Hasegawa 1/48 A6M3 Zero 22
I added a CMK interior and some wire to the engine and landing gear but that's about it. I am not sure who made the pilot's body but the head is from Reheat. This is my interpretation of Hiroyoshi Nishizawa's aircraft. This is a Mutsubishi built aircraft with the Olive grey paint and blue black cowl. The wheel wells are fuselage color and the cockpit is the darker Mitsubishi green. The upper surface is field applied and is really sloppy. How do you replicate a shoddy paint job and make it look like you meant to?
As far as I can tell, I think you replicated it very well. And I thought the Veltro smoke ring scheme was tough, or the Hein scheme over natural metal was not easy either. But I think would have a tough time even coming close to how you did yours. Well done.
Thank you, Chuck. I have a hein in the stack that I want to do...it will be tough.
Ummm, I hate to say this, given that you have made a very nice model. However, that cockpit color is for Nakajima-built aircraft (close to US interior green), which Mitsubishi Green is very close to British grey-green (Tamiya makes a "IJN Cockpit Color" paint which is Mitsubishie green and also very good for RAF cockpits.
Thank you, Tom, but I believe you have that backwards, according to J-aircraft the Nakajima color is lighter and the Mitsibishi color was close to FS34102. The color I used is Mister color cockpit green which is very close to 34102.
I think you got the field-applied upper color very well done. I doubt 0.0001% of those who see this model will know the cockpit color problem, but I supplied that to you for future reference.
As in - "Rufe" would be Nakajima Interior Green (also Nakajima IJN Green, which is the earlier Tamiya Blue-Green color) upper surfaces.
A6M5a's are either Mitsubishi (upper color in a traight line on rear fuselage under the horizontal stab) or Nakajima-built (upper color in a curving line from wing trailing edge to horizontal stab). Mitsubishe Green upper color is "IHN Green 2" for Tamiya.
A6M5c - all Mitsubishi built with Mistsubishi colors.
HTH.
Thank you , Tom, but I believe I will stick with the darker green for Mitsubishi aircraft.
No need to worry about any particular color, this model looks excellent indeed. Very nice paint job overall
Thank you, sir.
Finally someone who can counter Mr Always correct or the resident critic.
Thank you, Chuck. There is some good and sourced research to validate my color opinion.
Looks like you really know your stuff about these aircraft, John, and the result is a really fine looking model. There are so many spelling mistakes and grammatical errors in "Mr Know it all's" comments above it seems he can hardly string a sentence together, let alone write a whole book on any subject.
Lol, thank you, George.
Nicely finished and presented, John...good work, sir.
Thank you, Craig
John, Let me just say, this is one of the best Zero's I've seen !, Really nice technic to bring out the realism of the paint scheme. Great work !
Thank you, Terry
Nice work on the Zero, John, also like base as well. Very well done.
Thank you, Tom
John, Banzai! Beautiful job! "The Devil" doesn't look happy. I like the paint job, one I've always wanted to try. That and the crosshatch one.
Thank you, Bernard. That cross hatch scheme looks cool.
I think you answered your own question quite convincingly! Just an excellent finish all the way around!
Thank you, Greg
Hello John...I'd like to echo what others have said about your Zero build. It's absolutely beautiful and very well done...one of the best I've seen in quite some time.
Thank you, Jim
Beautiful work, nice reference photos.
Thank you, Robert
Congratulations on your work. It's very, very well done. A while ago I read Samurai, the story of Saburo Sakai, where Toshio Ota and Hiroyoshi Nishizawa are mentioned to a lesser degree. One interesting fact is the aerobatics display that Nishizawa instigated over Rabul Harbour on 16 May 1942, for which he and his wing men were royally chastised by their CO. The link below provides some background and shows the three Zeros in their plain grey paint scheme, prior to the date of your depiction John. Well done, very authentic and realistic.
http://blogdomigueljunior.blogspot.co.nz/2011/05/ases-da-segunda-grande-guerra-mundial.html
thank you, Allan. I have a copy of "Samarai" and enjoyed it very much. I would like to do Sakai's Claude at some point.
Beautiful work John!
California Steve
Thank you, Steve...lol oop, ack,!
Lovely build John, it is hard to replicate the worn finishes in any scale.
Well done sir.
Thank you, Simon
Very nice presentation, John.
For anyone interested in modelling Jaoanese aircraft, or in other references to Japanese armour colours via various book sources, http://www.aviationofjapan.com is useful. Also of interest might be http://arawasi-wildeagles.blogspot.co.uk.
Thank you, Rob
I don't know very much about Zeros, but i think this is a brilliantly-executed model. The colour accuracy is close enough that nobody is gonna care. What matters most is how the paint was applied anyway. And i think you did a great job trying to depict a less than perfectly documented paint scheme. I know how hard it can be, so you have my respect- that's for sure!
Thank you very much, sir.
Nice work LIKE!
Thank you, sir