Coming along very nicely Chris, can't wait to see the radial with some detail painting.

Cheers, D

@D:- Ask and ye shall receive D!

@Joel:- As per your suggestion Joel I've painted the ignition harness a copper colour and it certainly looks the business.

@Terri:- Thanks for the vote of confidence Terri.

I've been working on the Sakae engine adding the exhausts only to find that the ring at the back was to align them. So I removed the shifted parts and carefully installed the exhausts. Which now require painting and I have some touch up to do as well but it's looking more and more like a radial.

I've painted the inside of the cowl Mitsubishi interior green although this is most likely wrong but I'll just leave it as it is. Next up will be assembling the whole subassembly and rectifying the missing panel lines and fasteners. I'm actually quite surprised even given the kits age that they aren't there.

Good work so far, the engine looks very nice and hopefully stay visible after the cowl and the prop is installed.

Hi Bernd my thanks! There is a little of the engine visible when in the cowl and of course the exhaust stacks sit alongside the fuselage.

Chris,
The engine really looks quite good, especially dry fitted in the cowl.

Joel

I'll second what Joel said.

Looks good !

Chris,

I'll be watching. Too cool that you are using their old kit.

Nice work. And I see that instrument panel - excellent work! But it isn't for the Zero. Corsair?

@Fred:/- I wish it was! But it's for the 1/32 Hurricane I'm building. I am however getting a photo-etch replacement ex Aussie which should be here soon I hope.

@Joel:/- Way to kind as per usual my friend! I appreciate the compliment.

@Gazza/:- I have a couple of these Gary feel like building one yourself? Then we can compare notes?? LOL

@Bernd:- my thanks Bernd for your kind appreciation!

Chris the engine is really looking the part good work it's looking good for an old bird ! We take the older kits for granted sometimes they can be great platforms for detailing and usually look just as good when done to all but the nitpickers. Keep up the good work

Very nice paint work and weathering on that power plant Chris .





Terri

@James:- The flip side to that James is the old mould kits are really cheap at the moment as everyone is dumping their older kits in favour of the new. However the very subtle rivet detail on the older Hasegawa kit represents the actual airframe better.

@Terri:- My thanks Terri for your kind evaluation of the radial.

Okay so I've been waiting for the instrument panel to show up and while I'm waiting I'm working on the wings and adding some of the provided detail to the cockpit. The rather large chunk of plastic you see is to align the top fuselage halves as they want to slip past one another there is also one at the fuselage wing joint which required a little work as one fuselage half was thicker than the other.

I've got replacement barrels for the 13mm MG's, the 20mm cannon and the pitot tube. The kit parts are vague intimations of the actuality. So I've cut off the moulded on parts and have filed the bottom wing to clean up the ports. The upper wing had the armament moulded to it so I've cut them off and sanded down the surfaces leaving just enough of the original structure to give me an idea of how far to file down the ports. I'm then going to install some evergreen plastic tube to attach the gun barrels to. The trick will be getting everything to line up properly. The back of the tube will need to be supported by plastic stock so it's horizontal to the wing, this will of course all be lined up with the mark one eyeball.

Chris,
You're really rolling quickly on these two builds. Good mojo! I love Zeroes, and am looking forward to how she'll look with paint on.

Been stymied a bit lately myself. January and February are so hot here that I've gotten little of anything done outside of work.

Gaz

@Gazza:- that sucks buddy but I understand I don't feel like doing much in the garage when the temp goes through the roof. Good luck getting things done when the big wet arrives.

So a little further along now I've got the evergreen tube in place and the landing gear and barrels in place. I've given Aotake a shot but I feel it's too blue I'll add a little green to it next time. The landing gear are in place as they glue into the upper wing and set up rather nicely. Upper wings are glued into place and now it's just a waiting game for the I.P. to turn up.

Hi Chris,
I've read a little on the confusing color called Aotake. Apparently it goes green after aging. Though, that is if you can trust what you read on the net.

Good work, this update.

Gaz

Chris,
As Always I'm impressed with those Master barrels. Nothing comes close IMHO.

As for the Aotake color, it's looks the part on my screen.

Joel

Gary,
I feel for you having to model outside or in the garage. I'm really lucky as I have my own modeling room in the house. My wife was never crazy about me taking over a spare bedroom, but it's never been used until I converted it. we still have one spare room setup as a huge pantry, since my son moved into our finished basement years ago. Now I can't get him out of there as it's time for him to test the so called waters out of our humble home.

Joel

Hi Chris.
Good reference for Aotake is difficult to find. It was never the same. As a protection of the bare aluminium it was nothing more than a clear coating. Often a very thin layer.
Good recipe is 10 parts of clear blue - 1 part clear green - 11 parts of smoke.

Kind regards,

Robert Jan

@Joel:- Thanks for the encouragement my friend it's always most welcome. And good luck winkling your son out of the house my two girls are still with us (27 and 18) it would be nice to get them to start their own life so I can get mine back LOL.

@Jan:- My thanks for the mix Jan I'll keep it in mind for next time.

Don't get too used to the empty nest- sometimes they return

Richard

Chris & Richard,

I'm semi retired, and will take one further step to full retirement next year, then full retirement. It would really be nice to be able to sell the house and move to a warmer climate in a retirement community. Maybe a one or two bedroom Condo. The 1st spare bedroom will be my man cave.

He's gotta move out before he can try to move back in. At the rate his going he'll be planning on moving with us, and that's just not happening.

Joel

Really enjoying how this is shaping up Chris



Terri

Terri I'm glad you like it so far! Things just got a little busier as the photo-etch for the cockpit has turned up and the scribing templates that I intend to use to create the missing cowl fasteners. Things should get quite "interesting" around here .... funny how that saying things should get interesting remind me of an old Arab curse .... may you live in "interesting" times.

Good work with the gun barrels and their inner wing supports, Chris.

Turned metal gun barrels are a real improvement over the plastic parts, especially in old kits like your Zero.
The Aotake paint is indeed a bit on the bright side, my Model Master paint has also a greenish hue in.

You are a careful modeller so not much risk to knock of the undercarriage during the build, its often a problem with me.