My second build. This is a Zero Model 22 which came along with my Hamp as part of Hasegawa's A6M3 Model 22/32 "Rabaul Combo" set.

I've been working on this for the past few weeks and here's what I have done so far:

First I decided to handbrush the cockpit interior. I don't want to wait for weekends just so I could airbrush the cockpit.



Various dry-fitting:



And then primer with Mr. Surfacer 1200 plus some "sanding" with a paper towel.



First order of painting is airbrushing the gray-green-khaki-ish underside and fuel tank, the black landing gear struts and tires, and Tamiya Chrome Silver for the engine and propeller.



After the paint has cured, the next step was to mask the undersides. I decided to mask the canopy as well.



Then I did the main color which with Tamiya's XF-70 Dark Green 2.



After that, I masked the parts surrounding the anti-glare and the cockpit decking and painted those parts with the blue-black. That blue-black was also applied to the cowling (not in the pictures). I used a roughly 50-50 of Tamiya's Sea Blue and Semi-gloss black.



Then I applied the masked canopy and did a few more rounds of dark green.



And after all of that, I removed the masking in the undersides and retouched any spots as necessary. I also removed the masking in the cockpit since I'm pretty much done with airbrushing.



I was actually supposed to do the gloss coating today too but I'll leave that for Maundy Thursday.

Disaster struck!

So I've clear-coated everything in preparation for the decals. I started to apply the yellow IFF bands on the leading edge using Mr. Mark Setter. Apparently the Mark Setter dried before I could finish aligning the decal along the leading edge. I couldn't move the entire decal anymore so I had to tear it off and just airbrush the yellow bands, and it took out some green paint along with it.

Anyway the paint has been retouched but I can't apply the rest of the decals until I get those yellow IFF bands painted on. Good thing it's a four-day vacation because of the Holy Week.

I've decided to continue with the decals that aren't that close to the leading edges.



For these decals I just used plain water instead of Mr. Mark Setter. This gives me more time before the decal sticks for good. I actually used water for applying swastika decals on my diecast Stukas and it worked well. Then I used Mr. Mark Softer to make them shrink down to the panel lines.



Apparently one of the side hinomarus on the fuselage was a millimeter lower than the other. Good thing you can only see one at a given time (unless you use a mirror) so it's not a big deal.

Now I've airbrushed the yellow IFF bands. I used a mixture of Tamiya Flat Yellow with a few drops of red. Even if I had masked a lot of parts there was still some yellow paint that made it through the side of the fuselage just below the canopy and also on the underside of the wings. So I retouched those. And then the rest of the decal application took place, and then I super-glued the landing gear. I'm pretty much on the homestretch on this one.

I'm glad to say I'm done with the Model 22. I had some minor retouching done on the aerial mast because it got scratched when I removed the canopy. It turns out I didn't clean the canopy's inner side that well so there was some dirt that needed cleaning up.



The flat coat looks dusty and I don't know if that's because of the camera flash. But nonetheless I can't wait to take my "official" photos tomorrow and find out if that dusty look will still be there. But either way I'm happy with the model as it is since it doesn't really look dusty when I'm looking at it.

After taking these photos, I'm glad to say I'm done with my second model. It sure taught me a lot since this is the first one I've done with two major colors plus some masking job for the yellow IFF bands. The flat coat's dusty effect doesn't seem so bad under natural light, and despite a 1 mm alignment difference in my fuselage hinomarus, I'm totally happy with this build.

A6M3 Zero Fighter Model 22a, 201st Kokutai, Rabaul 1943.



Here is the Model 22 with the Model 32 that came from the same set.



Thanks for viewing!