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A6M2b Zero - Attack on Pearl Harbor - 1/32 Tamiya


Alex

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On 7/8/2020 at 1:17 PM, Madmax said:

Lovely work so far Alex! Enjoy the kit - despite one or two niggles with tight fitting surfaces, it is a real treat.

 

Thanks!  Your build of the Nakajima A6M has been great inspiration and information for me. 

 

I actually have a specific question for you - you chose not to use the Eduard PE replacements for the structural braces in the wheel wells.  As I recall you thinned out the plastic ones but left them in place.  I'm at the point now where I have to decide if I'm going down the road of major surgery to take out the plastic and replace with PE.  I think that if done well it *could* look really good; I'm not 100% sure I have the chops to do it really well.  Any commentary you have on why you went the way you did, whether you've seen others succeed with the PE replacement, etc would be helpful.

 

 

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Those 20mm cannon are really nicely molded for something that's just going to disappear into the wing and never be seen again.  I had to resist the urge to spend time dry-brushing them.  If/when I do this kit again as an A6M5 I may need to work out how to make the service panels removable.  It would require splitting the subpanel that Tamiya has you glue in.  They provide two variants, one with larger bulges to clear the larger magazines of the A6M5, but the subpanel includes the service panel and part of the wing structure that the cannon mounts to, so it would have to be sawn in half.  Having two sets actually makes that a lot easier.  Add it to the list for next time... 

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10 hours ago, Alex said:

 

Thanks!  Your build of the Nakajima A6M has been great inspiration and information for me. 

 

I actually have a specific question for you - you chose not to use the Eduard PE replacements for the structural braces in the wheel wells.  As I recall you thinned out the plastic ones but left them in place.  I'm at the point now where I have to decide if I'm going down the road of major surgery to take out the plastic and replace with PE.  I think that if done well it *could* look really good; I'm not 100% sure I have the chops to do it really well.  Any commentary you have on why you went the way you did, whether you've seen others succeed with the PE replacement, etc would be helpful.

 

 

 

Hi Alex, In retrospect I could have used the PE.

 

My concern was that messing with the integrity of the Tamiya moulding would cause problems with the fit of the wells in the wing, as well as the gear legs. This probably won't be an issue however as long as you don't mess with the rear part of the moulding that sandwiches the top portion of the gear leg (circled on the photo). The PE does look nice and despite minor inaccuracies with the position of the lightening holes I was very tempted to use it.

 

mount-X2.jpg

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2 hours ago, Madmax said:

 

Hi Alex, In retrospect I could have used the PE.

 

My concern was that messing with the integrity of the Tamiya moulding would cause problems with the fit of the wells in the wing, as well as the gear legs. This probably won't be an issue however as long as you don't mess with the rear part of the moulding that sandwiches the top portion of the gear leg (circled on the photo). The PE does look nice and despite minor inaccuracies with the position of the lightening holes I was very tempted to use it.

 

mount-X2.jpg


Thanks, that’s very helpful.  I am leaning towards trying it.

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So in the spirit of nothing ventured nothing gained, here we go with the PE rebuild of the wheel wells.

 

Sawed out the bulk of the plastic bracing (these razor saws are really nice tools).

 

pmB5RpfVj

 

I've been ignoring my woodshop recently in favor of building model airplanes, but occasionally there's some crossover utility, like this nice German paring chisel, which made quick work of cleaning up the sides of the wheel wells.

 

ponFvX93j

 

(LEFT = Before, RIGHT = After)

 

I installed as much of the PE as I could (and there's a lot of it) without needing to glue up the wheelwell structure to the gear leg socket and wing molding.  It's pretty obvious (and visually indicated in the Eduard instructions, albeit you have to pay attention to catch on to what they are implying with the drawings) that it is necessary to put these pieces together and get their 3D alignment correct before proceeding to glue in the cross-braces.  I can't do that yet because I'm waiting for paint.  As I understood it from Ryan's advice on Sean's Nakajima build, the interior of the wheelwells on early Mitsubishi Zeros was painted in the exterior color, not left as Aotoke primer.  I decided that I wanted to compare Tamiya's AS-29 IJN Gray-Green with Ryan's recommendation of a 50:50 mix of Mr Color RLM 02 (60) and Hemp (336).  I'm waiting to receive the Gunze paints in the mail, so...

 

poroTSz1j

 

That is as far as I can go for now.  If I get antsy I'll start cleaning up engine parts...

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On 7/4/2020 at 5:20 AM, dennismcc said:

Great start Alex, I like your style and will probably follow your ideas when I build mine, though after the N1K2 I am building RAF stuff but can see me returning to the Japanese theme after that.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

 

On that note - I need to get some 1/32 Commonwealth planes into my grand Pacific War plan.  I'm trying to identify fairly famous and well documented moments in the war where I can place a specific RAF (RAAF, RNZAF) squadron in conflict with a Japanese sentai, kokutai, etc so I can build a reasonably accurate aircraft from each side.  Like my AVG versus 77th Sentai pair.  I was thinking that the 1942 raids on Darwin might be an option, but I vaguely remember that the RAAF at Darwin might have been equipped mostly with American planes, probably P-40s.  I would be looking for Commonwealth air wings flying Spitfires, Hurricanes, Tempests etc against Japanese opponents.  I have one good reference to a carrier-based Seafire engagement with IJAAF Ki-44s west of New Guinea - I would have to try my hand at converting an appropriate Spitfire variant I suppose.

 

At any rate, any and all suggestions welcome.  I suppose twin engine machines like the Mosquito and Beaufighter are also relevant, but I mostly try to do those at 1/48 to save space...

 

 

 

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That PE looks good on the wheel wells Alex. Are you going to drill out the lightening holes?

 

34 minutes ago, Alex said:

On that note - I need to get some 1/32 Commonwealth planes into my grand Pacific War plan.  I'm trying to identify fairly famous and well documented moments in the war where I can place a specific RAF (RAAF, RNZAF) squadron in conflict with a Japanese sentai, kokutai, etc so I can build a reasonably accurate aircraft from each side.  Like my AVG versus 77th Sentai pair.  I was thinking that the 1942 raids on Darwin might be an option, but I vaguely remember that the RAAF at Darwin might have been equipped mostly with American planes, probably P-40s.

 

RAAF No. 75 squadron has an interesting and well-documented history, particularly in New Guinea and the Battles of Port Moresby and Milne Bay but, yes, they flew P40s.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._75_Squadron_RAAF

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So here is the color comparison.  Ryan's Gunze mixture on the left versus Tamiya's take on IJN "Zero" gray-green on the right.  The Gunze mixture is clearly a warmer tone, as well as being a lot darker (both colors are sprayed to saturation on white styrene sheet).  Opinions?  I'm leaning towards using the Gunze mix but lightening it up with a little Boeing Gray to get a value closer to the Tamiya (scale fading and all) but with the warmer hue.  I'm not as excited about the cooler Tamiya color when I look at it next to the Gunze alternative.  But I could be persuaded differently.

 

pn1feJwHj

 

I've primed the etch-laden wheelwell parts with Mr. Primer Surfacer 1000 so am ready to go as soon as I choose a paint color...

 

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