SPA Modeler

This was a carefree build, there is a build thread under this title in the Work In Progress section.

















With a Hasegawa P-47D-25 built in the same time period:

Another beauty!

This one turned out beautifully John! Bravo!
It looks like you left the canopy hood free so that you could position it open or closed?

Nice job. How did you get the prop to spin?

Another super build John and I love the size comparison with the P-47D. I don't think I've actually built a Hasegawa kit, or certinaly never finished one, I might have to change that.

Very nice John!

Thanks everyone for the nice comments!

Carlos, the canopy will fit pretty well either way. My usual with Hasegawa Zeros is to tack the sliding part in place with white glue for painting and them I pop it loose so I can display it either way.

John, on most of my models I replace the prop shaft with .040 wire, and glue a brass tube into the engine. The friction is low enough that the airflow from an airbrush just out of camera view is enough to keep it turning. Sometimes I work a little harder with the air setup and shutter speeds so that the blur of the prop is more apparent. Yellow tips work better than the narrow stripes on Japanese props for that effect and success is when you can get the full yellow circle.

A bit of warning, if the friction on the shaft is too high the result can be the model sliding off the table. If the plastic shaft is still on the prop you can weld it in place from the friction heat. I've known that for a long time. When I was a flea I built the Revell RC-121D and was quite proud that I was able to spin all four propellers. My neighbor was old enough to drive so we took off with me holding the model out the window and all four props were spinning. One by one they all seized up, never to turn again. And we weren't even going that fast