|
1/24 Trumpeter A6M2b Mod.21 ZERO
Previewing The Kit There is no doubt that every modeler has his favorites. So do I. One of them is Zero fighter. I love this aircraft so much, for many reasons. Anyway I decided that time had come for it, so I collected all the information needed, I studied them very carefully for 3 months, I planed my work method in purpose for a construction close to high levels this time. Before anything, I would like to thank for their various help in information material, my friends and excellent modelers, Thanos Mentzelopoulos and Costas Papageorgiou.
The Kit Trumpeter’s kit was a mix of pleasant surprise and a great disappointment. For different reasons each one. When I first opened the box I was delighted with the mount of detail and the high quality. But when I start to organize the way of work, I discovered that the variety of detail was a disadvantage for me. Let me explain why. Deciding on building this kit, a modeler (according to my opinion) has two choices. A white and a black one!!! Either you build it OOB, adding the few necessary improvements such as pilot’s harness (only the cockpit area consist of more than 40 pieces!) and a few wires, or you have to begin an endeavour work of making an accurate Zero Mod. 21, throwing away the half of the parts!!! If you decided for the first level, you will build a very impressive model, high detailed in a very convincing result. It will WOW you anyway!!!!
Choosing the second level, (if you are a very experienced modeler, I’m sure of that), you will notice many under scale parts, especially in cockpit area, the fat detailed compact landing gear cabin, the wrong under cowling panel, and some mistakes on the main design of the aircraft. I’m not sure for the existence of any aftermarket improvement material for this kit, but speaking for my self only, I had not any choice except hard surgery work, and scratch building all the necessary points for my desired result.
These are all the basic changes and improvements must be done:
Painting I pay attention on painting, more than any other model in my life. I had to face the challenge of a factory paint (red-brown primer over aluminum) and weathered enough at the end of war. I used GUNZE H-62, in two levels (one mixed with dust) and third color (first coat) Tamiya XF12. For chipping, I tried a new method with the classic salt for “double chipping effect” as I had to “discover” the red-brown primer between aluminum and last …varnished color sun weathered.
A difficult “high risk “procedure. The result is a very real surface! If you want to take a look at the whole process, step by step with hundreds of pictures, visit the model forum, which I build for. You might not understand the language but …one photo=1000 words! Additional images:
© Alex Kontiveis 2008 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
