Here's my current build, like all Tamiya kits this is going together splendidly. The cockpit is mostly done, not too many extra details added other than a few wires, opening up some holes in the fuselage sides and the seat bungee cord. The cockpit was primed with Mr Surfacer 1500 (grey this time), then sprayed with the new Tamiya lacquer LP-70 Gloss Aluminum (mostly to see how it sprays and looks) and then hairspray chipped the seat and cockpit floor.

Just need to make the belts tonight.

8 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Woody, @wkubacki
Thank you for starting this build on your Zero. By the looks of things, you have the cockpit sorted out and it's looking very good. I also like how you are doing the Aotake Blue / Green color. Several years ago I tried out something new. I had a brain storm idea about spraying spraying on a base color to replicate a bare metal finish. In some places I even used some Bare Metal Foil to cover the areas that I had planned on painting in Aotake.

Then I went back, and using Tamiya Clear Blue, I sprayed the spot randomly. I didn't want an even coverage, since the stuff was not uniform to begin with. Then I went back again, and this time I used Tamiya Clear Green and only sprayed a few small places. I have used various combinations of Tamiya's clear, namely the Blue, Green and Yellow to replicate the Aotake finish.

It works like a charm every time, and looks much more realistic in my opinion. Here's a picture showing the Aotake wheel wells on my recently finished 1/32 scale Hasegawa Ki-44. You can see how the color shifts from a blue to a green.

I will definitely be watching for the next installment. Thanks again for posting this for us all to enjoy.

Take care, stay safe.

@lgardner That makes perfect sense, depending on the amount of times certain pieces were sprayed and resprayed with aotake it would vary the look. I have to admit that I only build Japanese planes so you may have to extend the group build indefinitely.

Well I think it’s time for some updates. I buttoned up the fuselage and glued the wings, control surfaces, flaps etc,. No drama here except I had the slightest lip on the underside wing to fuselage join, something I can only blame myself for. I did a few rounds of sanding, mr surfacer 500/1000, sanding, priming with Mr Surfacer 1500 and more sanding until I think I’ve sorted everything out.

I thinned out the cowl flaps as well as they were far too thick. Then I started working on the landing gear, sanding the parting lines, drilling out the scissor links and drilling out and making round the loop at the base of the legs that are used as the up lock for the landing gear.

I’ll be doing a final primer spray tonight and clean up the model before I spray the aluminum chipping layer (trying out Tamiya LP-70 gloss aluminum) . I’m going to try two layer chipping, with aluminum and red primer as the bases for the chipping. The plane I’m making was a carrier based plane based at Bruin in the Solomons. I’m not sure how long it was at Bruin so I’ll constrain chipping to the wing roots/LG doors/lower fuselage (red primer) and cowl/access panel/propeller (aluminum).

8 attached images. Click to enlarge.

That’s the beauty of Tamiya kits, there is no need for filler at most seams.

And now to some live updates, the base aluminum and primer have been sprayed, with a layer of hairspray in between. For the primer I mixed about 55-45 Tamiya Dull Red with AK RAL 3000. Now I’m waiting for the paint to dry so that I can start on the chipping, the sooner the better with lacquers.

8 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Ok, for real last update. Prop has been painted , red caution lines masked, painted (need to redo one set) and chipped, and the rear of the propellor has been sprayed with MR Color C131 Propellor Color and chipped to simulate the blasting it would get.

3 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Massive progress! I really like the chipping on this big plane, all looking very nice and to scale.

Nice attention to details, my friend @wkubacki!