I got this very old dis-continue kit from Hobby Focus few months back, a 1/32 scale Zero... my fav WWII plane. The kit itself is not of high quality with seams everywhere and inject moulding marking that i try my best to remove. There are some major gaps (fitting problem) on the fuselage and wing section that will require alot of work but i'm still not into that section yet. I found out the fiting problem when i try to dry fix them using tapes...

Here are some pics i have on the extra work i scratch build in the engine and cockpit area...


I fashion the seat belts using putty mix purchase from Hobby point today... will paint them red brown when the putty are set. The details may not be historicaly correct but anyway, this is my 1st time trying to build details from scratch


Belt Buckel


additional engine cables from some almost harden putty


side panel


front panel... i almost went blind when painting this area...

will post some more pics when or as i get along. Cheers

looking good! nice try with the seat belts. another method of making those seat belts would be to use masking tape. cut them into the length and width and attach the buckles on. The detail painting on the front panel is great. The paint chippings is nicely done too!

Keep us posted on progress..

Thanks. Here's the painted seat belts in Flat Green as in all seat belt color in the Imperial Army during WWII



Cockpit view before they are seal and not so visible anymore

Another one

one more

last one

cheers

Fuselage Assembly...

The gaps are a real work here. I'll fill it with liquid putty before sanding them off. I use masking tape to taper the area that need to be puttied that will narrow down my sanding area without removing much of the details on the fuselage... but nevertheless, some details like rivert are sand off. I use a sharppin to re-create the riverts i had sand off due to working on the gap. Now my dilemma is to whether to manually rivert the whole plane or to just leave it? The reason is i realize that the rivert on the kit are very weak and will not be visible after a few coat of the paint but to re-create all rivert will mean a hell of a work for me.

What do you experience modeller here will do if you are me? Pls advice

Below are some pics...


Gaps inside the engine crowling area that need to be fix


Around the top area that need attention too


re-created riverts

Anothe viewof my re-created rivert... not that great but it certainly look better than the original ones... Shall i re-create all the river for the whole plane???? Am i serious? pls advice how do you guys handle this situation

cheers

since you are able to re-create rivets, why not for the whole plane?
just take your time dude..

Hello folks! Long time no see.
Wow!! An A6M Zero, also one of my favourite WW2 plane. But when you mentioned poor parts quality, it kinda puzzled me because Hasegawa are known for their quality products. Anyway, thanks for sharing your road map to building a kit

I have drop the idea od re-create the rivert for the whole plane unless i have a proper tool fro riverting. They are avail online from oversea. Yes i agree that Hasegawa have very good kits but this kit i bought is really old. the manual and decal are all yellowish. it's kit number CH016:5500 any idea on the history of this kit? It include a upgrade alloy parts.

It's badly mould and the number on the stem are barely visible on some parts. Also, the riverts are not balance. They are clear and sharp on the wings, under-carriage & tail wings but not on the main fuselage. But for the price i pay it's a good buy. all i need is a whole lot of time o restore it.

Below are some more workbench pics


First coat of primer and the imperfection on some area immed shows up. This coat allow me to somemore correct area that i have overlook.


After some final touchup i'll polish the sanded area. Will not re-apply another coat of primer as i think the primer will actuallu=y drown out the details if more then one coat are apply. How you guys reckon?


Before the gap filling and sanding work


After the re-work on the gaps

cheers

depending on the type of primer used, sometimes the details might still be visible.
nice job on covering the gaps.

looking good! I would have died if I had to paint the cockpit panels like you did.
if you're cheap like me and airbrush primer instead of using a spray can primer, then you can control the fineness of your primer. at 1/32 scale, you should be able to keep the details unless you are very heavy handed in your application. (not likely from from what you've done so far)

Thanks for the comments Lee. I'm also thinking of using the primer by airbrush but will that thing damage the brush as primer itself are quite think in general.

I've already finish the body color of the Zeros, everything is as per planned but i'm quite disappointed with this kits as the quality are not very good. FIrstly, the detail on the main fuselage are not so defined as the detailed on the wings and my fist coat had already drown out most of them even though i have thinned my paint heavily. Secondly, the injection moulding on the parts had leave some 'dented' marking n the model that require a number of works. If this is how all Hasegawa's kit are like i may stay away from this brand in future. It's ready discouraging when i see that the kit is of poor worksmanship, i almost feel like giving up at some time. I'm always a Tamiya person and i find that they are well robust on everything in terms of workmanship down to the manuals.

For now, i'll finish this kit and then get myself another Zero from other maker. This way i'll be able to tell or show you guys how this one sucks big time.

Moer pics coming up soon.

By the way guys, i have been doing lots of research while building the Zeros (i always do so for any model i build). From movies to books to private collector of the real aircraft online. but what disturb me the most is that none of the pics i compare are the same to begin with interms of the detail and paneling. The are all Zeros but with different panel lines especially on the main wings. I know some of them are restore actual aircraft and some of them are replica from converted american AT-6 trainer that appear in movies Pear Harbour.. below are the reference pics

From private collector located in museum at Australia & USA

Notice the panel lines are different on the wings compare to most kits we have. Also the body looks not smooth as though the metal are hammer to shape it


The under carriage views shows that this restore plane have the paint detailed correct. the grey is with a shade of blushis and greenish tint and the Dark Green are not on the yellow side as in some mistake restorer made on the Japan Army paint. Yellowish Green are more on the Chinese Army colour


Notice the marking of the Imperial round RED? some pics i have had a border of white on the top side but some don't. In Per Harbour the movies, all green ZEROs have marking without the white border. Any particular reason to it? i'm still searching for reference to that.


This pics shows the pilot side of the panel. notice that there are only one visible lines? where as plastic models had lots of riverts on this section. No idea which one is correct.


Again the wing panel line are different from most plastic kit version


Image from the movie Pearl Harbour. notice again here that the panel details are not so complicated and different rfom model kits.


FRom the movies Pearl Harbour... notice the marking are without the white border...

Well you may ask why all the trouble? I don't have the intention to replicate the exact version of it in scale as that will kill the fun of modeling. This are all for my paint reference and no matter how we try, ours will still look like toy in the display shelf. But all these research had increase my gerenal knowledge of this machine that i don't process before building the kit. So research is also a way of widening your knowledge and not neccessarily on just being g=for the sole purpose of improving your build.

Cheers.

*All images above are for educational uses only*

As promise some more workbench pics below. Not that good of a job, it can still be better... But before that... Good News... Tamiya had just release it A6M5 1/32 scale with highly detail and crisp panel lines on the fuselage. It had a detailed engine and cockpit with gus compare to my now building Zeros & include marking for the Pearl Harbour attack... Check out the link here

http://www.tamiyausa.com/product/item.php?product-id=60317

I'm already emailing to Stargek for this stock avail... Goinf on a Zero rampage now ha ha....

Belo r my progress pics.. not that great though... but the next Zero will be a better ones...


Birds eye view


Closer view


Gun pod... not quite done yet. I'll be taking it very slow now... the major part of construction are completed. This is always the stage that i put away my kits... it always happened when i'm building AFV and now it happeded again... no idea why. Now i'm lokking for the next Zeros to build on.. a Grey one will be good. or maybe a Hellcat???

Will update again as soon as i get back on again.

cheers

Hi guys, finally manage to completed... except for the bombs attachment... below are 2 pics taken from my mobile phone cam, i know they suckz big time... pardon me for the low quality shots as digicam are with my brother now... will post some decent shots when they come back





Now!!! looking for my next warbird... i'll put my F16 (1/32) on hold first... Thinking of building up the collection of Pacific Teather warbird. Any idea where i can lay my hands on a 1/32 Vought F4U-4 Corsair locally?