stevearado

hello, After I completed my Academy Zero and tamiya Seiran (Inspiration Gallery), crazy schedules and other interests put me into a hiatus. I finally decided to make a dash for the end with the Hasegawa Rufe. I got the kit cockpit assembled with plans to scratchbuild the sidewalls. I also cut out the flaps and will scratchbuild new ones with detail as well as drooping the elevators. The build will also use Teknics Japanese seatbelts and rudder pedals. Here is a picture of my progress so far. Enjoy.

;) WOW! Very nice. :D

Hello, I like to enter the group build with a Hasegawa X-29A in 1/72 scale. I noticed that there does not seem to be any X-29 builds in progress, and it is an aircraft I find interesting. Also, it gives me a reason to build it and get it out of my stash. ;) I plan to build it out of box. I will also post the progress as I build it.

Thank you all for the kudos. :blink: Doc, I achieved the paint chipping by using the salt method. I first shot the whole plane with testors silver. After the silver dried, I applied the salt dampened with water, and allowed it to dry. Once dried, I applied the colors (MM IJN Green and Grey). After the colors dried, I then picked off the salt to show the silver underneith. Afterwards came the decals (MM colors were gloss), Future, panel lines, and Dullcote with weathering. After finnishing up a Tamiya Seiran, I plan to take a break and build a X-29 for the F-5 GB.

here's a final pic. This is the Academy A6M5 with Hasegawa landing gear struts and covers. The Wheels are True Details bulged tires. Since aftermarket decals for Japanese plans are few, I had to 'slice and dice" to get what I wanted. on the upper wing meatballs, one of the kit decals got 8-balled so some from tec Mod was substituted. This is the reason for the unusually large white boarders. I hope you all enjoy.

A head-on shot:

A view of the underside:

A third:

Here's another. The quality of the first image was not so hot for some reason.

Hello, I finally completed my Zeke 52 earlier today. Things consisted of attaching the landing gear covers, arrestor hook, and antenna wires. The wires are made from invisible thread. Considering the problems I had earlier in the build, the kit turned out decent.

Lookin good there mike!

hello, After a somewhat long on and off build, I'm happy to say that the Zeke is nearly finished. The aircraft is weathered, dullcoted, and is up on its wheels. I still have the landing gear doors to finish and install. I do not have any current pictures of it at this time, but I will have some soon. Thanks for reading.

Here is a shot of the other side. Paint chipping is done by the salt treatment. The colors are MM IJN grey and green. There are glossy, and i do not care much for them. I prefer the Polyscale acrylics better in these colors.

Hello, Been a while, but I'm still plugging away on the Academy Zeke 52. As of now (4/24) the decals are on, and it's ready for Future/panel lines. decals were not so easy such that I had to "slice and dice some extra sheets to get what I wanted, and because of a screw up. The engine and cowling is attached, but the prop is dry-fitted at this point.

My girlfriend has been in town for the past week so progress on my Zeke 52 has been slow. However, I did manage to finnish spraying the green yesterday afternoon. I put on some decals today, but I think the green is still a little bit tacky.

Here is another with the yellow sprayed.

Hello, I finally started to get some paint on the Academy A6M5 Zero. So far, the bad luck seems to continue :lol: . I started with a coat of testors silver for the natural metal finish. This airbrushed fine enough so after drying, I sprayed on the yellow for the leadind edge wing stripes. My intentions were to paint it with acrylics and then scrape off some of the paint for chipping. It was after I started masking the yellow that this idea worked too well as the Tamiya tape pulled off most of the yellow paint. After getting most of the acrylic off, I decided to use enamels. The e

I also completed a lot of the main assembly. Today, I came as close as I ever had to throwing a model against a wall. The wing/fuse fit on this thing is not too good. A lot of filler was used in the rear wing session. Often, I ended up gouging the plastic with the file. I would try filling the gouges with super glue, but ended up gouging more of the plastic while sanding it. Thankfully, though, I about got it whipped. Hopefully, the rest of the build goes better.

Thanks Doc. I cut the elevators from the horizontal stabs since I plan to droop them.

4/4/05 I have made a good bit of progress since yesterday. The fuse, wings, engine cowl, and most of the cockpit are assembled. So far, the seams only needed some melted plastic, but a lot of filing/sanding. The cockpit sidewalls are painted and highlighted slightly. The rest of the cockpit will be done tomorrow.

Here are some extra goodies I plan on putting on it. The True Details bulged tires came with the kit as a bonus fron the person I bought it from (E-Bay). The landing gear ans doors are from the Hasegawa Rufe that I also plan to build. I found out that the Hasegawa Rufe and Zero shared a common sprue which included these parts (another reason I love Hasegawa kits). The Hasegawa parts look better than the Academy ones by no having the holes from the knockout pins.

hello, After a 2 week dead period after completing my Val, I started my second entry to the group build. This is the Academy A6M5 Zero Fighter (Kit # 2176). At this point, I plan on building it as a Zero based on Guam at the time of the Marianas Turkey Shoot. I thought of using pictures of the Zero at Planes of Fame as a reference, but it has been repainted so I'm not sure of the scheme. The new scheme on the Planes of Fame Zero does match the kit boxart, though. I'll have to do more research.

So far, I have mostly done planes with a solid scheme with a couple of exceptions. One is a Roden Junkers D-1 which I used Parma liquid mask for masking camo. I first sprayed the purple, and after it dried, I applied the mask and sprayed the green. After the green dried, I removed the mask with a tooth pick.

Here's one more of the belly. From research, I learned that the Vals only carried the centerline bomb at Pearl Harbor. Only the red studs existed where the wing-mounted bombs would go.

Thanks Doc! I got some more pics for you as well. I built this as a Pearl Harbor Val that flew off the carrier IJN Akagi. I'm glad that you enjoy them.