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Erik J Kidd
5 articles

1/48 Tamiya A6M2-N Rufe

May 25, 2021 · in Aviation · · 15 · 1.7K

The straight out of the box except for the sewing needle pitot. Painted with Tamiya rattle cans, weathered with chalks and pastels. I flat coated the cowl with a household brand clear-flat spray and that's how it turned out, thought it looked kind of cool. I would have freaked out if it was on something other than a black seaplane cowl. A 'good' mistake for once and a lesson learned to at least stick with the spray hobby clear coats. Thank you for the look and letting me share, appreciate it!

Reader reactions:
18  Awesome

4 additional images. Click to enlarge.


15 responses

  1. Looks great, Erik (@erikjameskidd). The gray surface weathering looks very convincing. I have had clear coats do this when sprayed on very humid days. I have been told that it does this because the clear paint traps moisture from the humidity and gives you a milky finish. I try to avoid painting on humid days, or spray in really thin coats to avoid trapping any unwanted moisture.

    • Thank you much! Was sure it wasn't humid, however, you are right, that's the only way to get that 'effect'. I was experimenting with different spray clear-coats at the time and was amazed at... How much better Testors, Tamiya and Mr. Hobby stuff was and/or how weird the results were with Krylon, Rustoleum, etc.

  2. It looks pretty good from here, @erikjameskidd, it's always a risk when you mix different manufacturers' products, definitely liked.

  3. Definitely ‘liked’, Erik!
    If you asked me, I thought you were trying to get a sea salt residue look ?.
    Nice job job with this Tamiya kit and the weathering.

  4. Looks nice, in my eyes the weathering looks natural. Like a plane at the sea for a long period of time. Nice job on the overall build.

  5. That's a great Rufe, Erik!
    Love your weathering interpretation1

  6. Well, it was a Rufe in the Aleutians, and all photos of them show "heavy weathering" so you picked the right subject matter with which to commit a boo-boo.

    Nice work on this old chestnut.

  7. Definitely a big like, Erik @erikjameskidd
    The painting and weathering is very realistic.

  8. Looks really good! I like the scheme, and dittos to the other comments about the "weathering" - looks pretty realistic to me.

  9. 🙂 ... Greetings ... 🙂 :
    Very well rendered presentation of a Rufe.
    The painting and weathering are very well done, nice job Erik !

  10. G'day Erik (@erikjameskidd),
    This is a great build.
    I bet you couldn't have achieved that cowling effect on purpose.
    I have the Hasegawa kit to build one day and hope it will turn out rather like yours.
    Liked!

  11. Ciao Erik, very nice results, which gray did you use ? I’m going to paint the same airplane but I found that I can use the Tamiya XF76 Japanese Grey green ( but in my opinion is too green) or the Japanese grey XF 12.
    Thanks Paolo

    • Thank you! I used Tamiya AS-2 Light Grey (IJN) spray can with Mr. Surfacer grey primer as a base. The Tamiya sprays are a bit more translucent and I have noticed they will darken or lighten according to the base coat. Hope it helps!

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