Alain Gadbois Posted December 21, 2022 Share Posted December 21, 2022 Very well done interior! And fast build too! Alain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mc65 Posted December 21, 2022 Share Posted December 21, 2022 just WooooOooooW... I'm more and more intrigued by the Zm kits, I'm following this creation carefully, wonderful work, so far! cheers, Paolo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themongoose Posted December 23, 2022 Share Posted December 23, 2022 Love that paint work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckD Posted December 24, 2022 Author Share Posted December 24, 2022 Thanks for the compliments, everyone. I do appreciate it. I'm hoping to wrap this up by the end of the year. If I can pull it off, I'll have met my 2022 new year's resolution of completing 8 kits over the course of the year. Crossing my fingers. As of yesterday morning, the build is more or less done. I'm stuck at the moment though because the ventilation for my painting setup is nothing more extravagant than a window fan stuck in a window. It's good down to about 25*F as long as there's little wind. It's currently about 6*F here and blowing like crazy. So, I'm basically at a standstill until maybe tomorrow evening or Monday before I can start laying down more paint and getting the sub assemblies stuck in place. IainM, D.B. Andrus and Iain 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiwiZac Posted December 24, 2022 Share Posted December 24, 2022 Truly doing the kit justice, excellent work Chuck! IainM 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckD Posted December 28, 2022 Author Share Posted December 28, 2022 (edited) Progress! There's not been a ton to show in the past couple days as movement has been slow and largely focused around the tedium of filling, sanding, priming, filling, sanding, priming... repeat ad nauseum. As wonderful as the interior fit for this kit has been, the exterior has been less impressive. Typical problem points like fuselage joins, wing roots, fairings, and empennage have all required a little filling and sanding, but nothing outside of what I would really expect. The cowlings however, can go take a long walk off a short pier. The fit of the rest of the kit is so good and the fit of the cowlings is so bad, I can only surmise that the problem is me. The cowls themselves are not handed, which is to say they use the same part numbers for both sides with no mirroring. They're all keyed in a certain way such that they will only go together in one way. The only handed parts for the entire engine assembly are the motor mount arms and the backing plate that they attach to. While dry fitting everything and having such a time, I quadruple checked the instructions to make sure I hadn't missed something or maybe use the wrong part somewhere. Insofar as I can tell, I did not and the cowl fit just is what it is. Suffice to say, they required a lot of pressing, a lot of superglue, and a lot of frustration to get together. Again, I fully admit that it may be on me, so for those of you who've already built this kit, did you encounter any issues with the cowlings? That said, despite the rude surprise of the cowls, I think we're still in business and on track to complete this before the end of the year. I've got most of this week available to attack this thing, so I think I can still make it happen and meet my new year's resolution goal of completing 8 models this year. Cross your fingers. A mock up from a couple days ago. The 30mm nose cannon. Just a small armor plate to be added behind it, then it's buttoned up and never seen again. Status as of now. The engines are dry fit, but the gear is permanently attached. Just need to wrap up masking the gear and stuffing the wells with foam, then it's off to priming. I'll be modeling the canopy open, so the closed canopy is tacked in place with white glue to act as an impromptu, but perfectly-fitting mask for the cockpit. Edited December 28, 2022 by ChuckD Stokey Pete, D.B. Andrus, ctayfor and 16 others 19 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crobinsonh Posted December 28, 2022 Share Posted December 28, 2022 Looks very nice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greif8 Posted December 28, 2022 Share Posted December 28, 2022 Looking great Chuck. I have two ZM kits in the stash and am undecided how much a want to display opened up. Having read many build threads of ZM kits I have gained the impression that some of their parts are meant to be left open, which we all know can lead to issues - such as the one you had with the cowls - when a modeller wants to display that area closed up. It looks like you sorted out the problem very well though. Ernest Uncarina 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out2gtcha Posted December 28, 2022 Share Posted December 28, 2022 Nice! I really loved this kit. Lovely progress so far for sure Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckD Posted December 28, 2022 Author Share Posted December 28, 2022 Yes, Ernest, I think you're on to it. There is zero reason a one piece cowl couldn't have been included with this kit. Ah well, I was saved by the super glue gods and the final product turned out okay. Greif8 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greif8 Posted December 29, 2022 Share Posted December 29, 2022 7 hours ago, ChuckD said: Yes, Ernest, I think you're on to it. There is zero reason a one piece cowl couldn't have been included with this kit. Ah well, I was saved by the super glue gods and the final product turned out okay. The super glue gods have saved me - and kept a build from any early Valhalla - more than once Chuck. You are doing the build justice. I have been considering getting this kit for years and your and Brian's builds keep nudging me towards pulling the trigger. Ernest Uncarina 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckD Posted December 30, 2022 Author Share Posted December 30, 2022 Hitting the home stretch here. These are progress photos over the last couple days. After priming with Mr Surfacer 1500 light gray, I painted the leading edges and walk areas with Alclad II aluminum and then applied chipping medium with a sponge (it's not obvious in the photos) Then, pre-shaded with XF-1 black. I know some people tend to scoff at pre-shading, but I find it to be a good way to add color modulation to the basest of base coats. Next came the first, light coat. I sprayed the whole thing this lightly, then masked off the areas where the white home defense bands will be present. I wanted a greenish undercoat for the white markings as I figured that would help unify the overall color scheme while toning down the stark whites. With the second coat sprayed, I masked and painted the areas for the home defense bands. The hinomarus would go straight over the white. And here we have the sitrep as of last night. National insignias and leading edges painted, chipping fluid removed, base painting done, and everything glossed for decal application. I'm probably going to have to snip off the rudder actuators in order to apply a large decal where they sit. I wish I'd thought of that during the build or else I would have just left them off until afterwards. :/ This is the result of the hour I spent working in the first 1/8" of my Iwata Eclipse's trigger throw during pre-shading. Ouch. This hobby's equivalent of M1 Thumb. Still on track to finish up by tomorrow evening. Here we go! Gazzas, Alain Gadbois, Out2gtcha and 12 others 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themongoose Posted December 30, 2022 Share Posted December 30, 2022 Super nice. The circles in the home defense bands look spot on ;-) she’s gonna be a real beauty! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dennismcc Posted December 30, 2022 Share Posted December 30, 2022 That is looking really good, used but not abused. Cheers SDennis ChuckD 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alain Gadbois Posted December 30, 2022 Share Posted December 30, 2022 Looks so good. The chipping effect works perfectly! Alain ChuckD 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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