A6M3-3A Zero Fighter, Maj. Saburo Shindo

[KSaarni]

This is absolutely gorgeous Kenny-San !

The dimension of the roundel, the color, the weathering, the position, the details....

This is perfection, it is art !

And many thanks for the excellent step-by-step instruction!




- Kari

[jkim]

Masks, whenever possible, are the way to go. I sense a Silhouette Portrait in your future, Kenny... imagine being able to manufacturer your OWN masks!

I really like the leading edge yellow... the chipping on those came out great!

[KennyX]

Lyle,

Thank you sir!

Clint,

I’ll tell you, it’s well worth the effort. I can’t make decals look like that, no way. Solvaset is awesome and all, but when you can paint it on there, so much the better I’ll say.

Kari,

I appreciate that, my friend. Thank you!

John,

Thank you! And yessir, that would be awesome, making all my own masks that way. I need to look into that. I didn’t want to use the decals for any of this stuff because you can’t chip decals. Well, *I* can’t. I like this way much better already.

[Medicman71]

Wow! Absolutely incredible work! I learn so much about painting from you and JKim.

[Stuart]

I'm going to have to buy myself a new Thesaurus if I'm going to carry on commenting on SPAM - Jaw droppingly good work Kenny - that looks fantastic. The leading edge looks spot on and I love the marking. Much better than the decals. Thanks so much for sharing your working process.

[KennyX]

Stuart and Mr. Medic Man,

Thank you for stopping in and having a look. I really appreciate the encouragement. This project has been quite a bit of fun, and it makes me happy what you are enjoying this journal.

It’s been a fun few days! We’re potty training the twins! That’s been, uh, interesting. I have managed to do some painting though. First up, the fuselage Hinomaru. I got those painted, using the same method as the others, and I’ve also chipped them. I don’t know what kind of time window we’re looking at with leaving the hairspray to sit under that paint. So I’m opting to chip as I go. Here’s a few pics:





The red is bright, it has depth, but it also has some battle scars. I like how they turned out.

I also got the Hinomaru on the underside of the wings done, as well as starting the major painting down there. Here’s what I did:

1. I stared by pre-shading some panel lines. I didn’t want it stark and I didn’t want a ton of contrast. Just a slightly darker frame in certain places. I used RLM Gray mixed with Gray Green (IJN), mixed 1:2, and thinned 3:1 thinner to paint:



2. After that I mottled that same mix into select panels, in my diffused pattern:



3. Next I mixed Flat Earth with RML Gray 1:1, thinned it 4:1 thinner to paint, and mottled that inside the panels:



4. Next came the Gray Green. I thinned the absolute crap out of it and then I mottled and blended this coat into and on top of the existing work, mottling, then blending, then mottling and blending in other areas, slowly and carefully:





Here’s what I ended up with:





That’s all I could do on my lunch break today. This seemed like just as good a stopping point as any. And note- when I do my 1:32 Zeke, this same scheme will be applied to the entire aircraft. I can’t wait to see how that looks, all Green Gray.

Thanks for having a look!

[speedgraflex]

So good! All the best, Ken!

[jkim]

Looking good! So how do you avoid overspray on the insignias and yellow on the wings?

[KennyX]

Thanks John! I masked the Hinomaru and ID stripes off once I got close to them. Kind of masked as I went type of deal. I wasn’t worried about that on the initial preshading and fills. I was spraying at 10PSI in such a tight pattern, a little mindfulness is all I needed to keep the paint going only where I wanted it to go.

[jkim]

Dude... you had me thinking you had some super ninja thing going with your airbrush. "John, it's all about airbrush control! I don't freakin need to mask."

Ok... I'm gonna say it so please don't take it the wrong way. I love what you are doing but that silver color is bothering me. I know it will only peek through the chipping but there are much better metallic paints out there. Please give the Tamiya AS-12 a try! Alclad is good too but it needs a black base coat. I'm only saying this because your work deserves better.