WIP: The Final Countdown Zero dogfight diorama Part 2: 1/72 Tamiya A6M2b

[JNordgren42]

And so the second chapter begins. My Tamiya Zero arrived today, and I have to say, I am exceedingly impressed with what's in the box. I thought the Academy Tomcat was finely detailed, but the little Zero just blows it out of the water. The panel lines are so fine that it's hard to get a good picture of them. And this thing is TINY compared to the Tomcat. It must have been incredible (and sometimes butt-puckering) to be in the air at the same time during filming. I can't wait to get started.

Although I may need to get some stronger magnifying glasses.

Nice box art.

The F-14 just dwarfs it.

The canopy parts are just breathtaking.

The engine cowl is about the diameter of a nickel.

Fine panel lines and details on the wings.

The cockpit parts are just ridiculously crisp.

Engine as well. Again this is about the size of a nickel.

 

[edge10]

 

[JNordgren42]

I've started trimming and test fitting and this little kit is sublime. Even with only a little masking tape, there is hardly a gap to be seen. And what little there is will probably disappear with a touch of glue. Also the size difference side by side is astonishing.

I can't wait to finish and get them together for good.

The little Zero is hardly bigger than the nose of the Tomcat.

The underside fits like butter.

 

[Captain Dunsel]

I can’t help it…this hits my brain whenever I hear this movie title…

 

[JNordgren42]

I can’t help it…this hits my brain whenever I hear this movie title…

Same. My brain bounces between this song and the film score. Sometimes quite rapidly, which can be a little weird...

 

[Grumpy Popeye]

Watching your build progress has been so satisfying!

I might have to go back and watch the movie again!

 

[JNordgren42]

Watching your build progress has been so satisfying!

I might have to go back and watch the movie again!

Thanks so much!

 

[Analyzer]

Tamiya generally makes great kits and they fit like a dream

As far as the size difference WWII fighters are quite small compared to some modern jets, end even then, the F-14 is one of the larger ones of modern jets when compared to things like an F-16

 

[JNordgren42]

I sprayed the first two batches of parts. Interior green on the cockpit bits and dark grey on the engine. Once they cure it's time to break out the itty-bitty brushes and start detail painting. One little inexplicable pet peeve, they only included instrument dial decals for the two main gauge clusters and not a thing for the auxiliary clusters. I'm baffled by the omission, adding a few tiny decals wouldn't have affected the cost of the kit one bit.

 

[JNordgren42]

I'm making good progress on the interior, it's almost done except for the main instrument panel, I need to spray some gloss on it so I can put the gauge decals on. I also plan to try to put at least some rudimentary markings on the other gauges by hand. I've also finished up the beautifully detailed little Sakai engine. Unfortunately almost all of this will be mostly hidden, but I'll know it's there.

The cockpit is mostly assembled, sans instrument panel and machine guns.

I decided to drill out the lightening holes on the seat, the pattern in the molded dimples was odd, I need to go back and see if I can find reference on if it's how they actually were made, or if I need to drill some more.

Left fuselage half with canopy lock and throttle quadrant.

Right half.

Sakai engine.

Another test fit. Penny for scale.

It's good ng to be awfully hard to see any of those beautiful details, especially with a pilot.

The engine is even more obscured.

 

[edge10]

That thing is small.

Good job so far.

 

[JNordgren42]

I finished up the cockpit, I used the kit decals for the main gauges and painted the rest by hand. I sprayed it all with a mix of flat and semi-gloss clear and then picked out the dial faces with gloss. I also lost one of the machine guns to the carpet monster, so I had to scratch build a replacement. It doesn't have the charging handle, but otherwise it's pretty damn close. My pilot set should arrive Tuesday and I'll be able to button up the fuselage once I'm done painting the figure.

I'm really happy with how the gloss on the instrument faces came out.

 

[JNordgren42]

My Hasegawa aircrew set came in the mail today. There were some minor flash issues, but nothing bad and I was able to put together a pilot in a pretty decent pose. I'm not entirely happy with the left arm, I was hoping to get the hand on the throttle quadrant, but it's a bit too tight of a fit. I had to do some surgery on that side of the figure even to get the arm tucked in where it is. There are some minor seams to deal with at the joints, but it should be easy to fix. I also test fit the canopy and I have to say it's by far the thinnest and crispest clear injection molded part I've ever come across. The moving section is only 12 thousandths of an inch thick (yes,I measured ). I'm definitely going to need to pick up a precut mask for this one.

He fits in there pretty snugly.

You can still see a decent amount of detail in there with the canopy cracked.

Not bad at all for an injection molded figure.

The canopy is unbelievably well molded. Penny and TOOTHPICK for scale!

One of four identical sprues in the Hasegawa set. Enough parts for 16 complete figures and everything is mix and match.

 

[JNordgren42]

A little more progress. After lots of test fitting, I'm confident I can get the pilot in and out of the cockpit with it all put together, so I'm moving forward and have the fuselage glued up and I'm working on getting the landing gear doors fitted (as is often the case, there are no provisions for a gear up display in the box). The trickiest bit so far has been the centerline doors. On a real Zero there are small triangular sections that fold outward when opened to allow clearance for the drop tank. These are molded as one piece with the rest of the door, so I had to carefully cut partially through from the inside and then bend them (relatively) straight. A little glue on the inside to help strengthen the joint and a little sanding to smooth out the bump and they look pretty good. I may try to very lightly scribe the hinge line as well (I need to get a much thinner scribing chisel for this though). I also added some blocking to the insides of the main gear doors for strength and to minimize any gaps. Finally, I'll need to scratch the small outboard sections of the doors as they're not wide enough. The main gear doors are molded as one piece and are the correct length for the compressed state of the gear. It should be pretty easy to make them up since they're just plain squares without any detail on the outside surface. I also got the seams on the pilot filled, primer sprayed, and I'm starting on painting with the face. I mixed a custom skin tone and wash and I like the color.

Fuselage glued up and landing gear doors mostly done.

I added some very small evergreen chips to the inside for strength and to help with the seams.

The centerline doors were tough. I had to bend out the small triangular sections on the aft portions. On the real aircraft these are small hinged flaps that fold inward for clearance of the drop tank.

Centerline doors on a real Zero:

Primer sprayed on the pilot and ready to start painting.

Skin tone and wash on the face. Ignore the impressionistic effect of the picture, the Pixel 7 Pro really overprocesses macro shots, especially with the 5X camera.

 

[JNordgren42]

I'm getting very close to being able to start the exterior paint. I finished up the pilot and I'm really happy with how he came out. I'm also trying an experiment and if it works, I'll have found another use for Bandai stickers besides masking (since they're certainly not good for finishing a model). I put the kit supplied waterslide decal on a spare panel sticker from my Millennium Falcon, and with any luck I'll have a result that is reasonably close to scale thickness, flexible, and self-adhesive. I'm waiting for the decal to dry thoroughly and keeping my fingers crossed that it works. I also have the landing gear doors closed up on the wings and the top halves glued on. And I gave everything yet another test fit (you can never test fit too much! ). I'm probably going to have to get some decal paper to custom print the tail code since no in-print decal sheet that I've been able to find uses the AI-113 that was used on the first film "Zero".

Pilot done (I may put some gloss or semi-gloss on the boots and gloves, I haven't decided yet. I think I will name him Hikaru...

My sticker experiment. Hopefully it works.

Test fit in the cockpit, I'm really happy with how he fits in there. Despite a little awkwardness with the left arm.

And another test with the wings, fuselage, and canopy.

Landing gear doors all buttoned up, including scratch built outboard panels.

 

[JNordgren42]

Well, Plan A for the seatbelt didn't work out. I was able to trim the decals & sticker nearly perfectly, but the decals didn't adhere and came off when I started handling it. So I came up with Plan B and cut out some strips of tan sticker I had left and pieced a simplified version together. I used some tiny chips Evergreen to approximate the buckles. They're crude, but mostly buried and look decent when everything is buried.

The cockpit is all ready to put in the fuselage once I finish getting it prepped.

Trimmed seatbelt before the decal came off.

TINY little belt buckles.

 

[Analyzer]

Love what you are doing with this one!

Just ordered one myself

 

[JNordgren42]

Thanks! I think you'll enjoy it. The only real challenge is the sheer smallness of it. Everything fits beautifully.

 

[JNordgren42]

I finished prepping the fuselage to install the cockpit and got it permanently installed and glued the wings on. I prepped everything for paint and got the first coat of primer on. As usual it shows a few places that need a little work, but it's surprisingly good for the first pass.

The cockpit, pilot, and wings are glued in.

Prist coat of primer. The top looks really good.

I have a small seam to deal with at the wing join. Not bad at all though.

The cowling looks great with a little paint.

Most of the other small bits.

 

[JNordgren42]

A little sanding, another coat of primer, some pre-shading, and the first pass at the base color. I'm shooting for somewhere between the tan/olive grey color of a real Zero (it's apparently been a subject of some debate) and the white/very light grey used in the film. I think I've got a touch more tan than I would prefer, so I may give it a white filter coat (and I may want to cut back the shading a little). I'm going to let it dry thoroughly and see how I feel.