Tonys Tamiya 1/48 A6M2 Zero

[colin m]

Great work Tony. The cockpit is spot on, and then we hide it in the fuselage.

[yak face]

Got the airframe primed with Halfords finest , doesn't look like theres much to sort at all before the paint starts to go on . I might give it a bit of red oxide colour on the leading edges of the wings and round the cockpit and then hairspray it . I can then do a bit of light chipping after the top coat has gone on . The naval zeroes ( and other naval aircraft ) had a red oxide primer under the top coat as extra protection against the sea air , but at this early stage of the war aircraft would have been only lightly weathered so its going to be quite restrained .

[scottie3158]

|Love the additions to the engine the rest isn't to shabby either lol

[yak face]

Got some more layers on this today , first it got silver on the leading edges of the wings and tail plus any areas where wear might occur ( gun covers , cockpit sides , wingroots etc )
Then a red oxide colour over the top of this , and finally once this had dried , a misting of hairspray .
The final colour can go on now , a mixture of Tamiya paints . The colour of early naval zeros is about as conflicting and contentious as the endless arguments about sky type S or olive drab , there being endless viewpoints on the net all claiming theyre right. After looking at a lot of info , i decided this guys formula ( based on actual samples of aircraft ) was good enough for me . He gives a fairly fiddly mix of Tamiya colours to get the caramel brown / beige colour . I mixed this as per the ratios and it gives a good colour . Once I had this colour I could now match with my own simpler mix .
My recipe is 5 parts Tamiya xf 14 JA grey to 1 part Tamiya xf 49 Khaki . Of course as with any historical colour no one can say anything is definitely right as fading , light conditions , different paint suppliers etc all screw with the colour , so the upshot is if it looks right to you then thats fine by me - dont let the rivet counters/ colour police bother you .

[langy71]

, so the upshot is if it looks right to you then that's fine by me - don't let the rivet counters/ colour police bother you .

A perfect way to deal with colours such as this,

One thing I do find is that some of these experts base their 'god given facts' on colour swatches that are nearly 80 odd years old and haven't been kept in a hermetically sealed box for all those years,

The 'so called correct shade' of paint has already started to 'degrade' within minutes of being applied... then cover this up with a lacquer to protect it and the lacquer also begins to degrade thus resulting in many variations of the base colour which nobody can ever decipher ... (dunklegelb anybody ??), so as you say go with what looks correct to you..

One point to note though is that as far as I'm aware there was never a white/grey colour for the zero's, this is down to faded paintwork being misconstrued as white/grey...a fact that model manufacturers have been getting it wrong all those years .....also given the attrition rate of zero's, they hardly lasted long enough to fade to a pure white/grey colour unless they were crashed wrecks found after the conflict had ended, and it's all down to how the light falls on the subject, you wouldn't believe the amount of beautiful zero builds that are painted white/grey......

[yak face]

Got the top colour mixed and sprayed , just the control surfaces to do in the grey colour . Now its time to start scrubbing !

[yak face]

Got the control surfaces done in a slightly greyer tone , and now started the light chipping .

[papa 695]

Just caught up again Tony, cracking work so far.

[Jim R]

A really quality job. Looks superb.

[Lee Drennen]

Looks great Tony enjoying the updates

[colin m]

Oh look, paint. Nice. Is there more chipping to come ?

[yak face]

Oh look, paint. Nice. Is there more chipping to come ?

A bit more colin but not too much , at this early stage of the pacific war they wouldnt have been too weathered , plus I think the naval zeros kept their paint on a bit better , probably down to the primer .

[yak face]

As usual the weekend is about the only time i get to the bench , so progress has been slow . An hour today saw me finish off the chipping and wear and get the cowling primed red . This will be hairsprayed like the airframe and lightly chipped after its had a coat of blue black . As the machine i’m doing is a mitsubishi built one ,the hinomaru are plain red ( the Nakajima built machines had a white surround ) . So as its a simple mask job i decided to spray them instead of using the decals .Out came the Compass cutter and wide masking tape was applied to some shiny label backing paper , making an easy mask . Meatballs anyone? :smiling::hungry:

[Allen Dewire]

Sorry Tony, but I am weeks late commenting on your GB build. I just did a ketchup and, as usual, you are doing your magic once again. I am surprised that you have stepped up in scale and I can finally see what you are doing. Top job and the sprayed Hinomaru's have really turned out great, Sir!!!...

Prost
Allen

[The Smythe Meister]

As usual the weekend is about the only time i get to the bench , so progress has been slow . An hour today saw me finish off the chipping and wear and get the cowling primed red . This will be hairsprayed like the airframe and lightly chipped after its had a coat of blue black . As the machine i’m doing is a mitsubishi built one ,the hinomaru are plain red ( the Nakajima built machines had a white surround ) . So as its a simple mask job i decided to spray them instead of using the decals .Out came the Compass cutter and wide masking tape was applied to some shiny label backing paper , making an easy mask . Meatballs anyone? :smiling::hungry:[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1201601[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]n1201602[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]n1201603[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]n1201604[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]n1201605[/ATTACH]

That's looking very nice indeed there Tony, fantastic stuff mate.
The sprayed on roundal is top drawer