A6M3-3A Zero Fighter, Maj. Saburo Shindo

[KennyX]

And off we go!

Carlos, thank you for the PM you sent me, that cleared-up my confusion on this matter quite a bit!

Alright lads, looks like we’re going with my Kustom mix of “BOOYAH! GREEN” after all! Which I’m cool with. I like that color a lot.

[KennyX]

Mr. Black Sheep,

Now that’s interesting-



That reminds me of a thread I read where a guy said the color was similar to our cockpit green but slightly more gray. That certainly fits the bill.



Interesting contrast, that.

[KennyX]

What I’m planning on doing is, using my “BOOYAH! GREEN” but doing it like this:

1. Spray heavily thinned over black

2. Spray a darkened shade (which’ll look more like the #18 sample) in the lowlight areas

3. Spray the color as-is in the more highlight areas

4. Spray a slightly lightened shade in the areas that need highlighting

This one I’m doing is more than likely a Nakajima aircraft. But I don’t want the cockpit color to be super-bright like I see in a lot of photos, or super gray either, in the even that I’m wrong.

What I’m shooting for is something somewhere in the middle.

And the BOOYAH! GREEN seems like a good ticket.

This has been fun. This is already starting to be a fun project.

[BlackSheep214]

Looking forward to this one.

[KennyX]

I’m already having quite a bit of fun with this one. And I haven’t been looking at anybody else’s Zeros at all. I think a big mistake I made with my Corsair was, I saw photos of work other people did and said to myself “Hey, I like that! I bet I could do that!” And I think this ended up clouding my vision. It became more about re-creating what they were doing than what I wanted to do. HOWEVER- I did learn a lot and that always helps.

But look at my armor stuff. Totally accidental. All of it. I just said to myself one day: “Let’s build a gee-dee tank!” and off I went. I didn’t read tutorials, didn’t look at other people’s stuff, I just looked at photos of tanks, broke out my oils and pastels, and did it.

Same thing here. I work better this way I think. I’ll use what I learned on the Corsair in this project, but it’s my vision only, based on what pops into my head when I look at the photos.

[KennyX]

I tested out that liquid mask tonight, thinking I could use it instead of hairspray for my chipping needs.

No mi gusta.

I don’t like that stuff at all.

Also, I don’t like Tamiya’s Flat Aluminum sprayed over a black base either. It looks too dark. And that mask definitely isn’t going anywhere unless I wet it and that’s no good for my acrylics. I was hoping it’d go on more gummy so I could carefully remove it with an Exacto blade. Really glad I tested that out:


Metal is too dark, it will turn black under chipping, and that masking fluid seems uncooperative.


Nosir, I don’t like it.

So in terms of my plan for painting this aircraft, I want to do something different and I’m trying to decide what that should be.

Choice 1:

I prime it with black Mr. Surfacer and spray it first with Tamiya Titanium Silver. That stuff looks lovey sprayed over black and then sealed with Mr. Color Super Clear. Then spray whatever chipping medium I decide on, then spray the green and proceed with the chipping.

Choice 2:

Don’t prime with anything, and lay down a coat of Alclad instead, then proceed with the chipping medium and paint, then chipping.


I like this bare metal for an airframe color better. It still shines through nicely when you chip the paint on top:


This is much nicer.

What do you guys think?

[speedgraflex]

I agree with you one hundred percent. Same reasons.

[jkim]

Nice analysis... always good to catch it on the mule instead of the model. I would recommend trying Tamiya AS-12 Silver in a spray can for your base metal. I just spray some into my airbrush cup. You can shoot it straight or you can thin it with Tamiya Lacquer Thinner or Mr Leveling Thinner. It's less grainy than Tamiya bottle silver or aluminum and a bit tougher than Alclad.

[KennyX]

John,

I can certainly do that! I like the looks of that base coat in the photo you shared and that, my man, is exactly what I’m shooting for! And no need to prime before you shoot the AS-12 at it, right? Also, if it can be thinned withbMr. Leveling thinner, so much the better!

Bruce,

I knew you’d know what I mean, brother. I thought maybe it was the result of spraying it over black but I’m not 100% sure. And the Titanium Silver and AS-12 Silver looks so much nicer. To me, it does a great impression of nice, smooth aircraft aluminum.

[Stikpusher]

Tamiya AS-12, next NMF Aircraft build for a base color...