and wheel well cover later tonight.

 

Ryan

 

Thanks Ryan.  This info is all brilliant, and just in time again! Most of this technical stuff is just so hard to find, and explains so much from the peeks into the wheel wells that are out there.

The A6M2, as was to be expected, really is a little different. The engine mounting coming through the roof was unexpected, and now I will try to include it somehow.

 

4 hours ago, spyrosjzmichos said:

Beautiful work Sean!

And the stressed skin effect looks lovely!

Thanks Spyros.

 

Your hammock looks so comfortable. I am fortunately off for a short vacation now, and will try to find a similar setting to your photo! 

[A6M]

Hello Sean,

 

A warm vacation would be nice right now. I missed going to last night's IPMS meeting because of snow and wind and then spent the morning shoveling the damn stuff. On the bright side I am now semi-retired as of the start of the new year so at least I didn't have to leave for work at 7 AM.

 

Here are the details for the landing gear struts. Again I have tried to include all the relevant notes on the images so simplify things if anyone wants to download them for future reference. I'll try to document the wheel well covers this afternoon. Then I'll move on the the tail wheel (but I'm doing the easy stuff first).

 

And if anyone has further questions please feel free to ask. Putting together material like this really helps in my making sense of all my notes and pictures.

 

Ryan

 

 

[LSP_K2]

Man, there are some seriously killer references in this thread. Almost makes me feel bad for just slamming the Doyusha kit together.

[A6M]

Kevin's remark in his Doyusha A6M2 build that the wheels are boring reminded me that before I look at the wheel well covers I need to mention the wheels. Note that it will be necessary to replace the Tamiya kit wheels with non-treaded tires. The treaded tires were replaced with the introduction of the heavier A6M5 - for those that may wish to add the tire sidewall moldings note that in addition to the change of the date of  manufacture the recommended tire pressure went up from 4 to 4.5 Kg/cm2.

 

As far as I can tell, when the planes came off of the assembly line both wheels were "handed" so that the brake lines were placed to run down the front of the lower strut. I cannot confirm that  if a lower LG strut and wheel were switched it could be possible that the brake lines ended up positioned at the rear of the lower strut. Further research...

 

The wheel covers were painted with aluminum paint over red primer. The inner LG closure actuator could be painted with either aluminum paint or more commonly was black. Although not mentioned so far the torque links on each LG strut could similarly be a painted with either aluminum or again more commonly black paint.

Ryan