SPA Modeler

PZ,

That color is purty indeed. And you know, when I first started this project I was disappointed because Mitsubishi didn’t paint their wheel wells in Aotake, according to research. I was still in the early stages of puzzling over this, and thought “Man, that’s a shame. That splash of color down there would really add something to that ‘ugly brown gray’ color...”

But after experimenting with that color, and seeing how it behaves, I quickly became fond of it. I think it’s beautiful.

Mr. BlackSheep,

Yeah buddy! We all need time to let our batteries recharge from time to time!

Clint,

Yessir! I find that when I have a solid plan of attack, and have conducted experiments, and thought a lot about it, the paint job seems to end up a lot nicer. Learned that on my last Zero, and my Corsair. And even if I have to switch tactics during the process, it’s okay!

Kent,

Thank you sir! I’m enjoying the hell out of doing this one! It has been a huge learning experience for me.

Joe,

I’ll tell you, I’m happy that folks can learn from my experiments and I’m happy to share my processes with this community here. You guys are great. And I’m happy my work helps! At the end of the day, I don’t want to fall into a trap where I end up doing it all one way and thinking that way is the best way. It’s like cooking beef. There’s no such thing as a bad cut of beef, there’s just suboptimal methods for cooking certain cuts of beef. It’s good to know how to sear a mid-rare filet mignon, and it’s also good to know how to make rice and gravy out of a chuck steak. Know what I mean? I’m shooting for always being flexible, and always learning new stuff. And sharing what I do.

That is just bloody awesome Kenny! (And I love that working gear leg!)

Thank you, Stewart! And here’s one for y! Zeke can stand up!



Not only do the gear legs work in terms of retracting, they can support the aircraft and the struts do indeed damped when she’s sitting!

What’s more- they’re removable! They’re held in-place by screws. This will make painting much easier!

I painted the struts and covers, here they are:


The tires are vinyl. You read that correctly. Not sure what I’m going to do with them yet. And truthfully, I ain’t too worried about those.

Here’s the drop tank, which I primed with Mr. Surfacer 1500, then sprayed with a Alclad Duraluminum. I love that stuff. It won the contract for this project’s bare metal.



Also! The tail wheel does indeed retract and lower! BOOM!

Okay so that’s where I am and this is where I’ll leave old Zeke whilst I’m on vacation. If, God forbid, anything bad happens to my house while I’m gone, at least I did the best job I could on the cockpit, and got all the hard stuff complete. Hopefully it’ll all be okay here while I’m gone. It if not, at least I got this far successfully. I can be happy with that.

But believe me, I’m going to be thinking about painting this bird the entire time I’m gone.

Where is the drool emote when you need one!

Beautiful work Kenny! If only Eduard would make this Zeke in 1/48!

Your custom color looks perfect on those gear!

BOOM! Indeed - that is fannnnnntastic!

Enjoy your vacation!

pzl66 wrote:Where is the drool emote when you need one!

Beautiful work Kenny! If only Eduard would make this Zeke in 1/48!

Your custom color looks perfect on those gear!

It would be even more awesome if they did a Royal Class boxing of it on steroids! Give us all the stuff they’d put in a Big Sin package with the model! Holy cow. They did a PE engine set for it that’s fantastic. I bought it shortly after starting this kit. I’m probably not going to use it, and hang on to it for a future 1:32 Zero, seeing as how I already started the engine. That said, it’s only like, $20 and I like the PE cowling flaps and actuators.... decisions decisions...

And thank you! I like how that color looks sprayed over the Alclad.

portman wrote:BOOM! Indeed - that is fannnnnntastic!

Enjoy your vacation!

Thank you! I’m happy with how she’s coming along and I’ll be itching to get back to it and start painting. Won’t be thinking about much else LOL

Yeah did somebody say “Keep on rockin’?”



The result of the custom color sprayed over the Duraluminum exceeded my expectations. It completely eliminates the need for laying down a darkened shade of the custom color in areas where I want shading. You just don’t spray as much of the base color during the first coat in whatever areas you want the shading.

I don’t know why I painted the drop tank today. I was bored between meetings and wanted to knock something out. Painting cylindrical shapes is something I need to work on so I got set up and took my time.

After painting I gloss coated it and then polished it with all the microfiber pads, going from 3,200 to 12,000.

Listening to:

That color really does pop, thanks for sharing the ratios to mix it.

No problem, Clint!

It would be easier if companies would just release the KennyX paint line! Lol