Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero - Tamiya 1/48

[TheTroyster]

How can we have a PTO build and no Zeros? Well as near as I can tell this kit pre-dates the actual planes.

Built in 1973 - it's old for sure, but for under $12.00 who can say "no'" for a great way to practice?

And let's face it, the box art is great!



Token picture of the stuff....



Not many parts so this shouldn't take too long to build. Going to paint it in that light color - the color they were on December 7th. 1941.

[Richp1969]

I was hoping we would see one of these. Awesome. It will be interesting to see how the kit holds up to the ne Tamiya zero kits.

Sincerely,
Richard

[rwsmith14]

Nice Kit !!!

[Willem]

Nice one.

Hope to join in the Zero love (sounds wrong) when I've finished a Corsair.

Good luck with the build.

[TommyKillander]

Yeah!

I love Zeros, such a great aircraft!

Good luck, buddy!


Tommy

[TheTroyster]

Primed:


Painted base coat of interior:

[Always48]

Awesome stuff Troy, great to see a zero being built. How is the kit as a whole? as im thinking of getting one

[TheTroyster]

Awesome stuff Troy, great to see a zero being built. How is the kit as a whole? as im thinking of getting one

I haven't put anything together so I really don't have an answer for you. I will, however, keep you posted as I move forward with this build - I'm still working on the Shinny thing build so this is on the back burner for now.

[Richp1969]

Looking great.

Sincerely,

Richard

[martin57]

looking good so far

[TheTroyster]

Oink oink! Yea - this is your parents Tamiya. The fit here is not what I was hoping, and normally I'd just trash can this based on the quality at this point, but since I have it in a GB I'll work through it - I may even learn something.

Oh that's a tight fit!


Not to be outdone, the other side:



Oh look I fixed it - brute force!



But I still have this minor Grand Canyon on the underside:



This turned out nice:



The cowl (think that's the name of it) looks odd and fits like crap.


See the gaps here, not a good fit at all:



Ouch that's huge:

[TommyKillander]

Wow, that's how I remember model-kits from when I was a boy

I was very close to buy this kit some time ago for "a real bargain price". I realise now how come.

But it look like some glue and "determination" can fix most problems


Tommy

[TheTroyster]

Wow, that's how I remember model-kits from when I was a boy

I was very close to buy this kit some time ago for "a real bargain price". I realise now how come.

But it look like some glue and "determination" can fix most problems


Tommy

I've picked up some of these cheep Tamiya kits in the past, but like this one, they really are just pracrice pieces, none really make it on my shelf - they always end up as targets. The worst thing - at this point you know it's garbage so why finish it?

Your stuff, on the other hand, is looking amazing! That Right Stuff build of yours is fantastic.

[TommyKillander]

I've picked up some of these cheep Tamiya kits in the past, but like this one, they really are just pracrice pieces, none really make it on my shelf - they always end up as targets. The worst thing - at this point you know it's garbage so why finish it?

I always try to finish my kits, because I need all the airbrushing practice I can get

I try to build kits as much as possible with my kids and those kits are sort of practice builds for me. It's like a speedbuild; I build the kit using the time that my kids patience will give me. If they start to get bored I move on, which means that I cant do ridicilous detailed stuff or fill/sand/rescibe forever.. It's more important to keep the momentum up and we finish something together than build something pretty that takes ages...
It the end they can have a decent looking model on their shelf, where they have done stuff and been involved the whole time. I hope that it will give them a positive feeling about scalemodelling and maybe try modelling on their own.

Most kits are low cost, old tooling kits that I buy second hand or kits that are on sale at my LHS.

Your stuff, on the other hand, is looking amazing! That Right Stuff build of yours is fantastic.

Thank you, Troy Let's hope that my "Zipper" turns out nice - otherwise it may end up as target-practice



Keep up the good work, buddy!


Tommy

[Always48]

crickey thats a shame, but it does look like you have it covered. I'm sure sometimes the kits that give you trouble end up being the ones you master new skills out with.

[pourquoi61]

Looks like a summer of filling and sanding, but you will overcome this blip.

[TheTroyster]

Somebody please remind me to buy a canopy mask next time - 2 hours to do this!



Then I primed the plane in both gray and black:



Once dry I painted the area that's under the canopy in interior green.





I'll let that dry for a day or so - as I don't have the colors I need and have to go to the hobby store tomorrow to buy them - damn.

[fly1ngdutchm4n]

I see that the gap problems are all filled up, great job!
Looking good so far, keep it up!

[TheTroyster]

Had a real sh-t storm of issues here. Airbrush nozzle plugging up, every decal torn, paint running, parts breaking - and still I push on.

Let's face it, I'm sure there are no exceptions among us scale model builders, every build has issues. No matter how careful you are, your skill level, doesn't matter we all have issues with each build. Of course, I'm trying to improve my aircraft skills so like all starters I don't want to go buy that super expensive kit - just a waste of money. Thus, I bought a small stash of inexpensive aircraft kits to hone my skills on - some are old, others lack details, but this is where we start. The problem with these types of kits is they have issues of their own - namely, they're cheep in many ways.

The important thing, I think, is to work through these issues, hopefully you will end up with a model, although not a show stopper, that looks good enough to get on the shelf until you can replace it with something better.

Okay, enough of my model building philosophy:

Mixed these two colors 4/1



The results:





A little pre-shading:





Base coat of paint - and here the nozzle plugged up:




Wanted a little more color on here, but no can do!


Then I painted the lights and just a small running problem:




Going to hand paint the touch up, which may screw this up!



It did screw it up, of course. But I hardly noticed because every decal tore and took me forever to piece together:


Also the Antana broke in half, and these fiddle parts on the underside of the wings broke off as well -

But I think, hope, I can overcome some of these visual issues with some weathering - and I think I'll finish this at some point today.