A6M3-3A Zero Fighter, Maj. Saburo Shindo

[jkim]

Wow! That green is gorgeous! A huge step from the silver stage. And you've chosen correctly... the grain of the silver does not come into play here. I don't think it is even close to being over-weathered.

If you do the 1/32 Tamiya A6M, and Bruce does the Warhawk, maybe I'll do the 1/32 Hasegawa A6M for fun. I've been wanting to do a A6M5 at some point and I think the Hasegawa kit is more to my liking than the Tamiya kit.

[KennyX]

Wow! That green is gorgeous! A huge step from the silver stage. And you've chosen correctly... the grain of the silver does not come into play here. I don't think it is even close to being over-weathered.

If you do the 1/32 Tamiya A6M, and Bruce does the Warhawk, maybe I'll do the 1/32 Hasegawa A6M for fun. I've been wanting to do a A6M5 at some point and I think the Hasegawa kit is more to my liking than the Tamiya kit.

John,

Thank you!! Thank you so much. And yessir! I knew that bare metal silver would suit this particular purpose. And I love the way the green looks over top of it. That said, I still took your advice and ordered several cans of AS-12, for a couple different reasons:

1. Because you recommended it and I know if you put your stamp of approval on something, it’s gonna be rock solid.

2. It’s a lacquer which means -I hypothesize- I don’t have to spray over it too much with a lacquer Clear before I chip acryl down to it.

3. If that silver looks this nice in chipping at 1:48, I bet that AS-12 will look even nicer at 1:32 and while I don’t plan on chipping my 1:32 Zeke (that one is as we know an early in the war, early campaign, super well-maintained carrier-based aircraft), I’ll be chipping my 1:32 Bird Cage Corsair in a similar manner as I did this Zeke, and I want that lovely finish you showed examples of peaking out.

Also-

I ordered Alclad Magnesium for my engines, as well. And I’m also planning on spraying my Zeke’s prop with that AS-12.

As to your A6M5, YES, PLEASE DO JOIN THIS THEORETICAL BUILD-OFF! I would love to see what you do with an A6M5. Anything I can do to push you over the cliff and make you pull the trigger on this, let me know!!

[speedgraflex]

[KennyX]

This absolutely needs to happen!

[speedgraflex]

Yeah, buddy! I am peeved with Trumpeter’s cockpit design. Apparently the kit cockpit is only 2/3 as deep as it should be, which means an Aftermarket Hunt is gonna be required to fix that mistake. The AM Hunt is a bit of a snark hunt too due to the Cutting Edge drop in replacement being scarce due to Cutting Edge going out of business. Other than these issues, I know, I should call these the challenges of building this subject in 1/32. Looks like we have ourselves a mini-GB.

[KennyX]

BOOYAH! Stripes are done! I masked and painted these, and then scuffed them and chipped them.

[speedgraflex]

Congratulations! Well, I assume your Monday fell like mine did with the weight of the world on your shoulders but it is inspiration to see you lift up that heavy old blue marble and settle it between your shoulder blades with this badass plane flying circles around your head. I don’t even care about the fact that the taxes are due—that’s why there are extensions. Cheers.

[Floki]

Looks great Kenny, It's giving me the inspiration to get on my 190 I've been working so much and had a lot to do around the house that I've had no time for her.

[KennyX]

Thank you, Bruce and Clint. I greatly appreciate it.

Bruce- crap. I forgot all about the taxes. Man... at least I pay my taxes, somIve got that going for me. But yup- looks like I’ll be filing for an extension too. What can ya do?

Clint- I’m really liking this new way of doing things, vis- making my own masks for insignias and stripes and whatnot. I’m glad I ventured out into this territory. And it’s not bad, just a bit time and labor intensive but for me, it pays off because as you know, I’ve been plagued lately by thick decals. This is a good alternative. I say try it!

[jkim]

Zero looks beautiful! The yellow stripes really give the colors some pop... they are well painted too!