72nd Zero

Famous “Zero”, or maybe I should say “Zeke” or “Rei-sen”... Anyway, does it really need an introduction? Don’t think so. There is also quite a few kits to choose from, if you want to build A6M2 in my favourite 1:72 scale. For example recent proposition from Brits, which I decided to build.
The kit
Airfix A01005 is a nice, cheap & simple kit with a little bit to heavy panel lines. Released in 2011, it's well-known at this point, and there is no sense to thoroughly discuss it, I think.
More demanding modellers probably will choose Fine Molds or Tamiya sets, but I wanted to face those panel lines, which gives new releases from Airfix a rather bad reputation. Also, I wanted to test Gunze paints and this simple kit looked perfect for this.
Gray, or maybe yellow?
I decided to build this kit out-of-box, so the choice of markings was simple- there is only one available. However, quick web investigation revealed that the paint instruction appears to be unreliable.
Provided aircraft is wrongly assigned to 201st Kokutai- in reality it's from Tsukuba Kokutai Operational Training Unit from Ikabari Prefecture on Honshu, Japan. There is a photograph of this particular machine, taken on March 1944, which raises some more questions.
It can be clearly seen that this Zero had under-wing Hinomarus with white borders, which may be indication of yellow underside colour. This is in my opinion way more interesting camouflage, so I decided to go on with it. Also, I chose to paint the propeller and spinner with brown, despite aluminum proposed in the manual.
Sakae 12
First thing which caught my attention in this kit was the engine- two rows of cylinders moulded separately with a nice details isn't something you would expect, especially in the model from this price range. Curious about the result, I started the build with this vital part of an airplane.
To the assembled kit parts I added only ignition ring made from bend plastic rod and then painted the whole thing with silver colour from Gunze (H8). It may seem to bright at first, but it will darken a bit after wash. Furthermore, in finished miniature engine isn't very much exposed, so lighter colour will help to show it better.
Wash, made from black artist oil diluted with white spirit, was then applied. After that I added some wiring from stretched sprue, which would only interfere if glued earlier.
I also started making exhaust system on the back of the engine, but when I realized that it will be completely invisible in finished model- I let it go.
The trenches
Meanwhile I tried to deal with those unfortunate panel lines. They are a little bit to heavy, I admit, but far from the Spitfire Mk.I failure. I tried to resolve this with softly sanding off the surface of main elements, where the lines are the widest. The fact that the parts weren't full of raised details only helped. This improved overall appearance of panel lines, but whether it be sufficient- we will know after the paint job.
Cockpit
I decided earlier that the canopy will be mounted in closed position, so the “out-of-box” cockpit details seems sufficient enough. However I still added some bits and pieces here and there. Rather rough pilot seat was significantly thinned, reshaped and supplemented with some holes in the back. I didn't like its lifting mechanism also, so I've scratch-built a new one. That in my opinion was enough.
Cockpit was then airbrushed with Gunze “Cockpit Color (Mitsubishi)” (C126) from Mr. Color line and after that some other details were introduced. Instrument panel was made with the kit decal- it's acceptable, but I would advice to cut off the black border in order to achieve better fit to the plastic. Seatbelts, not provided in any form, was scratch-built from some masking tape and wire.
Machine guns were enhanced with some details, as well as gun sight. Then were painted with gunmetal metalizer from Agama and dry-brushed with silver.
Wash was then applied on cockpit parts. Again artist oil paint was used, this time “Van Dycke Brown”.
Time for bit of weathering. First I simulated some interior paint wear- paint chips were made with brush, small piece of sponge and dry-brush technique. Then dirt- Tamiya Weathering Master set A was mostly used, applied with damp brush.
Now I could glue fuselage halves together, closing cockpit elements inside. But that wasn't the end of work in this area. Pilot headrest was painted with some mix of browns, and slightly weathered. The appropriate external areas behind and in front of the cockpit opening were painted with interior colour, after the joint trace was dealt with.
Canopy part could then be mounted on its place, masked and painted with interior colour.
Fuselage, wings and details
In the meantime I cut off all control surfaces, which especially in case of ailerons, wasn't very smart idea. Those are moulded with upper surfeces of the wings, therefore some damage was obligatory. But nothing irreparable- plastic plate, some sanding and the job was done.
All control surfaces were slightly reshaped and come back to its original places in slightly different configuration.
Meanwhile wing tips were enhanced with new lights. First I cut out adequate parts of the wings and filed it with pieces of transparent frame. After the glue dried well these were sanded to fit the wings, then painted with transparent colours and masked. I didn't have clear paints, so I used a mixture of standard colours and gloss varnish.
Pitot's tube from the kit was early on discarded, because it would probably be broken at some point anyway. I replaced it with scratch-built one- injection needle mixed with wire.
Some other details of the miniature were also enhanced a bit; e.g, drop tank get some additional details and wheels were flattened.
As in almost every 1:72 model there are some elements which could be improved by simply thinning them down. In the case of Airfix Zero, the worst one in my opinion is oil-cooler air intake which has exceptionally thick edges. Fortunately it's easy to improve- rather extensive session with needle file made it quite acceptable. Other than that wheel bays covers and engine cowling edges required some sanding for more “in scale” thickness too.
Painting, introduction
I started with covering the whole miniature with silver paint, again H8 from Gunze. This layer serves not only as a primer, but also is a base to which some scratches of camouflage will be done later. Of course all the control surfaces, which weren't in the original metal covered, was masked before and remained in the original plastic colour for now.
In the next step I used Model Master enamel “Rust”, which was also airbrushed on whole model, but this time purposely unevenly. I used this colour because is in my opinion quite good approximation of Japanese primer used on A6M2. I hoped that it will allow me to make scratches of two depths- to bare aluminum and to primer. Unfortunately, adhesion of used later main camouflage paints from Gunze didn’t allow for it at all. But do not get ahead of facts.
As far as I know mentioned primer was also quite similar to paint which was used on propeller and spinner. Therefore I took the opportunity and painted them also. This however was planned before- parts of propeller were earlier sprayed with yellow and little stripes of masking tape was applied to compensate the lack of appropriate decals.
Next I focused my attention on wheel bays interiors and other surfaces which were in A6M2 covered with characteristic blue-green (“Aotake“) protective coating. All appropriate parts were painted with "Metallic Blue Green" (C057) from Mr. Color paint series.
After masking the “Aotake” parts, I could finally start working with the main camouflage colours.
Camouflage
First- lower surfaces, which were to be painted yellow. This is, as you probably know, one of the most problematic colours to apply on the model, mostly due to poor opacity of paint, regardless of the manufacturer. Therefore a typical pre-shading with contrasting colours was not an option. Instead I used yellow camouflage paint with addition of black. Result of such mix is of course green, therefore I used literally a drop of black. This makes the yellow paint darker with slightly greenish tint.
With this mix I painted lines of pre-shading on lower surfaces and of course on upper sides of wings, where the yellow leading edge stripes will be.
Next “Orange Yelllow” (C58) from Mr. Color line was applied on the same surfaces. To differentiate them a bit more I also mix the same colour with drop of white, and brightened centres of some panels with that. Here more, there less, trying not to be schematic and uniform.
Masking again, to cover the yellow parts of the model. Then pre-shading of soon-to-be-green surfaces. Mostly well known dark stripes on the panel lines with addition of some light gray streaks made with respect to airflow. Due to some problems with my airbrush it didn't come too nice and subtle, but It didn't bother me that much- it all can be improved later.
For the upper camouflage colour I used again paint from Gunze Mr. Color line- C124 “Dark Green (Mitsubishi)”. As on the lower surfaces I brightened the colour a bit with light gray and applied it on some panels. But mostly I made more streaks, especially on wings, with heavy diluted light gray.
As far as I know engine cowling colour should be almost black with blue tint. I didn’t have dedicated paint this time, so I mixed some black and blues until I was more or less satisfied and painted the appropriate part with the mixture. Then I lightened some areas with heavy diluted gray paint.
Decals
As mentioned before, I decided that all Hinomarus on my model will be with white outline. However Airfix gives only two of those in the kit. Furthermore, quick check of my spare decals box didn't fix this shortage. You can have tons of spares, but off course not that which you actually need. I decided to work this problem around and paint the missing four borders. Masks from Tamiya Masking Tape were cut with provisionally modified calipers (by installing a scalpel blade on it) and placed on wings. Next I applied white colour with airbrush.
I used White Primer from Gunze instead of standard paint because it has better opacity and more important- I was out of white paint.
Result was acceptable so I covered whole model with acrylic gloss varnish and applied decals. Aside from Hinomarus I didn't follow Airfix instruction in one another point- the “34” on lower side of the wings. I've applied the numbers in rather standard way, which in my opinion was more probable.
Decals, especially such big surfaces of uniform colours like Hinomarus, quite strongly contrast with the background. Therefore I applied last portion of light gray streaks and made some lightening of panels with yellow (on green and red) and white (on yellow and red). Of course in both cases I've used very highly diluted paints.
Last coat of gloss were next applied to seal and protect the decals.
Oils
Time for heavy use of artist oils. First I made wash- “Van Dyke brown” was used on yellow surfaces and the same colour mixed with black on green ones. I tried to dilute them with Testors' thinner for enamels (dedicated for brush painting) which hadn't got much applications in my modelling so far and it worked really well in my opinion.
After that I prepared the model for second stage of oils, covering it with Gunze mat varnish. This time other colours were selected. Those shouldn't contrast to much with camouflage but blend in and change the hue of the base a bit. Therefore I selected shades of green, light brown, yellow, red and orange. First I applied little dots of oils on surface damped with White Spirit. Not to densely, and really small amounts of paint. Second- I've smeared them with slightly damp (White Spirit again) brush. That changed the hue of affected parts of camouflage and also slightly reduced contrasts.
After I sealed the effect with another coat of mat, I used artist oils some more. This time for some streaking.
Shading
Afterwards I airbrushed some shading on control surfaces with Tamiya “Smoke” acrylic. I used that paint for the first time and it doesn't work for me, at least not on this stage of painting, due to its glossy finish. I'll probably stay with previously proven mix of flat varnish and dark gray.
Chipping
Time to damage the camouflage a bit. First, before some heavier chipping, I wanted to apply some soft scratches/discolourations of paint on panel edges. I decided to do that with watercolour pencils. This requires some investment in my workshop- a box of pencils of course, but the crucial element purchased was the pencil sharpener.
The watercolour pencils have one significant advantage- if something go wrong you can clean it with water. But that is also a shortcoming- it's easy to accidentally wipe of the drawing simply by touching it and it fade away quite a bit under a coat of varnish. Therefore I coloured the model with them quite heavy. Slightly brighter than camouflage yellow and green pencils were used mostly, but also some gray and red pencils at cowling and Hinomarus.
Next I made portion of heavier chipping by scratching the camouflage with scalpel blade, which unveiled the silver base. Unfortunately Gunze paints stuck too well to the rust enamel, so there was impossible to make scratches unveiling primer.
For some parts (e.g., canopy) I used also silver paint applied with small bit of sponge. That was also technique heavy used on propeller.
That completed the destruction of previously applied coatings.
Finishing works
Fume stains were airbrushed in two stages. Black base first, then rust filling. Of course wheel bay covers were painted appropriately.
Finally all elements could be assembled into a miniature fighter. Brake cables were added to landing gears at this point. I made them from stretched sprue and drag by the earlier drilled holes in brackets moulded with wheel covers.
Fuel tank was mounted with respect to the mentioned at the begining photo from WW2- with considerable gap between it and the fuselage.
Some last corrections were also made in this final stage of build. For example, propeller blades were treated with brown artist oil because the colour looked too uniform.
Fuselage machine guns barrels, removed early in the assembly process, were replaced with injection needles painted with gunmetal metalizer (Agama again). Marks that armament wasn't only for show, were made with black pigment.
Last thing to do was to add some dirt in couple of places. I used for that purpose Tamiya Weathering Master A applied in different way. Fuel tank for example was smudged with included sponge tool and dirt on wings was applied by wet brush. Splashes on lower side of wings were made by flicking the water plus pigment mix from the brush.
It only remained to install wire antenna made from stretched sprue and the Zero was finished.
You can judge the result by visiting the gallery.