I finished it a few days ago but couldn't be arsed to photograph it until now (it kinda burned me out). Anyway, here are a few not very good pics of it. It depicts a stripped-down Kamikaze nail...cannons removed, radio removed (which was generally done in the field anyway coz they were crap), pitot removed and most of the paint removed. #:-)

I'm getting back to armor now, planes are just too much hard work.

Looks very nice with the worn out look and the cockpit detail is great. How was the worn look achieved? base coat, top coat, then light sanding? I plan on doing that with the vehicle Im building now and would love to know the technic you used.

Siggi,
I'm not a plane guy, but in my view your model it's really great. The weathering and the interiors are absulutely outstanding. Are you going to display it on a small dio?
Why you do not consider writing an article on how did you achieve such a nice weathering?
Bravo!!!

holly crap..... i thought that was a real plane for a min,
i showed my mom the pic,
she thought it was real.
you did areally nice job on this model.
iam building a 1/48 zero now/

:-) Well Siggi, I'm glad you ventured into aircraft. This looks good. I'm not sure if the weathering of the paint isn't a tad over done ( I can understand how Kamikaze planes would be "un-luved", and I am certainly no expert ) but never the less it does look very realistic. From your postings on the RRB I know that the interior is very well done :-) Thanks for sharing.
Mal

Thanks guys.

The weathering technique doesn't require an entire article. This is from my thread in the RRF:

"Here's a new (?) technique for wearing airframes. I say "new" coz I've certainly never seen it anywhere else, and this is the first time I've used this particular variation of it. The old variation was alcohol rub on enamel. This one is spirit rub on acrylic, which is far superior as it is less sticky and dries faster.

I've shown a couple of engine and wing covers for clarity of example.

a) Acrylic Primer (matt grey in this case)..

b) Laquer Metalizer.

c) Future.

d) Hand-painted acrylic 'decals'.

e) Acrylic top-coat (IJN green in this case).

f) Allow the top-coat to dry for a couple of hours at least. Then take a smooth cloth (a fine-weave hanky as opposed to a kitchen towel) and wet it with white-spirit (or turps). Squeeze out excess fluid and pad it up. Then go at the top-coat. Rub firmly, it'll get quite wet. Move to a slightly drier area of your cloth and rub again, the top-coat will start to wear away very gradually. The Future and metalizer are quite resistant and can take a fair bit of abuse before you'll go through to the primer, but keep an eye on it anyway. Thing is, small areas of grey primer don't look out of place...more like small areas of more heavily oxidised aluminium.

Once finished you'll have a very sticky surface. I handled the airframe with a plastic bag over my hand. No probs were encountered. Allow to dry overnight in a warm room, it'll dry to finger-touch but don't be gripping it firmly because you'll leave fingerprints. Use your own judgement on how long to allow for complete curing before proceeding with more work (more Future, washes etc).

The example here has been taken only to step-f. I intend to apply a wash (probably raw-umber oil) and possibly some pastel powder.

For Japanese a/c a lot of wear is authentic. For ETO a/c some restraint is required."



The finished plane did get an oil wash (raw umber) and some powder (exaust and muzzle-stains).

I think it is overdone, but it was kind of an accident. On the left side of the plane I was trying to scrape away small areas of green but I was making an aweful mess. Then I tried q-tips and alcohol and it made a bigger mess (lots of patches and streaks of primer-metalizer). So I lost my rag (got the hump, got mad) and soaked a hanky in white-spirits and went at it with an attitude. Quite accidentally the result was sublime. Unfortunately the right side of the plane started off with an unblemished top-coat and it was hard matching the two sides. To try and achieve this I was obliged to take off rather more green than I otherwise would have done.

But the Kamikaze gig covers my lame ass. #:-)

I don't know if the extreme extent of this weathering is completely accurate, but this is definitely one of the most fun models to look at I've ever seen. Thanks for sharing, siggi!

Hi Siggi

That is beautiful! :-) I've certainly got some reference pics of war-weary Japanese a/c that take "extreme weathering" to new heights.

When a model is as expensive as this, and you've invested so much time in the detailing, it takes some guts to "attack" the paintwork the way you have!! :-) Fantastic stuff...

All the best

Porky

Ah, it wasn't guts, it was anger (or desperation). But your kind words are appreciated mate. But let's be clear...the finished article was the result of serendipity (fortunate luck). And so a new technique is born. Nice.

The Zero looks great!!
At this point, I can only dream of weathering a plane and having it come out like yours.
I drool in your general direction ;-)
Seeing models like this definately gives me the inspiration to keep trying and learning.
Great job!!!
Wayne

I don't know anything about the weathering of Japanese aircraft so I'm not sure it it's overdone or not. I do know that this thing looks excellent. The cockpit just blows me away. Great job.

Well Siggi, I think you have done an excellent job there. You say you weren't happy with the left side of the aircraft but from my reference photos the left side of the aircraft is spot on.
Congratulations, heavily weathered aircraft are one of the hardest things to get to look right but you have done it.
Martin