Ditto wirh our friend @johnb, my friend @airbum! Really looking forward to see the results of this very interesting technique!

@johnb, @fiveten, @holzhamer and @lgardner, thank you for all the feed-back, I do appreciate it. Actually, after removing the film the rivets are very hard to see. I added a spot of aluminium, and may weather to make the rivets visible. They are made by HGW Pedro. Sadly they are not to be seen after the silver paint, so fingers crossed they will show up after the final coats of paint and some wet-sanding.

Strip-filler

I assembled the wing, and first dryfit showed a gap at the roots
That was to be expected so out came a few strips of evergreen

I also took the opportunity to make a gap

Some sub-assemblies ready for next time

The propeller had the same salt-treatment as the Nanzan

Not entirely sure when I will be back – garden and dayjob taking up a lot of time

@airbum
I don’t know what specific machine you’re making, so I my next comment can be way off the mark, but to my best knowledge the rule for propeller paint in those early Zero models was polished aluminium on the frontal surface and black or propellor brown on the aft surface.
The weathering looks quite nice mate 😉

Thanks gents. @holzhamer, you are absolutely right about the rule regarding the propeller! However, I am doing it as close to OOB as I possibly can, and there is a sideview in the Tamiya pack that clearly shows this one to be brown. According the booklet I have on Zero and Rufes, some did get brown propellers late in the war, this one supposed to be depicting a plane from 1944 (also happened to some two-seaters!), so just following orders here Pedro 🙂

Not to say I wont change it, but for now this is (worn) brown. Your comment is definitely not off the mark, but very relevant indeed. As I stated earlier I know next to nothing about Japanese planes, and I take alle the info from the comments in I can, so just keep 'em comin. I do appreciate them.

Wing/fuselage assembled, canopy installed

- and it is time for masks

Been doing a bit off-line, so now the major parts are assembled, and it was time for masks. For the Rufe I did try some eduard masks but they were designed for the later kit, so off to order some from Dead Design instead.

now it is off to the paintshop and next time you see it it will have a coat or two of the base paint – perhaps primer for weathering?

Some serious masking, Erik @airbum

Very nice technique, my friend @airbum!

Erik, @airbum
It's nice to read all the details about how you are painting the Zero going step by step.

I remember walking through Kermit Weeks' museum "Fantasy of Flight" about 20 or so years ago, and at this time he had a Zero that had been recovered from one of the islands in the South Pacific. It was on display, shown almost exactly as it was found. It had a lot of the reddish brown colored primer exposed on it, and it looked just like how your primer color looks here. If I can locate a picture I took of it, I will post it here if you don't mind. It will take some digging...it's an old school picture that was actually printed on paper. 😉

I'm tuned in and ready for the next installment ! 🙂 Keep it going my friend.