Tamiya A6M5

[Juggernut]

Ok, I've decided I'm going to attempt the correction.  Luckily I am able to source a replacement if I screw it up too badly.  Oh how I wish I were skilled enough at 3D modeling to do this in 3D and then print it out.

[Juggernut]

 

BEFORE - Slightly Modified

 

 

AFTER - Slightly MORE modified.  I think I need to raise the left and right sides a little further up but it's not too bad.  It's even got the "notch" in the top.

 

 

 

And here's a couple shots of the thing that goes inside the cowl.  Still have a little more work to do to tidy things up but it's getting there.  I think the plug wires should also be back based on Ryan's post in another zero build here.  I tried to duplicate the Sakae 21 on the Gekko which he indicated was not correct.  Some weathering (oil) washes and a little dust and dirt and I'll be content with it.  I used part of the Eduard A6M5 engine PE set (the baffles) with some ANYZ spark plugs.  I added the appropriate number of leads on the ignition manifold (28 leads) and ran 0.010-inch lead wire to each plug on the engine...took me three nights total.  

 

LOL- the white 0.080-inch styrene rod "prop shaft" is there because I glued the reduction gearcase on before I put the kit prop shaft in...whoops...no biggie, the prop goes on with a poly cap anyway and the kit prop shaft is the same diameter so I just matched the length of the exposed part and glued it into a "rebushed" hole {I cut off the larger diameter part of the prop shaft and glued it into the gearcase; let it dry then drilled pilot and full-size holes].

 

 

Edited March 8, 2023 by Juggernut

[Greif8]

Good work on modifying the cowl intake Tim, it looks just fine to me.  Also your engine looks outstanding, the extra work you put into it really adds to the realism.  I have done the same thing concerning the prop shaft in the past!

 

Ernest

[Fanes]

I have to agree a 100% with Ernest here - fantastic work.

Did you use the one piece, or two piece spark plugs from Anyz?

[Juggernut]

 

5 hours ago, Greif8 said:

Good work on modifying the cowl intake Tim, it looks just fine to me.  Also your engine looks outstanding, the extra work you put into it really adds to the realism.  I have done the same thing concerning the prop shaft in the past!

 

Ernest

 

Thanks Ernest, it's taken some time to get it to this point.  I "thought" this was going to be a relatively quick build but the engine and cowl were time drag....  All I have to do now is modify the cowl flaps back to A6M3 standards (no notches).  I have a plan for that and we'll see if it works or not.

 

5 hours ago, Fanes said:

I have to agree a 100% with Ernest here - fantastic work.

Did you use the one piece, or two piece spark plugs from Anyz?

 

Thanks Fanes, I used the one-piece spark plugs.  I would have liked to have used the plugs with the 90 degree ends on them but I purchased the files from ANYZ so I 3D printed them and while they look the part, that 90 degree bend portion is super-fragile.  I ended up breaking several of them off just handling the parts.  So rather than get frustrated trying to "fix" all those bends, I just used the longer, one-piece plugs.  It's not completely accurate (according to the Sakae 21 engine in the J1N1 Gekko in the NASM) but it works.

Edited March 8, 2023 by Juggernut

[mywifehatesmodels]

Lookin' sweet! 

 

John

[Juggernut]

Thanks John, much appreciated.  I just hope I get this thing finished in time.  Work has got me on mandatory overtime so build time suffers.

 

Also noted i had the carburetor in the above photo on backwards!  Fixed that little oopsie when I tried to put the air scoop on and it wouldn't fit the way it was supposed to.

Edited March 10, 2023 by Juggernut

[nmayhew]

Nice work on the conversion

 

re the engine, i have found my limited experience with radials leads me to a) not try so hard on anything past that first bank of cylinders because you just won’t see it and b) remember however good it looks out in the open, it will actually look even cooler once in situ; so i think what you have will look really good once everything is buttoned up for good.

 

re the Anyz stuff, I’ve bought quite a lot but am overall just a ‘ho hum’ verging on a slight ‘meh’

the spark plugs are pretty much unusable if you want to actually feed a wire into them - and of course if you can’t do that then you have to glue onto a tiny but virtually flat 3DP resin printed surface

the spark plug wire thingies Anyz make are all braided and usually that’s not correct; they are also a PITA to cut because they go fluffy at the ends like an old shoe lace

i guess i just expected ‘more’?

i can, however, recommend their cockpit knobs and handles sets - they are very good and relatively easy to use, and thus very good for canopy open WWII props.

 

sorry for the slightly off topic but i thought it was relevant(-ish!)

 

best of luck with the rest of the build and pleased to see a M3 being built - always bugged me why there was no kit of this version in our scale!

 

Nick

[Juggernut]

Thanks Nick, the ignition wire of the Sakae 21 are reported to be leatherette (vinyl?) covered so you’re right about the braiding on this installation.  The stuff he sells as ignition cord is 0.5 mm braiding cord available in large rolls from Amazon…exact same stuff.  I haven’t invested in any of that yet but may at some point knowing full well it’s fabric.  I actually had no problems attaching the ignition wires to the plugs; a small dot of superglue and the lead wire just sticks to it.  A little accelerator and Bob’s your Uncle.
 

This build is actually an A6M5 but one of the first 200 airframes built with collector exhaust and the A6M3 cowl. After that they went to the individual, thrust-producing exhausts typical of subsequent A6M’s.

[Juggernut]

A little more action...Got the cowl flaps configured for the early A6M3 cowl.  Sheet styrene and superglue.

 

 

Temporarily shot the outside with some Tamiya NATO black.  I'm not happy with the color so that's going to get changed but I think the cowl came out half-way decent.  The engine/cowl assembly is just press fit onto the airframe.  I won't glue it in place until the color coats are on and everything's done.  Prop is Mr. Color - Propeller Color.  Don't know why the prop looks like it's crooked; i'll have to check it out again and see.  It may be the little cap that's inside the hub...

 

 

I may have to glue the cowl in place...I don't like the gap between the cowl flaps and the cowl proper...shouldn't be there.  It's the way the parts are engineered I guess.  I tried it with the closed cowl parts and the gap is there so this time, it ain't me. LOLOL.  Don't pay too much attention to the specs in the photo, they're actually plastic burrs that landed on the cowl when I was drilling out the vent hole in the drop tank.  Anyway, it's going to get repainted a different grey, something close to FS36118 but maybe just a tad darker.  The insides of the cowl are MRP Cowl Color.  I sitll have to add the exhaust stacks out the bottom of the cowl but that's a small detail.

 

Edited March 12, 2023 by Juggernut

[Greif8]

Very nice conversion on the cowl flaps Tim!  

 

Ernest

[Juggernut]

6 hours ago, Greif8 said:

Very nice conversion on the cowl flaps Tim!  

 

Ernest

 

 

Thanks Ernest.  I was able to use my original plan of filing the radius for each of the cutout cowl flaps square and superglue sheet styrene in place carefully trimming the outside flap portions so they matched the bevel (if you will) of the original plastic.  I tapered the sheet plastic to represent the thickness of the cowl flap then cut smaller, angled pieces of thinner sheet styrene and glued them into the notches left by the outer cowl flaps.  A little miniature filling, scraping and Bob's your Uncle, I had A6M3 cowl flaps.  I was content with myself that day I tell you....  I did have to  rework the notch for the altitude mixture rod as it's too deep in the original A6M5.  A good photo helped here and again, filled with sheet styrene and superglue, drilled an appropriate sized hole in the right location and trimmed out the excess.

Edited March 14, 2023 by Juggernut

[Greif8]

2 hours ago, Juggernut said:

 

 

Thanks Ernest.  I was able to use my original plan of filing the radius for each of the cutout cowl flaps square and superglue sheet styrene in place carefully trimming the outside flap portions so they matched the bevel (if you will) of the original plastic.  I tapered the sheet plastic to represent the thickness of the cowl flap then cut smaller, angled pieces of thinner sheet styrene and glued them into the notches left by the outer cowl flaps.  A little miniature filling, scraping and Bob's your Uncle, I had A6M3 cowl flaps.  I was content with myself that day I tell you....  I did have to  rework the notch for the altitude mixture rod as it's too deep in the original A6M5.  A good photo helped here and again, filled with sheet styrene and superglue, drilled an appropriate sized hole in the right location and trimmed out the excess.

 

Very clever scratch building solution to modify the flaps to look correct for the aircraft type you are building Tim.  I hear you on the feeling of satisfaction one gets when you have thought through a solution to a modelling challenge and executed it well.  And your's certainly look very well executed!

 

Ernest

[Juggernut]

Got some colors on her finally.  All markings are painted using MRP paint and homemade masks courtesy of my Siloutte Cameo 4.  There is no "Japanese font" (type face) for the numerals so I used the closest I could find which happen to fit the bill precisely except the numeral 1.  I used PreussischeIV44Ausgabe3 (a German font) and for the numeral one, I used a capital letter I from that same font.  When compared to the actual tails of the Rabaul zero's in the film, they look spot on. 

 

The J3 SP on the underside is also MRP.  The topside green is Tamiya XF-11 lightened using white and yellow.  In my opinion, the MRP version of D1 is a bit too dark to represent a plane that's been in service in the tropics for a  couple months; it's more representative of a fresh painted aircraft and it's really dark.  If you don't know what you're looking at you'd swear it was black.  I compared the Tamiya XF11 and the MRP color and out of the bottle, they're pretty damn close.  Since MRP is really expensive, I chose to experiment using the Tamiya color until I got the right shade I was looking for.  The underside masking is for the yet to be painted fabric control surfaces which were like the earlier A6M's having a different shade of  grey for those.  I mixed the grey using Greg Springer's Mixes he posted long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away.... I digress. LOL.

 

As of right now, the grey fabric control surfaces (aileron's and elevator's) have been sprayed with the correct grey and the all the parts have been given a gloss coat with Alclad gloss.  This stuff is bullet-proof and dries almost as fast as MRP does.  It does say to leave for an hour or two before handling so that' s what I'm doing.  In that time, I'm scanning the Tamiya A6M2 decal sheet as its got some stencils on there that are not included with the A6M5 kit but are applicable.  I'll make new decals for the A6M5 using my chosen (at random) m/n of 4076 built sometime in October of 1943.

 

I used John's (Thunnus') method of picking out the panel lines and mottle pre-shade with black and although it's imperceptible on the fuselage and wing uppersurfaces, the underside came out nicely

 

As always, comments and constructive criticism always welcome and taken in the spirit offered. 

 

 

 

Edited March 20, 2023 by Juggernut

[Skyraider3D]

On 3/8/2023 at 12:53 AM, Juggernut said:

Ok, I've decided I'm going to attempt the correction.  Luckily I am able to source a replacement if I screw it up too badly.  Oh how I wish I were skilled enough at 3D modeling to do this in 3D and then print it out.

Sorry for the late reply. I started a new job and have neglected the internet a bit

I actually have made a detailed 3D model of this cowling, and I have a 3D printer, but I see you got it nicely fixed up already! Looking really good and I admire your going the extra mile with this. Great stuff!