Sino-Japanese War A6M2a | Hasegawa

Vallejo Interior Grey Green for the cockpit base layer. 

Finished the cockpit and assembled the fuselage halves. 

 

 

Sakae 12 finished. Could've used more details but I'm otherwise content. Cylinders were airbrushed with Tamiya Metallic Gray and drybrushed with Chrome Silver. 

Machine gun covers and horizontal stabilizers affixed. 

Canopy masked. 

Some last shots of the cockpit before it's forever sealed away. 

I since pressed the hanging sides of the front part of the canopy closer to the fuselage and applied some more glue so that the two pieces are flush. 

Wings and landing gear bay assembled. 

Wheel wells painted and masked, and the external fuel tank glued and puttied. 

Blackbased and ready to be marbled. 

I obviously have a lot of room left to improve, but seeing as how this was my first attempt at marbling I'm not terribly upset. It was surprisingly tricky trying to find a good distance and air pressure for my airbrush, as can be seen by the numerous examples of spiderwebbing and splattering. 

Some of the fine folks on /smg/ offered some marbling technique advice. Went back again and did my best to marble a greater percentage of each panel, and to minimize the garish effect of the spiderwebbing. 

Progress... 

Thinking I'm about done with the main coats of the wings and fuselage. 

That's a wrap on pre-varnish painting. Really pleased with the masks I used on the wheels.  

Went to glue the engine cowling onto the fuselage when I realize there was a massive crack on the bottom of it. It did seem like a very snug fit after all...

very disappointing, possibly even discouraging, but I shall persevere. Already quite close to the finish line. Can't really say too many nice things about mid-90s Hasegawa tooling. 

Some good news, at least. Despite some minor water staining and paint overspray, the wheel bay masks held up and did their job. Will do some retouching in the meantime while I still think about the cowling question. 

Varnished, decal'd, weathered (sort of -- I still need lots of practice with panel lining and so forth), and varnished again. 

She's finished! Not great by any means but it was a real relief to see the cockpit hadn't fogged. Again, the fit was terrible. I definitely could've done things a bit differently, but this was only my second monoplane. Overall a rewarding, if sometimes frustrating, experience. If I've learned ONE thing: "just because a seam looks smooth, and feels smooth, doesn't actually mean it's smooth." Please ignore the seam lines at the leading edge of the wings... 

I'm not much of a photographer and I lack the means to have nice photogenic shots of my models in a near-studio setting, so here's the best I can do. 

 

More seam issues at the wing roots and on the cockpit glass. More notes being taken for future builds.