A6M3-3A Zero Fighter, Maj. Saburo Shindo

[KennyX]

Yep. There are many. But at least they won’t be visible. That kind of crap drives me nuts. I actually just finished filling the pin marks on the Corsair’s struts. It’s a pain in the ass. But what can you do? For my 1:32 Zero I’m planning on being less forgiving. Like, with those flaps there on this 1:48, if somebody shined a pen light in there, squinted and looked real hard through a magnifying glass and said “I see ejector pin marks and you didn’t fill them, tsk tsk, this build sucks” I’d just shrug it off. Bigger scale though? 1:32? Yeah man- I’m going to be doing a lot of sanding and filling if they’re a problem, even in areas like that.

[mustang1989]

Lol. Don't get me wrong Kenny. I aint the guy that'll nit pick and run a build down because of stuff like that. Haters are gonna hate and there's plenty of 'em out there and I aint "that guy". If I say anything at all it'll be with the utmost respect towards a builder and lots of times if I see a correction I'll do it through a PM. I am learning a lot from you paint and weather wise man. Keep up the good work and I'm really looking forward to seeing that 32nd scale Zero being built.

[KennyX]

I didn’t take it that way at all, Joe. I was just speaking in more of a general sense.


All that being said...


And as of this morning I seem to have changed my mind. I am going to fill/sand the ones on the flap there. Test fitting this morning showed they’ll naturally hang open a bit wider than I’d anticipated. You just might be able to see them. I couldn’t. But my eyes suck anymore. I could see them with my magnivisor on. SO, I’m gonna Windex, fix them, and repaint. That’s easy and I can run it concurrently with the landing gear/undercarriage work.

[Stikpusher]

Yeah those ejector pin marks on the inner flap faces are a pain to deal with... especially with the structural detail in those areas. But you can either address them by one method or another, or ignore them.

[KennyX]

I didn’t even see them until I got that paint on there. Sheesh, I need to get new glasses. And I’d like to show that Aotake in there. I think I can fix them and if not I can always mount them closed.

[jkim]

Hopefully, you'll see a difference in the 1/32 scale Tamiya kits in terms of ejector pin marks. On the Corsair, they have been very thoughtful about the placement of these marks and USUALLY, they fall into the unseen realm. Not all the time, but usually.

[speedgraflex]

Hell’s Bells! That is fierce symmetry and incredibly organic weathering!



I am gonna have to read how you developed aotake, bud. That’s beautifully done.

[KennyX]

Hopefully, you'll see a difference in the 1/32 scale Tamiya kits in terms of ejector pin marks. On the Corsair, they have been very thoughtful about the placement of these marks and USUALLY, they fall into the unseen realm. Not all the time, but usually.

You know, John, I can’t be upset about it. I’m an Engineering type of guy myself and John, in 1:48 I’m not sure how I’d go about molding some of these pieces like flaps and struts without leaving them. After thinking long and hard about it, I’m amazed there aren’t more. I was able to easily remove the marks in the 1:48 Corsair’s wheel wells and fill the ones on the struts. This bird’s flaps? That was a no-go.

I’m not upset about it, in fact, in terms of those ejector pin marks in-particular, I have ceased caring. It just is what it is, and I think we end up sacrificing certain things in the name of smaller scale, y’know? This is still a stellar kit, in my opinion. And those marks on the flaps take 0% of my enjoyment of this kit away. Here’s hoping the 1:32 won’t have so many.

Hell’s Bells! That is fierce symmetry and incredibly organic weathering!

Bruce, thank you! That’s exactly what I was going for. Organic weathering, thank you. Because I was looking at one of my Emils earlier and I thought to myself “that weathering just looks like I painted it on there ...” so this is GOOD! I’m improving!!

[KennyX]

OH! And I completely forgot! I got the legs, oil cooler (?) and drop tank on her last night!



I test fit those struts and dry-ran installing them five or six times before gluing them and wouldn’t you know it, I ended up installing them backward anyway!

SO, a half hour later I caught the mistake, popped them out (carefully), re-applied glue, and installed them correctly. If that’s the worst thing that goes wrong with this project I’ll be a happy guy!

[LyleW]

God catch! Beautiful work, too!