**** DONE: 1/48 A6M3 Q-102 - Carrier Aircraft GB

I agree.

N4521U said:

Nicccce pit!

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Definitely !!

Charles

Not looking too bad you say, me thinks it's looking damn good!!

Rogi said:

Someone replied somewhere that as long as its designed as a carrier based aircraft it'll do in whatever markings

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Yep. Me and Cory. We had asked about RNZAF aircraft which were designed as carrier types (SBD, F4U, TBF-1) but only flew from land bases in RNZAF service, and were given permission on the grounds mentioned.

Thanks all for the tips and comments

Further build shots.

Today was a bit of a let down, with an attempt to render it into a positive, but first the cockpit "tub"

Today I weathered it (the seat, and other green areas of the tub) with a tad darker tones, but its not that noticable in these shots. Tomorrow I'll yellow the dial on the tub so it doesn't appear too new and gives it a "old" look to the dials.



I tried to apply the dials by hand on the left section area, but I found some instrument decals I'll decal on later that will look much better as a replacement to the Tamiya ones that wern't in the kit.

Now the ups and downs of the day (I thought I'd try to expand this post a little bit so the newer members of the forum that have a bit of trouble get some tips out of applying coats of paint and how it doesn't always work out the first time.), first I applied some aluminium paint to the sections where I assumed was aluminium. they didn't look too great, and I beleive the IJN Green was applied as a primer ontop of another color, in a 3 layer system (I've been reading about the colors a bit but its all a little inconclusive) but I'm led to beleive that metal wouldn't of shown through on the actual airframe in the cockpit.


So I tried to "hide" the metal with a thick wash, that didn't turn out that great.

Deciding to go back to reguler IJN Green just made it worse :S (too many thick coats!)

I took my trusty thiner and thined the cockpit down to almost the base. I decided to re-do rather than re-touch and make it even worse.

Taking my time I applied the usual IJN Green in 2 thin coats, and then I applied a darker wash (mixing IJN Green with brown, then going a bit lighter to light brown and then mixing IJN Green with yellow all the time applying thin dry brushing to the areas and not applying too much excess paint.)The Example in steps,
#1 and #2 steps on one side.


(other side after 2 steps)


Just before the final coat. Still too much brown :S

After the final lightest coat (and a little touch ups with the reg. non mixed IJN Green.

and the other side.


When all is said and done you'll have a great effect with not a lot of effort (ok not a little effort but medium) If you really want to go crazy and have the tools, oil paints to touch up the cockpit further is highly recomended, after practicing with a scrap model or plastic. For now I like the effect and I will keep it as is (after applying the black onto the panels on the section of cockpit I re-did.

Just don't panic and it isn' the end of the world if you make a mistake and you can't live with it, take the paint off with thinner and start from scratch. Just remember the first time you usually do something is probobly the best you'll get on the model. I'm really satisfied with the Zero's cockpit up until this point, just a little touch ups and shes almost ready for glueing and paint.

Hope you guys enjoyed the mini tutorial

Igor

Looking good.

Have to agree.

Charles

Good stuff Igor, and good of you to show the stages with corrections.

Most pics posted are just the final good versions, whereas modelmaking is usually more about touching up, over doing and correcting than just 'getting it right' in one pot!

A4K said:

Good stuff Igor, and good of you to show the stages with corrections.

Most pics posted are just the final good versions, whereas modelmaking is usually more about touching up, over doing and correcting than just 'getting it right' in one pot!

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Thank you Evan and exactly Evan, I just wanted to show a bit of steps because all of the vets make it look so easy (like they did it in one go! ) , just a sample of the steps in the process would give a simple tutorial and get the newer members (or members that havn't done modeling in ages and have forgoten most of the steps) to reflect on and maybe try something diffrent in their modeling later on down the road. I commonly see the too thick paint in some pics and thought I should touch up on the subject when I have a chance and fortunatley I did have a chance in the last post in this thread, when we usually say "I went back and re-did it" (and I remember from personal experience) I always thought about what that meant and if someone could explain the statement, before I tried some steps on a scrap model and got a decent result in the end. Then I finally figured out that phrase a long time ago.

Sometimes it takes practice (ok usually most of the time) but a little hint here and there can help a lot and kickstart that amazing job. Not that our older kits with the least amount of detail arn't amazing (they are always the fondest kits for me, since its among your first and your so proud of how you completed it) but giving a little advice on the method is ok I guess I'm sure if one of the other guys did the steps it'd be like 10 pages long or something crazy but I wanted to short form a bit and get the basic idea out there just in case someone needs a little pointer or two.

Igor

I like the cockpit treatment...looks very good

Do you guys use anything other than photobucket, for the whole day today I've been getting "Your account is in maintenace", its pretty annoying and some of the pictures are missing off the links now.... :S

I don't use it at all. Just save my pictures on my HDD and make a copy of them on CD/DVD record. In the way I can upload images here directly onto the HDD forum server and delete from my HDD when these aren't needed anylonger. But still having a copy of them on the CD/DVD records.

I just load mine straight from the digital camera, as I have no idea how to resize them on the computer.

Evan, if you use the Irfanview it is very easy.

Click a picture twice with LMB or open with "Open" in the Irfanview "File" menu. Then go to the "Image" menu and choose "Resize/Resample" option. Or hit the "Ctrl" + "R" keys on your keyboard.



Then you get a new requester opened where you can either resize up or down a picture manually ( settings on the left side of the requester ) or use one of already ready settings ( on the right side ).



If you use the manual setting it is enough to enter a picture width only. The height will be adjusted automatically. Unless you switched off the small square next to the Preserve Aspect Ratio setting. Then you have to set both the width and height separately.



When all is set, click the OK. button and voila....




Sorry for the short hi-jacking Igor. Please fogive me.

Nice work all round!

Good stuff Wojtek - and I can confirm, using 'Irfanview' is so easy and quick, and you can also adjust brightness, contrast, colour and sharpness if desired. Loading direct to the forum also speeds up things, and prevents slow loading to the viewer, which can be really irritating.

Beauty, cheers Wojtku and Terry!
..And I would SOOOO love to have been there when that photo was taken!!!