Area 88 1/144 - Kamikaze (Cessna + Zero)

[jcf]

Not really too much, Japanese aircraft lost their paint at an incredible rate.

Looks right!

Army, yes; Navy, no. The majority of the photos showing
heavily worn IJN aircraft were taken post-war of aircraft
that had been sitting around, for years in some cases,
or had already been manhandled and shoved about in
preparation for destruction. Aircraft in combat zones
showed wear, generally nothing like what modeller's
have favoured for decades, because they were in constant
service with minimal maintenance. The wear did not
happen quickly nor was it any worse than that of other
air forces in similar conditions. Japanese paint was no
better or worse than that of any other country, except
for the Soviet Union, they did have some crap paints.

On the Zero you need to go through the dark green topcoat,
then a layer of the overall brownish grey-green (having
handled original examples it's a hard colour to pin down and
changes noticeably with lighting conditions), and finally a
layer of red-brown oxide primer before getting to the bare
metal, all carefully applied tough paints as befitted a carrier
borne aircraf. Localized wear from direct contact was common,
not so much in other places, definitely not the stripped off
sheets of paint some choose to represent. Flight control surfaces
were fabric covered so metal would not be visible at all.

[NARSES2]

I'd agree with Jon that IJAAF aircraft did seem to lose their paint more quickly then IJN ones, especially in the early years. Naval aircraft were prepared "properly" for tough conditions at sea.

As for the weathering of the underside colours, you don't see anything like the number of photographs to help you decide enough is enough as you do with the topside ones.

I do have to keep looking at that bottle of glue just to remind myself how small this is 

[strobez]

Thanks for the detailed info Jon.  It's very interesting... however at this point in the build I'm going to cast a "What if it just looked the way I wanted it to?" spell... and leave it at that.  Duly noted for next time though...

Anyway, this half the project is now complete.  I got little extra bits painted and then gave it a panel wash.  Now it's time to get back to work on that Cessna...



I had it attack the paint bottle... just for fun.



Oh... and if you want to see it in action - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZR5oCbVLfI

[jcf]

Your wear is not over the top, like some I've seen  ,
it looks very good, and believable for a tired airframe
that's been assigned to a Special Attack Group.

[NARSES2]

Love the base 

[strobez]

Ok... moving on to part two (redo!) of this build project

I screwed up the first one something fierce by basically getting CA glue all over the place.  Learned my lesson though, so we're making some changes to the plan.

At least I got a kit with a nice box this time around...



The pre-painted sprues are basically the same slight colour variation on this kit.  I wasn't choosey on the scheme since I plan to strip and repaint it anyway.  In the Area 88 manga it's not clearly shown... but it's basically your run-of-the-mill Cessna Skyhawk - any one of the schemes shown in the instructions would do.  However, since this is a bit "representational" I decided to paint it in the Yamato Airlines livery to show the then/now quality of a former Kamikaze pilot being president of a major Japanese airline.



First major change... instead of trying to cram a round motor into an oblong shaped cowling, I'm moving the motor back into the cabin and extending the shaft.  Getting the shaft extension centered has been a huge challenge.  Any minor off-centre hole will be amplified several times once it starts spinning... and if it hits the sides of the shaft hole... it stalls.  So, based on a suggestion I got at Scalemates, I'm using the metal tube off a syringe.  I heated it a bit to get it to stretch and fit and then used a tiny bit of solder to weld it to the motor shaft.  I'm quite pleased with my own ingenuity. 



Getting the paint off the F-Toys gashapon kit is a major pain.  I've seen lots of posts on a 1/144 scale board of people bemoaning the durability of the rather thick paint job.  I was finally able to get it to go after a bit of sanding with 1200 grit paper and a LOT of scrubbing with cotton swabs and Tamiya Lacquer thinner.  I only got the fuselage done because I was already getting high off the fumes... we'll save the wings for another session...



Next up is to solder on some wires and get the motor snuggly (and safely) placed inside the cabin so that I can glue the whole thing together and then get to work on the seams.  I encased the motor snuggly in some styrene tubing so that I can use cement to be more precise with glue/placement.

[strobez]

Disappointingly, I couldn't squeeze the figures into the cabin, but after I ended up basically decapitating them to make them fit... there was really no point. From viewing distance it'll be more important for the propellor to spin than see the people inside, so I had to make a choice. Oh well.



With the canopy/upper wing and wheels glued on it actually looks like a Cessna.  Now I'm wishing I hadn't done all that work to make the clear parts as clear as possible... <grumble>



I'm not sure why, but I was actually surprised at how much small the Cessna is than the Zero. Obviously very different planes, built at very different times, built for very different reasons... but still.

[strobez]

Time for another update...

After all that work to scrub the white paint off and expose the white plastic I finally got the windows masked and paint the whole thing... white!



Next I wrapped this sucker up in 2kg of tape...



...and painted on the red trim.



Then I couldn't resist a test fitting... y'know... just to see "how it's gonna look".



While I was "just looking" I realized that a) some of the red paint (especially around the windows) had been undersprayed and white edges were showing through... and despite the massive amount of tape, I'd still managed to leave a few open spots and overspray some of the red.  So it's back to the tape...



The underspray is fixed, but I'll have to mask it again and take care of the oversprayed bits.  It's hard to get a nice clean line on something so small. Every error is accentuated.

[PR19_Kit]

A case for using a hairy stick perhaps?

[strobez]

Yeah. I thought about it, but this is do-able.  I just need to stop cutting corners and hoping.  I'll be using a brush for the Tintin tanker train though... masking all those bits is more than I can handle.

[strobez]

Ok... so this one is now done. Once I got the masking correct, everything else was a bit of a gentle roll down hill.

First though, I had to do more masking... this time covering up the red and touching up the white.



Success! Or as close to it as I'm allowed to get.



Still some clear coating and decals to apply, but time to dry fit the base.



Decals and a tiny bit of weathering... and we're done!



I'm pleased with how the tiny little Yamato Airlines logo came out.  You'll be seeing it again in a larger scale once I get around to tackling the 747-200 in my stash...



I quite like how the Cessna and the Zero play off each other.  Not a very usual combo, nor complimentary colour schemes, but there's something I really like about it...

[zenrat]

A nice pairing indeed.  Albeit somewhat confusing should one not be aware of the story.

Good job.

[Old Wombat]

Fantastic job, strobez!


I tried building a couple of Eduard 1/144 Spitfires a couple of months ago ......... "Disaster" would be a generous description of the result.

[strobez]

Thank you, gentlemen.

It is kind of a weird pairing to be sure, but luckily most of the story is printed on the base...  I'm working on uploading the build to my strobez.ca blog (http://strobez.ca/wp/index.php/area-88/area-88-1-144/) and that page will also include about 10 pages of the manga that will clearly give the story behind the build.

In the meantime, I also uploaded a short clip to YouTube to see the props in action.  [spoiler alert] They spin so fast you can't even see them!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2to1y7d_og

@Wombat - I haven't tried building any of the Eduard 1/144 kits, but I have one of the MiG-21's in my stash earmarked for another Area 88 project. Was the fit not good with the Spitfires or just the size. I've learned (the hard way) to adjust both my techniques and my expectations when building in 1/144.  When I first started building, I was quite dismissive about this scale, but I've really grown to love it... and occasionally hate it. 

[Old Wombat]

Just my general ham-fistedness & difficulty seeing 1/72, let-alone 1/144 to work on. The kits themselves were excellent, it was me who failed them.