Tamiya 1/48 A6M5 Zero/Zeke

[WolfRacer]

Ok, stupid question, I started building this as a carrier based Mitsubishi but just realised the kit decals are for a either a Nakajima carrier based or a Mitsu land based, anyone got a reference for an early Mitsu carrier based A6M5?

I'm not attached to the kit decals, I was planning on die cutting masks and airbrushing the markings anyway. If I can't find a carrier based Mitsubishi then I guess I'll swap it to a land based one.

 

[Shinpachi]

653rd Flying Group held Mitsubishi A6M5s as the final carrier based Zeros

 

[Shinpachi]

601st, 652nd and 653rd FGs held A6M5s as carrier based fighters in 1944 for the battles in Mariana and Philippines.
I find few photos.

 

[Wurger]

 

[WolfRacer]

That's awesome! Thank you.

I was wondering, the demarcation line between the green and the grey; on some aircraft it curves up to horizontal stabilisers and on others it's a straight line. Is there any reason for that difference or is it just random?

I also found this one from the 653rd on wings palette...

http://img.wp.scn.ru/camms/ar/1039/pics/65_77.jpg

 

[Shinpachi]

The curved-up one is Nakajima's Zero and the straight-lined one is Mitsubishi's

 

[WolfRacer]

Thanks! That's very helpful, I thought that might be the case but wasn't sure.

 

[Shinpachi]

You are welcome, WolfRacer !
You are doing good job

 

[WolfRacer]

Bah, I did a terrible job on the aotake It was clear blue/green over a metallic base, I did it on a test model first and it came out nice but I didn't really consider how complicated and detailed the Zero internals would be.... I really struggled to get the clear in to the crevices and whatnot and in an attempt to get it in I flooded the area way too much. In hindsight I probably over thinned the clear as well.

It looks ok from a distance but up close it's a bit of a mess. Need to decide if I'll repaint it or just move on. Maybe close the flaps so you can't see the horrid job I did in there. There was also a bit of overspray on the metallic so I'll have to touch up some of the grey areas.

Vallejo sell a bunch of inks, maybe I'll pick up a blue and green ink and apply it with a hairy brush over the top and see if it fills in some of the messed up areas.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Gnomey]

Nicely done so far! Doesn't look too bad in the pictures.

 

[WolfRacer]

I think I figured out why I had issues with the aotake, I used Tamiya acrylic chrome silver as the basecoat and it seems paint doesn't like sticking to it at all, it's probably why paint was receding away from the crevices. In hindsight I probably needed to do a flash coat first or use a different metallic as the base.

For the landing gear I sprayed them the same chrome silver (for the oleos) but when I tried to paint the black over it (for the rest of the strut) the paint kept beading up and once the black paint dried, it wiped off so easily that I couldn't position the landing gear without rubbing the paint off. Even tried spraying them with Tamiya flat black lacquer and that would wipe off as well (usually that stuff sticks really well).

Ended up just stripping the landing gear using lacquer thinner and repainting them. I won't bother trying to strip the aotake parts though as it'd be too hard to do at this stage. Just have to avoid scratching them I guess.

Lesson learned, I won't use Tamiya's acrylic chrome silver as a base for any other paint in the future! Which is a shame because it actually looks quite nice (for a metallic acrylic anyway).

The underside is pretty much done now, just have to do the tail wheel and it'll be ready to mask and paint the top side.

 

[Wurger]

However If I were you I would attach the landing gear at the final assembling of the model.

 

[WolfRacer]

Yeah I'll probably regret it! My thought was to attach the landing gear and then put the whole model on a podium to paint the top side, but now I'm not sure how well that'll work because I still have to mask the landing gear without damaging it.

 

[Gnomey]

Looking good so far!

 

[WolfRacer]

Topside preshading...

And then after spraying the XF70...

Next up is markings, followed by gloss varnish and weathering.

I still haven't been able to find an early carrier based Mitsu A6M5 so I'll do a Rabaul one instead (thanks to Shinpachi for the carrier based references but I could only find late model carrier based Mitsu A6M5's, however this kit is an early model A6M5).

 

[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

Looking good.

 

[Gnomey]

Good work so far!

 

[fubar57]

Very nice