My work had stopped in the figure painting; now, I started again. I heard Tamiya’s Zero is a high-quality product, so probably easy to build. It is a Zero Fighter Type 52. Oh, there is no place to display when the airplane is completed. I wonder if I make a warship for a while?
The mold is detailed, the decals are excellent, and the cockpit looks good.
Intend to paint them as possible at the same time, the same color, and now almost all parts were cut out.
The Kanji character of Zero Fighter, on the painting instruction.
Drive-up my spirit to paint the pilot, surprised to know for the first time there are six figures. The paint direction is very complicated.
For now, for these two pilots, assembly is completed. This is good. I wanted to build it on a 1/16 scale.
(26-September-2016)
The left is wearing a life jacket and a winter jacket. The right has a briefcase and wearing working clothes.
They have a saber and look courageous.
Mold is fine. It takes time to paint, but I like this work.
If there is no pilot, I intend to use the seat belt for detail-up parts, but this time I paint figures properly.
I blew the aircraft’s interior color and cowling color.
(30-September-2016)
This time, I used an aqueous acrylic paint for the base paint.
Generally, I have finished painting.
When a decal of the national insignia is to figures, even 1/48 looks precise. Maybe Tamiya can sell this separately because the mold is good.
I attached decals to the meter panel.
The inside of the cockpit required some small parts and detailed painting.
There are oxygen tanks behind the seat. If this is completed, it may not be seen at all. Anyway, I painted them black.
(25-October-2016)
Because a masking sheet was attached, I thought the small canopy peculiar to a WWII Japan airplane masking was easy, but…
I searched for the masking seal, where I turned off where I peeled off, and I tried hard for about a couple of minutes, but regarding the manual, I had to cut it by myself. Still, it is saved working stress. I hope many plastic model makers put this seal in every aircraft kit.
I tried making a pitot tube with a metal wire by connecting a 0.3mm brass wire to a brass pipe of 1.0mm and 0.6mm. Parts around this area are highly durable due to the high probability of damage during painting. Because the pitot tube was easily damaged during the painting, I made it with strong material.
I can paint the whole body after adding some small parts.
This time I build this model flap-down position.
(04-Dec-2016)
I painted the inside of the canopy with a cockpit color. After that, I airbrushed the light and dark colors along the panel lines.
The underside of the aircraft is light grayish-white.
After the masking, paint the whole in dark green. I left a little shade gradation.
The rising-sun insignias are pretty thick decals and considerably thin small decals. I have various decal-softening items. I don’t know the best match for these decals until testing. A small decal on the underside partially melted with a strong softener, so I stuck a different one.
I painted inside the flap and the landing gear compartment with metallic blue-green. It’s fun to paint the prominent color. It is too bright, so I will lightly wash it later.
(06-Dec-2016)
I finally finished the zero fighters. It took time to complete by moving home or relocating the home page on the way to building it. This time, I built the Zero in the Battle of the Philippine Sea on June 19, 1944. Carrier Junyo, Lead ship of Carrier Div. 2, 652nd Fighter Group.
Japan lost three carriers, was attacked and sunk, and lost approximately 500 planes, while the United States was a wreck of several ships and hundreds of aircraft but had no sunk ship. At this time, the air force was 500 in Japan. The United States had 900. In addition, the military’s skill was higher in the United States.
Zero Fighter Type 52 was cut down by 50 centimeters at both wing ends compared to Type 21, and the wing tip became round. The air fighting performance declined, and the cruising distance became shorter, but it seems that there was no problem in the latter half of the war main tactic was hit-and-run. The armament has two 7.7-millimeter guns on the nose and 20-millimeter guns on both wings.
Since the canopy was able to adhere neatly this time, the pilot’s face looks better. From the left, I feel severely and sad.
The character of the decal on the faceplate is small and beautiful. The Hinomaru decal is pretty thick and hard to paste.
The propeller rotates as you blow. My head got cranky when I took a picture with too much blow.
This is a shooting that blows stronger. There is a feeling of dynamism when there is a moving part, is not? It is a situation that the pilot is on board, and it is just before the take-off.
The aircraft’s surface is a half-glossy painting close to gloss. But unfortunately, There was not enough adhesion of the decal.
I was using black and blue for this Zero fighter inking. When I built Raiden, which body color was also dark green, I chose a light color for the inking, I liked that finish, but this time I tried darker color. I wonder if dark green is the best inking color on the primary paint.
I tried peeling off silver paint first time on the aircraft model. I thought that painting would not peel off so much because the care of the carrier-based aircraft is nearly perfect, so I tried to practice just for the area to get on and off on the left side. It may be slightly unbalanced because the aircraft is generally clean.
I think the finishing quality of the bottom side is better this time, assembled with the tank installed.
It is 1/48, so it’s a pretty small figure. Five pilots are included.
I thought it was trouble because there were plenty of figures, but it was fun to start making. Well, it is Tamiya, inheriting the spirit of the military miniature series in 1/48 airplane kits.
Some pilots have a saber, a bag, and a variety of figures. Flag decals look shiny.
It is only about 3.5 cm on a 1/48 scale, but they are a very precise mold. It wasn’t easy to draw a face.
I arranged \500 coin with the figure. It is pretty tiny, right?
I made a few Zero Fighters of Sweet 1/144 scale before, so I felt somewhat weakened in freshness. Someday I would like to make a 1/32 scale.
(2017/01/05)
