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

[Alex]

Going to accumulate some images here that speak to the wiring/plumbing of the Sakae 14-cyl.

 

Small-scale but some useful detail: 

 

This would be more helpful if I could read Japanese

 

More from Japanese engine manuals

 

 

Detail on plumbing connections...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, the toolbox that came in the trunk (boot) of your new Zero...

 

 

 

[Alex]

And some photos

 

 

These are from a later Type 21 (as in the A6M5, although these are more from the restored Gekko AFAIK).  But still helpful.

 

 

 

 

On this basis I ought to be able to better than outright gizmology, I hope.

[A6M]

Hello Gentlemen,

 

I’ll start this posting with a photo of the rear decking of an A6M2 or A6M3 in which the application of black paint is clearly evident. I’ve examined other similar  Zero artifacts and none of them show any evidence of the cockpit paint extending into this area.

 

 

The two rings to which the cowling is fastened were most likely painted black. In the image below of Mitsubishi built A6M2 c/n 4593 there is little tonal difference between the cowl flaps and the rear ring, suggesting that this ring is painted black. The forward ring, however, exhibits a noticeable difference between the aluminum sections of the ring and the steel mounting brackets. Steel components were painted black as standard practice, opening the possibility that the aluminum sections of this component were instead painted with a heavier coating of green aotake.

 

 

Now look at this image of a Mitsubishi built A6M5, the red primer beneath the black paint of the rear ring is plainly visible. This would agree with what can be seen in the previous image. As well, the black painted steel mounts of the forward ring are quite obvious. But note the remains of the finish visible at the bottom of the forward ring do appear to be quite dark and thus may be interpreted as black paint.

 

 

This next image is of the A6M3 22 c/n 3844 on display in New Zealand. The rear ring is obviously black, although this may have been painted black when the cowl flaps were painted during the restoration of the plane. The front ring, although much more worn, does seem to have black paint applied to the lower portion of the ring.

 

 

The last image is a wartime photo of Mitsubishi built A6M5 c/n 4220 taken on Roi Island. The forward cowl mounting ring is clearly visible and is almost certainly painted black

 

 

Adding to the above is the fact that the interior of the cowling was also painted black, so there would seem to be a measure of continuity to also paint both mounting rings in the same colour.  

 

Thus my conclusion is that both of the cowl mounting rings were painted black.

 

Ryan

[A6M]

Alex,

 

As a follow-up to the one image you posted, if anyone wants to add a little extra detail to a Zero diorama here is a tool box from the 301 Kokutai sent home to someone in Wisconsin.

 

Ryan 

 

[Alex]

Ryan,

 

Love the toolbox photos.  And I agree - all of the photographic evidence points to the cowl mounting rings being black.  And, at least on older planes, seriously dinged up, as you would expect from having the cowl mounted and unmounted repeatedly.  Even on my "newer" aircraft it might be worth scraping a little of the black off of the corners to reveal the aluminum underneath.

 

Thanks again for all your research support on these zero projects.

[dennismcc]

I am continuously amazed at the things that turn up, that tool box's survival is pretty amazing.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[A6M]

Alex, thank you for your kind words. I have not been able to do much model building for the last few years, so answering detail questions both lets me vicariously do some modelling and more importantly directs me to look in depth at very specific details and then write up my findings/conclusions .

 

Dennis, I suspect there are a wealth of relics out there that are still hidden away as "Grampa old war souvenirs". I keep an eye out on e-bay for stuff coming onto the market (I copy the pictures instead of actually buying anything), but I fear a lot of stuff is simply thrown out by people who have no idea what they are looking at.

 

I wonder what  the postage on the tool box was? iI has a weight of 70 pounds - ouch.

 

Ryan  

[Johnny Cloud]

Very sharp build Alex, a real pleasure to follow.

Also a big thank you to Ryan for sharing his knowledge with us.

I'm learning a lot here.

[MikeMaben]

    Is that you lieutenant ?     

 

 

[Alex]

I have this reticence to fire up my airbrush (and then have to clean up) until I have a lot of painting to do, so I've been plugging away prepping parts for the engine and its surrounds.  Here I have all the kit pieces cleaned up, PE-enhanced, and with all of the conduit locations that I could find using the engine diagrams I have drilled out to receive wire "plumbing" later on.

 

 

Including 28 individual "sparkplug wires" and the 4 ganged ignition conduits that lead back to the magnetos glued into that ignition ring.  I only broke off one of the mounting tubes during the multi-hour process of getting them glued in there.

 

A closer view of the cylinder banks

 

 

One thing that is NOT included in the Tamiya kit is the engine oil cooler:

 

 

 

So I'm going to have a crack at fabricating that and its plumbing and mountings (some of the photos I have found show pretty clearly the braces that mount it to the lower engine mount struts).

 

Tomorrow I am hoping to get done with work/chores a bit on the early side and actually do some painting!  So hopefully a more substantive update soon.

[dennismcc]

7 hours ago, Alex said:

I have this reticence to fire up my airbrush (and then have to clean up) until I have a lot of painting to do, so I've been plugging away prepping parts for the engine and its surrounds.  Here I have all the kit pieces cleaned up, PE-enhanced, and with all of the conduit locations that I could find using the engine diagrams I have drilled out to receive wire "plumbing" later on.

 

Glad that it's not just me, the idea of firing up my AB for a few tiny pieces does not thrill me, I will do it but I  prefer to do a bulk painting session.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Alex]

Feeling reasonably finished with the individual engine components, so time to start assembly.

 

 

As usual, pardon the mix of gloss and matte finishes - everything will get flat-coated in the end.  I did take one very deliberate piece of artistic license.  I did not want to lose the visual impact of the very nicely molded engine cylinders/heads by painting the whole thing flat black (which is probably most accurate), so I did them in Mr Metal Color Super Iron, darkened with a bit of black, and then overlaid with copious Tamiya black enamel PLW.  Here's a closer view of the cylinder banks.

 

 

The crankcase is RLM79 light blue-gray as suggested by Ryan, and it matches photos quite well.

 

In the top photo I had not finished the exhausts - they had just been sprayed with Super Iron and flat acrylic varnish.  Below is before/after the pastel weathering.

 

 

Which I was fairly happy with.  My wife has been doing a lot of drawing with pastels lately, so I have an effectively infinite selection of hues to choose from.  For the exhausts I just used these four:

 

 

Next up is getting the cylinder banks joined together and wired up.  Should be an adventure.

[dennismcc]

That looks superb, I like it when you have all the pieces finished and can start assembling them, very satisfying 

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Alex]

Starting a bit on assembly

 

 

This is going to take a while.  Decided I needed to wire up the front cylinder bank before adding the rear.

 

[Alex]

Front bank wired up.  Waiting until tomorrow to tackle the rear cylinders.  I'm still not 100% happy with this fine gauge solder as plug wire.  It's softer then copper, but I wish it was just a touch more pliable (but not as much as pure lead).  Plus it tends to mushroom when clipped to length, making it hard to get the nominal 0.3 mm solder to actually go into the nominal 0.4 mm ID tube.  I think I'm going to order up a bunch of Detail Master auto model plug wire (they offer 0.012 and 0.016 inch) and give that a whirl for the next model.

 

 

Also, my resin wheels came in the mail from CMK.  So now (once the treads are filled) I can finish building the landing gear.

 

 

Of course that also means I received the Special Hobby Brewster Buffalo kit that I ordered from them at the same time (my 1/32 backlog grows apace.  Even if I do someday retire, I've got years of fun piled up just on the Pacific warbirds project).

 

 

A cursory look through the box has me pretty excited about this one.  Unlike the Ki-27 I recently did, here they've made a significant effort to provide some engine detail, including resin parts to complete the rear of the crankcase and the intakes/exhausts, plus the engine mount struts and a properly positioned firewall for them to attach to.  It also looks like it should be pretty easy to make one or both sides of the rear cowl removable.  So another engine detailing project awaits.  On top of that, they provide several schemes and pilot vignettes for RAAF aviators who fought Ki-43 Oscars over Singapore in 1941, which is *exactly* what I want this aircraft to be, so that's half the research right there (and I have references that should let me figure out which specific IJAAF units they encountered). 

Edited August 22, 2020 by Alex