At a model show this past fall, I purchased a few kits that looked interesting. One was a Hasegawa 1/32 A6M5 Zero which also came with a " Grade Up Version " which was a series of duplicate parts made out of metal ie: landing gear, cowl, propellor, seat etc.

I don't have a whole lot of experience with this hobby yet, but I would like to use these parts if I can. How do you attach them? I'm assuming super glue. Also, do they get painted using normal acrylic paints after priming them?

Also, although I shouldn't base my knowledge on the movies, while watching " Pearl Harbour ", the planes which I assume were Zeros, were white, while the box art and Zeros I've seen in different kits built are green. Was there a reason?

Thanks,
Darren

Hi Darren

I always prime metal parts with auto primer, as this really sticks to the metal. After priming you can use acrylics, but I prefer to use enamels on metal parts. To glue them on, you can use superglue but for parts that will take a lot of strain such as the undercarriage I would use a two-part epoxy resin.

Thanks for the info.

Darren

The A6Ms in Pearl Harbor were pale grey rather than white. It's a standard fighter colour from early in the war - grey-green, also known as ame-iro, I think. I believe it got no further than the A6M3 - after that they were all the standard dark green, which for some reason had started to be applied to non-fighter types sooner than to the A6M.

What an awful movie that was. The review I liked best was where the headline was "Torture! Torture! Torture!". Said it all, I reckon.

Any paint will be fine for metal parts. Once the primer is on it there's no real difference from other materials. If it's white metal it may lack strength in tension - in other words it will bend under heavy loads - so if the overall kit will be weighty because of the additions, you may want to consider replacing highly-loaded parts with brass. One example would be the axles - the legs will be fine in white metal because they're under compression, but the axles may bow slightly because they're under tension. I've had this on a 1/48 F-4 with white metal undercarriage.

Thanks Dave and Pigsty for the info. I picked up some two part epoxy and it's working well. There's not alot of metal parts so I don't think they weight will be a problem.

Also, thanks for the info on the paint colours, I'm going with the dark green then.

Darren