A6M3-3A Zero Fighter, Maj. Saburo Shindo

[speedgraflex]

Hey!!!!!

[KennyX]

LOL Thanks!!

[Stuart]

YOU'RE THE MAN Kenny!

That is bloody awesome!

[KennyX]

HAHA Thanks so much, Stewart! Though I do admit that maybe I may have over-weathered the airplane, just a tad, just a smidge, just a little bit. My 1:32 won’t be weathered this much at least in terms of chipping anyway. That said, this is EXACTLY how I pictured it in my mind. And I’m happy with how it’s turned out so far. The remaining stripes, no-walk delimiters, exhaust staining, a decal here and there, and then the salt, and then oils after that. All coming soon.

[Floki]

I love it Kenny! The paint the chipping it all came out great.

[speedgraflex]

I keep thinking this is large scale model building. That’s a tribute to your abilities! I can’t wait for you to take on the 1/32 Zeke, brother. I cannot wait!

[KennyX]

I keep thinking this is large scale model building. That’s a tribute to your abilities! I can’t wait for you to take on the 1/32 Zeke, brother. I cannot wait!

Thank you. And I can’t wait to get started on my 1:32 version. I’m doing the aircraft that Shindo flew during the Pearl Harbor attack. But first I have to finish this one. And I can nearly see the finish line!

[speedgraflex]

If you do Shindo’s Zeke in 1/32, I will do George Welch’s Warhawk—if I can find an early Warhawk in 1/32. Any advice?

[Medicman71]

Like I said on Facebook, it looks awesome Kenny!! I'm learning a lot from you on painting.

[KennyX]

If you do Shindo’s Zeke in 1/32, I will do George Welch’s Warhawk—if I can find an early Warhawk in 1/32. Any advice?

Oh it’s definitely happening, Bruce. And I think I’m going to go ahead and begin construction on it while I wrap-up this one. I’ll be logging that aircraft right here in this thread because hey, the project has evolved to now include two Shindo Zeros. More on that later.

Like I said on Facebook, it looks awesome Kenny!! I'm learning a lot from you on painting.

Thanks my man! And I’m glad my painting can be a help to you. And let me take a moment to state a few things:

1. I learned how to do this by reading about what other people do, and watching videos. None of this is “mine” in the sense that I didn’t derive the seminal concepts like depth and layering in terms of this myself.

2. The frameworks for painting, and execution I use are not “better” than anybody else’s. Like John says, there’s several different ways to skin a cat.

3. The reasons why I’ve been so successful -and pay attention here because this is key: Because I can develop a vision in my mind of how I want it to look, literally painting it over and over in my mind until that vision is so strong I can articulate how I want to do it in words. I have performed this painting process over and over in my head so many times that the execution becomes the easy part, due to the fact that the neural pathways I have for the painting are so strong and thick because of all the thought, practice on the paint mule, etc. that I’ve put into this.

So all this is to say- do not worry if one part of the process doesn’t make sense to you. Don’t feel like you have to follow my exact method or anybody else’s. Try out techniques on a paint mule, and think about them. Keep the ones you like and make them work for you. Then, make sure you get so good at executing the given paint scheme in your mind as you can, so good that you can clearly articulate it in simple terms almost reflexively and without thought. THAT is the most important part.