Scalemates Mitsubishi A6M Zero Group build 2021

Jan Peters
Following this of course 🙂

JEAN-LUC LELODEY
Me too

Clifford Keesler
Watching.

Sebastian Meyner
Welcome gentlemen 🙂 After being away from the work bench since April I thought I should start with somethinh nice and easy = Tamiya it is then 👍

Jan Peters
Welcome back 🙂
Nice office from the box!

John
Those new Tamiya Zeros are pretty nice.

Sebastian Meyner
@Jan: Thanks mate 🙂
@John: they are indeed…already thinking about Tamiya's A6M3 😉

Spanjaard
beautiful cockpit

Sebastian Meyner
Thank you Spanjaard 👍

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Spanjaard already said it. A really beautiful cockpit. 👍

Sebastian Meyner
Thanks mate 👍 Certainly not my best work but I'm happy with it 🙂

Daniel Klink
Ah another Zeke...! I like the progress very much Sebastian 👍

JEAN-LUC LELODEY
I love the oily look of the engine.

Sebastian Meyner
Thank you Daniel! I might even do a 72nd scale Model 32 before the end of the year 😉

Thank you JL L 👍 The look comes from my usual pin wash.... oil paint diluted with Zippo lighter fluid.

JEAN-LUC LELODEY
Thanks, I will test this next time

Guillaume Blanchet
Very nice cockpit. This kit as gone a long way from the old one in therm of details.

Sebastian Meyner
Thanks Guillaume! Yes, I wish Tamiya would consider re-tooling their old A6M5c... I'd preorder at least two 😉 Having said that, there are a lot worst kits out there than Tamiya's vintage Zeros

Clifford Keesler
Looking very nice.

Sebastian Meyner
Thanks Clifford!

Sebastian Meyner
This morning's mission completed: Hinumarus masked and spray painted

Jan Peters
Painted hinumarus look great, I must give this a try one day.

Sebastian Meyner
Thanks Jan 👍 By now that's my standard solution if I have something Japanese on the bench, since large decals (i.e. Hinumarus) hardly settle neatly into panel lines... especially if those decals are from Tamiya 😉

Clifford Keesler
Looking better all the time.

Sebastian Meyner
Thanks for your support Clifford! Much appreciated 👍

Sebastian Meyner
Today's session: some moderate chipping with AK's watercolour pencils

Spanjaard
Nice chipping

Sebastian Meyner
Thanks alot Spanjaard!

Clifford Keesler
Weathering is looking awesome.

Sebastian Meyner
Thanks Clifford 🙂

BAT21
This looks already promising 👍

Sebastian Meyner
Thank you mate! ....du hast allerdings mit deiner Zero die Latte ganz schön hoch gelegt 😉

Daniel Klink
Nearly perfect surface Sebastian...wow!!! 👍

Sebastian Meyner
Nearly?! ...what's wrong with it? 😛 Just kidding! Thank you Daniel! 🙂

Jan Peters
Nice wear and tear Sebastian

Guillaume Blanchet
Great paint chipping effect! To me, it's always the most stressful part of the model building. You've manage to hit the right ratio of chipping amount.

Sebastian Meyner
Thank you Jan 👍
@Guillaume: Thanks for the comliment mate! For the chipping I use AK's watercolour pencils. So far the easiest solution for all my chipping needs 😉

Weathering Pencils: Deluxe E..AK Interactive AK 10047, No)

Rui S
Looking great 👍

Sebastian Meyner
Thank you mate 🙂

Guillaume Blanchet
@ Sebastian. I didn't knew you could use water with these!

I have just done some testing and I'm getting way better result after dipping the tip of the pencil with warm water.

It's a good thing we talked about it 😉 .

Sebastian Meyner
Well....I actually never used them 'wet'. Normally I draw the scratches dicectly on a matt finish (either clear coat or straight on the paint)

Now I might have to try the pencils 'wet' as well. So
unintentionally....a good thing we talked about it indeed 😛

Sebastian Meyner
Today's job…painting some minor details and gloss-coating the whole thing. Slowly but surly I'm getting there

Clifford Keesler
It is looking very nice Sebastian.

Sebastian Meyner
Thanks Clifford 👍

Sebastian Meyner
So today I tried HGW (or any brand of...) wet transfers for the first time. Mmmh....how to phrase it in a nice way?! Not my cup of tea really! Ok, if I get them to work propperly it's still a lot of work, for something that's not that far off from a nice set of Cartograh decals or painting with stencils. You treat those things like decals with decal solution and so on...and after you'll have to peel and clean, while trying not to damage your paint job in the process. Imho it's not worth it. Sorry to the wet transfer fan boys 😉

Jan Peters
Troublesome as it might have been, the result looks good 😉

Sebastian Meyner
Thank you Jan 👍 However, this project had a little bit more in store for me. So much so that two days ago it almost departed for it's first and only flight...into the bin!

My usual oil wash started to desolve the gloss coat, almost all the chipping and started to eat into the actual paint job. Nasty business 🙁 I ended up carefully removing this gloss-oil-chipping mush. Lukyly the paint job itself was largely intact. Today I just sealed the whole mess with matt varnish....et voilà: looking good again. But no chipping or pin wash this time 😉

Spanjaard
that was close. good that you could save the situation!

Guillaume Blanchet
Great rescue! It doesn't show anymore.

Sebastian Meyner
Thanks guys 👍 I'm still trying to figure out why and how that happened....to prevent something like that in the future

Thomas Bischoff
yor Zero looks really great! Regarding the gloss coat incident:what paint did you use?

Sebastian Meyner
Thank you Thomas 👍 As I always do: Tamiya's X22 clear thinned down with Mr. Hobby self leveling thinner. Left it to dry for 24hrs and then added my (also usual) selfmade wash made out of oil paint and Zippo lighter fluid. But this is the the first time it reacted so severly with eachother....or reacted at all for that matter.

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Good thing you saved it. 👍

Sebastian Meyner
i start to think so as well 😉 Thank you mate!

Guy Rump
looks great 👍

Thomas Bischoff
did you use more self levelling thinner than normal? It shouldn't be the acrylic X-22

Sebastian Meyner
Thanks Guy 👍

@Thomas: not really, around 1/3 X22 mixed with 2/3 thinner. Normally that works just fine. The only thing that was 'different', is that I used a new (small glas bottle) instead of my usual 16ml jar that I had pre-mixed. Maby a faulty batch?!

Thomas Bischoff
so leave this as one of the big mysteries of the century - if pic 30 shows the unchipped result then I can live with it 😄

Sebastian Meyner
Yes No.30 shows it after the matt coat had fully cured. I guess you're right...one less for the bin 😉

Sebastian Meyner
....almost there 🙂

Clifford Keesler
Looks great, nice save.

Daniel Klink
👍👍👍

Jan Peters
👍👍👍x2

Simon Nagorsnik
Hi, i have to agree with the other guys 👍👍

Sebastian Meyner
Thanks mates, you're too kind! 🙂

Sebastian Meyner
I call it done 🙂

BAT21
👍

Daniel Klink
And i call it very well done Sebastian👍👍👍

Sebastian Meyner
Thanks a lot mates! 🙂

Robin (WhiteGlint)
She looks great! 👍

Sebastian Meyner
Thank you Roland and WhiteGlint! Your support is much appreciated 🙂

JEAN-LUC LELODEY
Magnifique cet appareil. J'aime vraiment bien les éclaircissements. Bravo

Jan Peters
Excellent job Sebastian

Sebastian Meyner
Thank you mates! 🙂

Clifford Keesler
Beautiful Zero, well done.

Sebastian Meyner
Thank you mate! 🙂

Neuling
Top result!👍

Sebastian Meyner
🙂

Rui S
Great stuff as usual 👍

Sebastian Meyner
Thank you very much RuiS 🙂 It's much appriciated...as usual 😄 But I have to add, without some trick and techniques I saw here on SCM, I would still just glue together an brush a little. So the compliment goes to all those inspiring and inspired mates out there 👍

Rui S
Same here 👍

Spanjaard
Fully agree with that

Sebastian Meyner
🙂