Despite the influx of great models in my new preferred scale (I have the Kittyhawk P-39 and the Tamiya 32nd scale F4U sitting in the front room) I have decided it's time to finally cut some plastic on one of my three Tamiya 32nd scale Zeros. I want to experience the start of this 32nd scale superkit revolution.

This kit will be built OOB with the possible exception of the markings and possibly a set of Mater Barrels.




Off I go!


The Zero is the 109's modelling twin - it's a heatsink for rivet counters. The forum that no-longer exists proves this point. Good references are a must. Tamiya themselves included some equipment that is out of place.

I can't forget these two beauties - they are the pride of my library. There is nothing I love more than WWII Japanese aviation.

Hi Matt,
I'll be following you on this one. I've always loved the Zero's clean lines.

Best Wishes,

Gary

Thanks Gary!

Sooooo, I just ordered an HGW harness for the kit...


I can't for the life of me understand why Tamiya - the cutting edge of model making - provides a set of canopy masks that you have to cut out yourself. Why can't they laser cut them just like the ones I'm going to buy anyway. The brand new F4U is the same way.

I have this kit, I picked it up for just £25.00 years ago. I think that part of the reason that I haven't built any of the later Tamiya "super kits" is that I feel that I should build this, the first of that line, first I will be watching this

Are you planning on using paint masks for the markings?

Oh yes, the Zero was a very elegant aircraft. I like it too and have build a few of the Hasegawa kits in quarterscale.
If you love japanese WW 2 aviation, Matt, you would love my current build. It's a Ki 45 Toryu from Hasegawa.

Torsten

It's about damned time!

Matt,
If it's ok with you, I'll be coming along for the ride. Even OOB, it should prove to be an excellent build.
Joel

If it's okay with me? Joel you know I wouldn't build anything if you didn't join.


Mal - yes, I plan on using masks. Do people actually use decals still?


Torsten, do you have a link to your build? I'd love to see it.




Charles W - sorry my friend. I've been so busy calling my American friend Chuck and leaving him voicemails.

Hi Matt,
I'll be following along,my 1/48 109 trop is awaiting decals but Im back painting busts and asembling a couple of 1/16 figures at present.

Chris

It took more time to prep than I expected - but there are a lot of parts to sort and a solid plan needed to be figured out.

If this thread gets enough subscribers, then there might be a surprise coming for everyone!




Started in my usual fashion - this is one of my favorite steps because the detail really starts to show.

I paint all of the interior pieces black - in this case the Vallejo black primer.

Then, I spray in the primary interior colour from the direction of the light source (cockpit opening in this instance). This makes for a natural shadow. You can already see a lot of detail, which would've been very monotone had I not used this method. This also serves to hide some of the edges that should be a little thinner (edge of consoles etc).



The fuselage


You want to mottle on the colour - I don't want the colour to have a paint-by-numbers uniform appearance. This adds depth.

Cockpit floor


You can see all of the detail already. The technique and result is similar to pre/post shading the exterior. None of these details has been drybrushed or washed yet.


As you can see - the paint was sprayed mostly downwards, essentially highlighting the areas which would receive the most light. Light passes were made on a 45* angle to make the fading a little more subtle. Care was taken to keep the shadows.

The effect on this part (ammo feeds and chutes) is much more impressive in person. The green was sprayed mostly on a downward angle, giving the bottom of the projecting area a nice pronounced shadow.





This is the forward bulkhead of the cockpit.


The central area will be visible behind the rudder pedals, but in the event you can see more than I expected, the outer edges fade to black to hide the join to the fuselage - blending it in a bit.

Left side console


It's hard to make out (despite being 5 times larger than the actual piece) but the shadows you see on the face are from the painting method - this photo was taken with flash, so the shadowed areas are actually illuminated. The edges of this console remain black - so the part maintains a scale thickness without thinning the piece.




Up next - some detail painting, and then I show you how I do my aotake finish.

No, sorry Matt, I don't do build blogs. I always work silently in the background ....
But if it's okay, I can show you a WIP photo from yesterday evening. I'll build the Ki-45 as shown on the box art and it's already my 2nd Toryu. The other one is in camo and was flown by well known Isamu Kashiide.



Happy modelling!
Torsten

Matt,
While I've gone to a mottled exterior primer coat, I've yet to do one using dark grays to black in a random Mottle pattern, that will be for my next build. What I haven't given much thought to is using black basing for the interior, especially cockpits. Your technique has really been quite an eye opener. The air brushing from a high to low angle from the main direction that the real lighting would come from was another piece of the puzzle now in place. I tend to rotate the parts so that I can get even coverage from all sides, which would effectively eliminates the realistic lighting effect.

As you said, these techniques basically replace the need for pre and/or post shading. Add a little dry brushing, and you end up with a nearly perfect cockpit. Of course you still have to weather it to whatever level you desire.

Using Microsoft's OneNote, it's easy for me to copy and paste all sorts of modeling notes, and be able to refer to them as needed by topic/builder/and or Build. I've already added these two techniques to my painting technique section.

Joel

Torsten, that's a nice looking build my friend. You need to build one of Tamiya's Irvings - beautiful kit


Joel - you got it my friend. I sometimes do a light pass at less of an angle to make the shading effect more subtle.

I like this method because when I just lightened the paint to produce the light, then I didn't like the end result because the cockpits wouldn't sunbleach, they'd wear and get darker - which this technique shows well.


Bear with me friends - I'm doing some scratch building, just adding some piping and such.

Hi Matt,
Great progress.
I like your painting technique the shadows look great.
Another reason to get an airbrush I guess

Cheers


Chris

I may get shot for saying this - but you haven't modeled until you've airbrushed. It unlocks so many things you simply can't accomplish with a hairy stick

Matt,
You've certainly encouraged me to try a new way to do my cockpits and interior parts. And I'll second what you say about the airbrush.

Gary

Thanks Gary, I was impressed with this lighting technique used in the armor world, and I thought it would look bizarre on the exterior of a plane, but then....




I've been adding some plumbing and stuff that isn't really worth doing a whole update on. But you know, some stuff has arrived. The mail lady tried to walk away with these "Oh, I guess you didn't hear me ring the doorbell..." Orrrr, you didn't ring it, I was sitting at the front door.





And I'm hoping for ten subscribers, because I would hate for this half of the project to go to waste - I'm building two Zeros consecutively










I have spent most of my modeling time doing research. That bulge on top of the float isn't seen in any photos that I've found, nor is it on the Tamiya or Hasegawa 48th scale offerings. I emailed MDC to ask - I didn't want to complete the build and display it with a pour stub (albeit a pretty one). Turns out it's a cover for a pump within the float.

The float is one solid chunk of resin.


Soon - it will be time to cut the wing.

DAT PONTOON!

Matt,
While I've seen some truly outstanding hand brushed models, I completely agree with your point of view, that for 90%+ of us modelers, nothing beats what you can accomplish with a decent air brush.

Joel

Matt,
That resin float and carriage looks incredible.
Joel

It's very nice looking casting, but it's got a little too much flex in it for the weight of the float alone. I'm deciding whether I want to reinforce it, or scratch a new frame using the wheels and fittings etc from the resin one.


I just finished organizing for the rest of the interior painting - things will pick up soon. It's been hard juggling an A6M2-N and an A6M5, lots of sorting and double checking.

Very nice work on the zenithal lighting in the interior, Matt! I've never noticed the "subscribe" button before- so yours is the first of many I'll be following.

Cheers!

Thanks Chuck, I learned it from you afteralll.

I didn't notice the subscribe button for a while either, until I figured out how the 'popular blogs' were listed on the homepage.




Uh oh guys, an update!




I've been working away, did a lot of cutting for the Rufe conversion only to find that some of the pieces in my set had shrunk considerably. One email to MDC and new parts are on the way! I've been slowly plugging away in the meantime.




Work on the interior is progressing. I have completed the aotake process (more on that later).

First, I have painted all of the bottles. It's mind numbing. The cylinders are different colours and they get strapped to the fuselage so each cylinder typically has four colours on it - the colour of the cylinder, the colour of the nozzle, the metal of the band/clamp and the interior colour from the structure it is secured to.

By now you know I hate brush painting, it never looks as good as something airbrushed. So allow me to offer you another lesson in clever masking in the name of being lazy.


Here's one cylinder, nothing special. It's already painted its brown colour. I've masked of the body as you can see, but I need to paint the bands and the fuselage colour. The problem lies in masking the ends of the tank - it would be more work than it's worth to use masking tape to cover the curved ends.




The build logs on here have really got me thinking outside the box lately, and it's paying off.

What's the diameter?



You might think you know where this is going, but....



The problem with a non-adhesive loose style mask,is that you don't want to spray down into it. Okay, I'll elevate the cylinder when I paint so I'm spraying across it.



....I typically keep all small thin cardboard boxes that we go though in my house. They have countless uses.

The end result; nice and clean, no brushmarks, no stray paint...



If I had any of the metallic colour overspray onto the brown, I would simply have held a post it note on the band and sprayed the brown back in.




Some good ol' hair spray technique



Remember - it's important to have a section of hairspray that isn't covered by the paint you're chipping off so you can get to the level that responds to water (the hairspray). Over the hairspray I use the tiniest spot of sticky tack, or I dip the end of a toothpick into Maskol and just touch the tip to the area. once the overlaying colour is dry, pull up your small mask and scrub away!


On the left foot runner, you can see the outline of the sticky tack that I've already pulled off, now I just need to chip the green back.



Remember - it's only paint, if you overdo it, just paint it again, there's nothing to be afraid off. If it's too stark, then spray a thinned coat of the [green] paint to reduce the effect

AOTAKE


This subject deserves a post of its own. It's a contentious issue and no one will ever agree, but I'll give you my take on the subject.



Aotake is a translucent paint used by the Japanese. It's bluish green in colour and it is primarily a protective coating for bare metal, although some people will refer to it as a primer (despite it very rarely being painted over - the Japanese used an oxide red primer typically).


As such, it is typically found on the interior surfaces of aircraft.


So what's the problem? When exposed to oxygen (and possibly UV rays as well) it doesn't fade so much as it changes colours entirely.


Keep in mind the conditions it was applied in and the conditions these aircraft were operated in. It is entirely possible to find two pieces of the same airframe in two entirely different colours, despite being finished in a colour that was fairly universal to begin with.


Check out the photos halfway down the page linked below.
http://colesaircraft.blogspot.ca/2014/01/japanese-wwii-aircraft-aotake-primer.html



Here's an example, These photos were taking from the remaining A6M2, the gear bays are typically painted in aotake because they're exposed areas and to save exterior paint (don't forget, the Japanese eventually left the under-surfaces bare metal as they ran short on supply.

As such, the main gear and the tail wheel bay were originally the same shade - look how oxidation has changed the main gear to a dark green, while the tail wheel bay retains it's original hue












So there's the background. I contend that the original paint was more blue than green. I apply it as I believe it was originally applied - clear, over a natural metal surface. For my metal base, I paint the plastic black, then I use the same technique as I did with the interior earlier and apply an alclad metallic, post shading with a lighter metallic or dry brushing with a chrome. I mix my aotake with Tamiya clear blue and green and apply it in a mottled fashion until I have fairly even coverage.


(it's less blue in person, I can't get the white balance right)



This blue paint, is a metallic that Tamiya originally intended for aotake. It never caught on, but still lives a happy life in their paint range.




The ones with aluminum bases are for the A6M5, it seems even aotake was becoming sparse and was eventually only applied in the engine bay and wheel wells in later Zeros.







I forgot these in the previous post - these sidewalls were previously painted the interior green as you saw, the black fuse panel and green radio were masked only with post it notes and airbrushed









Aaaaaaaaand my wife literally just walked in the door with the next colour I need

Matt,
Your build blogs are not only easy to follow, but the information and techniques constantly cause "bells" to go off in my head. For quite some time I've been frustrated with how to mask bombs where the nose is a cylinder. No tape I've ever used seems to work. But your technique of using thin cardboard with the proper size hole drilled in it, is the answer to my frustrations. Can't wait to try it. For sizing I would have grabbed my calibers, but I do have the UMM hole punch set that would be a perfect solution.

Your attention to details, is just way beyond what us hackers normally accept and do. As is your well thought out process for duplicating the Japanese clear corrosive coating.

Without a doubt, this build will be a incredible experience for us to follow to completion.

Joel