Hi Bernd thanks for your kind encouragement! Believe me I wouldn't have put the undercarriage in now either except that once the wings are together you can't put them in with the way they are made. They attached to the upper wing and have a rather significant shaft running at 90 degrees to the gear legs themselves. Although it can't be seen easily in the Pic below but there's a shaft that goes back into the two tabs either side of the gear.

Chris,
I had to deal with that same issue on my Academy 1/48 scale F-4B build from a few years ago. I found a way of modifying the gear and mount so that I could install them at the very end. Not saying that it's possible in this case, but you'll just have to be extra careful during the build process not to damage or heaven forbid break the strut.

Joel

Some of the aftermarket parts have arrived and I've been working on applying them to the build. Specifically the photo-etch and the resin seat. The I.P. and switch box faces are pre-painted and the colour of the I.P. and some of the other parts looks more like a Nakajima colour than a Mitsubishi one, quite yellow. But they look way better than anything the kit provided so I'm going with it.

The seat is designed for the Tamiya kit and attaches to the raising and lowering mechanism which of course the Hasegawa kit does not provide. So I'm scratch building the mechanism to sit the seat on. I will also at some point have to paint the cockpit so I'll have to look at masking or painting carefully by hand as I've done with the side walls.

The cockpit floor in the Zero is solid as it's the actual wing surface something the Hasegawa kit does not replicate. So in an effort to replicate this surface I've attached some thin plastic card the bottom of the cockpit and marked lines where it goes past the fuselage sides. Then removed the excess plastic after which I'll paint it and then once the fuselage halves are joined I'll glue this to the fuselage as well.

Here are some pics to show what progress has been made so far.

Chris , so far the added detail along with the PE is looking super !

I'm getting the itch to start the new tool one




Terri

Chris,
The seat, belts, and dials look great!

Gaz

Chris,
the PE consoles really look great. Nice job detailing the seat adjustment mechanism.

Joel

@Terri:- I'd look forward to seeing you build it Terri and would of course follow any build log. (Me hint? Nooooooooo)


@Gary:- Thanks gaz it was certainly easier than the PE belts on the Hurricane. And the extra realism of the seat really improves the office.

@Joel:- Thanks my friend your appreciation of my work is always gratefully received. The I.P. looks great if a little on the small size for this kit.

Okay so I'm getting things done and it looks a lot more like a Zero now. I've got the detail painting done the fuselage buttoned up and the wings on. I put strips of plasticard to act as shims at the wing root and under the wing fuselage join at the front to ensure the tops of the wings were flush. Just a little clean up with some sand paper and it should look just fine. A few gaps here and there but they'll be easy to remedy.

Also you can see on the top of the fuselage two cracks that appeared while I was pulling the fuselage into line. They appeared after spraying some accelerant on the superglue I used to fill the aerial fuselage gap. I think that in this case the accelerant made the plastic brittle and it fractured. I've had this happen an a couple of Tamiya builds with old kits. This may be something that happens when plastic simply gets old. Anyhow they are stabilized now and ready for filler so it shouldn't take too much work.

Nice work, Chris !
The well detailed cockpit with the new seat add a lot of details and will stay visible.
Well done.

The seat mechanism has some importance for the Zero, pilots raised the seat as far as possible during taxiing the aircraft.

Well done so far
Bernd

Chris,
You're making excellent progress. the overall cockpit really looks good with just the right amount of weathering for that used but not abused look to it.

Nice job painting those wells, they certainly have that metallic look.

And those Master gun barrels puts any plastic I've ever seen to shame. They're always worth the cost if more then just the tips show.

Joel

@Bernd:-Thanks my friend for the kind comments! Yes given the large radial and the tail dragger setup you needed height to see anything. Which is why the Wyvern had such a hump in the fuselage to give the pilot a better view. The extra's just make the cockpit pop as the kit provided details were sparse to say the least.

@Joel:- My thanks for the continued encouragement my friend! I agree Joel the metal barrels are a must for this kit as the kit provided parts are just shapeless blobs. The 7.7mm, 20mm barrels and pitot tube are master but the 13mm barrels are Aber. As I couldn't find any Master ones from this particular supplier.


Working on the canopy and fuselage guns. To get the right length of tube I drilled out the gun troughs to accept the size of plastic tube I was using just enough so it was a snug fit. I then marked the plastic tube where I wanted the machined barrels to end and cut it to length. I marked out and removed the length of the MG barrel accordingly. Then drilled out the waste so the end of the barrel would fit snugly.

I painted the tube black as the breech of the Mg was black in an effort to help it fade into the background. I put a drop of superglue on the mating surface of the tube and slid it into place. This didn't really work out to well so using a piece of brass wire I applied a drop of superglue while it was in place, which worked remarkably better.

I now need to mask off the cockpit so I can spray a coat of Mitsubishi interior green on the canopy then start working on the top coat. Here are some pics showing the progress.

Hey Chris , she is starting to look like a airplane now . Making nice progress and I like how the pit turned out and I also like your trick for installing the gun barrels . Looking forward on seeing some colour soon .



Terri

Chris,
I too really like how you installed those gun barrels. Will be using your technique in the future for sure.

My only suggestion is to consider Eduard masks on future builds. They will save you time, and they fit for the most part like a glove.

Joel

Chris, your build is starting to look like a Zero, well done so far.
The metal barrels are a real improvement and as you say a must.

Bernd

@Joel:- I will use masks for the canopy Joel if it's complex or the framing is indistinct. I used a set of Montex masks for the 1/48 Bv141 and an Eduard set for the Airfix kit. But the framing on the Zero is well defined and really rather simple and I'd spent most of my budget getting the barrels for the kit. I'm not as wealthy as I'd like for this hobby LOL.

@Bernd:- Thanks my friend I appreciate your continued support. Given the cost of the barrels they really needed to make a major difference and they've certainly done that for me.

Anyway I've been working on the paint scheme which is really very simple IJN green over IJN grey (Both Tamiya colours). I've been modulating the rather dark green camo with a lightened mix of the same colour just cut with a little light green and grey. I've sprayed it over the areas where sun would degrade the applied paint and those areas like the covers for the magazines and the guns where handling would mar the finish over time. I'll chip it where appropriate and the underside will be dirtied up with oil and grime rather than faded as the sun rarely saw it. It's not as harsh a delineation as the flash photography would imply but rather a more subtle tonal variation. I've also applied it more heavily to the control surfaces as the paint on the fabric tended to be lighter than on the aluminium. I'll work on the underside over the weekend and then get the decals on before panting the cowling and attaching it. I've scribed some of the missing panel lines on the cowl but the fasteners have been eluding accurate portrayal. So I'm going to cut some from very thin plasticard and glue them in place not quite as the original but it should work.















Slight over spray in the wheel wells I'll touch those up a little later after weathering the underside.

Nice job on the camo so far Chris




Terri

Chris,
I dig the tonal variation on her. Gonna try it with the Saggitario I'm building for the Italian campaign. My version of verde oliva scuro 2 is mighty dark.

Gaz

Chris,
the paint fading from wear and tear really looks quite good.

Joel

@Terri:- Thanks Terri your appreciation is greatly valued.

@Gazza:- Awesome I look forward to seeing your take on this Gary with your Saggitario.

@Joel:- Thanks buddy your approval is always greatly appreciated.

So after some intermittent work on the Zero I've got the power egg attached to the airframe. And I've started adding the decals which are always pretty sparse on Japanese airframes. I've also painted the prop and spinner the typical red-brown they used. It's a Gunze colour actually called "propeller colour" believe it or not.

Really great work Chris. The fading is top notch

Thanks James I appreciate the positive feedback! Well it's definitely looking more like a Zero now. Got a few things to paint and then attach mainly undercarriage components. A little weathering of same and then dull coat to pull it all together.

Chris,
Decaling really looks like it was painted on. Love how they sunk into those panel lines. And the weathering over them really adds a lot to the overall effect.

Joel

Hi Joel many thanks for the positive feed back I really appreciate it. As for the decals they were floated on a bed of Klear (Future for you Americans) and then plenty of micro Sol to soften it and let it get pulled down into the panel lines. Giving the result you see.

Thats a good bunch of Progress, Chris.
Nearly there, good work !

Hi Bernd thanks for the encouragement. I've been tinkering with the weathering and paint chipping. Some of the chipping looks simply wrong so I'm going to revisit that. And I'm working on getting the landing gear in and weathered. But all in all not far now till I'm done, pics to follow once I've got her standing on her feet so to speak.

Great looking Zero, Chris! Quite the staining and weathering job! You guys should all have tutorials about getting it done so newbies like me can get a leg up!

Great stuff!