AREA 88 : Kamikaze (A6M2b Zero)

Greg Baker
After another mishap and almost propellor, the Cessna side of this project is on hold while we await reinforcements, so I thought I'd get started on the actual Kamikaze part of the part. I love the Sweet Zero.. so tiny, so perfect.

Spanjaard
ok, so it will be me watching what you do with it instead of the way around 🙂 taking first row on this one. i may think about using a motor in one of mine too 🙂

Greg Baker
I'd say go for it. The Zero is actually the perfect kit to try it on because the cockpit is far enough back that it doesn't get in the way, and the cowling is big enough and round enough to accommodate the motor easily. I'm just trying to figure out if I should use the kit's prop shaft or try and drill through the engine block interior to allow the motor's shaft to reach the propellor. The first option is easier, so we'll try that first, but it's nice that option B also seems relatively reasonable.

Spanjaard
i will certainly keep in mind. at the moment i am quite short of modelling time so it may take a while 🙂

Donald Dickson II
Given what I see there, wouldnt attaching the prop to the motor shaft be the way to go? Unless I am missing something.

Also, where do you get these motors? You have probably answered that a thousand times before, but I didnt see it or dont remember. LOL

Greg Baker
Well the trick is that the shaft is not long enough to drive the propeller directly. Given the shape of the engine block, it will be hard to drill out the back enough to have the shaft come through. The engine is just about the same size as the motor. Also, extending the shaft is difficult. The extension needs to be perfectly centred because and contact with the sides will stop the motor (or an annoying "squuuueeeek"😢.

I got the motors off eBay for cheap. Just look for 8x4mm dc motors. They're the same thing (albeit sans off-set weight) that creates the vibration in your cellphone. They're a bit delicate... if the small wires come out they're useless. But they're fun.

Greg Baker
Back in action after a week in Singapore... caught a cold though, so adding a pilot, masking a tiny canopy and painting a coat of aluminium was about all I could manage. It's pretty shiny, but a buff will tone it down and it's an undercoat anyway, so it'll barely be seen.

Ben M
One model railroader trick is to extend the shaft with tubing. That way it is centered. I'm thinking of putting a motor in my next build, but the Ryan stm-s2 has a narrow fuselage.

Greg Baker
Thanks for the tip, Ben. I'm not sure how to extend the shaft though. I've tried drilling out 0.8mm styrene tubes, but it's very difficult to get the 0.6mm hole centred properly. And any variance seems to set up a rotation that hits the side of the hole through which the shaft pokes... and any touching of the sides seems to be too much resistance for the motor to handle. So it gets hung up and stops. Very little tolerance for error.

Ben M
I would use brass tubing.

Spanjaard
hypodermic needles? metallic, thin and drilled already😉 size 0,8 is not a problem. do you need some?

Nils Steyaert
following 🙂

Martin Oostrom
Thanks for guiding me here Lode!

Greg Baker
Heh... Spanjaard offers to send me hypodermic needles and suddenly everyone shows up. 😄 Regardless, I'm certainly glad to see you all here.

Strangely enough I already had a small stash of needles (they're particularly useful for mixing the exact same quantities of A+B style resin) and one of the sizes does indeed fit the shaft size almost perfectly. Yet to be fully tested, but a promising option which might solve my problems on the Cessna side of this build.

Meanwhile, I need to go the the local hobby shop to get some Tamiya "Zero Green" acrylic paint, so I just painted the underside that Japanese grey/green. Then I spent the rest of the evening hunting around my cluttered workspace looking for the tiny little air-intake part that I dropped somewhere. After a meticulous search, I'm happy to report success. The carpet monster gave back his meal!

Spanjaard
it will be perfect at the end 🙂

Greg Baker
Did I go overboard on the paint chipping? Of course! I always seem to go overboard... sigh... I think I need Daniel to provide me a step by step tutorial on Japanese planes...

Now the question is do I use decals for the red dots? Or do I paint them on?

Martin Oostrom
Asking that question, is answering it.

Daniel Klink
Wow that looks awesome for this tiny itsy bitsy scale 👍

Greg Baker
Thanks guys. I was all set to just apply a coat of future and slap some decals on, when fate intervened and broke my nozzle for me. I guess that means I shouldn't take the easy way out on this one and get ready for some painting...😉

Roberto Rocat
Lovely project. I'm following 👍

Greg Baker
Thanks Roberto... always room for one more!

Greg Baker
I don't know any dry decals, I only have water slide ones. However, I guess I'm painting... so first I'm masking.

Daniel Klink
Looks marvelous Greg ..

Martin Oostrom
If you want to paint red circles, you need to mask the bits you want to keep green... 😉

Spanjaard
LOL

Greg Baker
LMAO... is THAT why this never works?!

Smartass...😉 Actually, since I used hairspray between the aluminum and green coats, I didn't want to mask it until I gave it a coat of Future to protect it from all lifting off with the masking tape. So the tape circles do two things... a) they let me line up the placement of the red dots properly because I have a heck of a time getting negative space aligned properly. and b) they preserve some of the "lifting ability" of the green paint underneath them for a bit more targeted chipping later.

At least that's my theory... we'll see if reality proves it correct or not.

Donald Dickson II
I was wondering about that as well. LOL

Greg Baker
There is usually a method to my madness... just not necessarily the correct one.😉

Greg Baker
Ok... so red dots painted...

Martin Oostrom
I'm just methodically mad. 😉
Looking good!

Spanjaard
nice Hinomarus 🙂

Greg Baker
I successfully got the white stroke around the red side circles on. I kinda cheated and only painted the white ring instead of a circle on top of a larger circle. I knew I ran the risk of misalignment and gaps/overlaps, but I seem to have hit the mark on both sides. They're not quite centred, but that more on an issue with the red dots than the white ring. I also had a tiny bit of white overspray, but nothing a bit more chipping couldn't solve.😉

Still a bit more fiddling to go, but it's close now... and I checked to make sure the prop still works. Thank the modelling gods it does. That's all I need now is a lose wire...

Spanjaard
looking good 🙂

Greg Baker
I made the mistake of trying to move a decal on the left wing and screwed up the paint a bit. After some sanding and another touch-up of paint... I can still see it. 🙁

I also seem to have rubbed paint off the propeller nose as well. Time to put it down and walk away for a bit. There's still a few touch ups here and there to be done, but they can wait for a bit.

Roberto Rocat
It looks nice from here 🙂

Greg Baker
Thanks Roberto! I got the final panel wash on, so I guess the Zero is now complete... so there's nothing keeping me from getting started on the other half of this duo build... the Cessna. If only it didn't terrify me so... 😉

Anyway. Even though the entire project isn't complete, I uploaded a short YouTube video to see it in action!

Youtube Video

Spanjaard
first half quite nice 🙂 now for the second

Greg Baker
Thanks Spanjaard. I admit, based on how the last attempt turned out, that I'm a bit gun shy with the Cessna. But thisnisn't A hobby for the faint of heart, right?

Spanjaard
i do not believe for a second you will leave that one to the shelf of doom😉

Martin Oostrom
<<Angry mob enters stage right>> "Cessna, Cessna, we demand a Cessna!" <<Angry mob exits stage left>>

Daniel Klink
Come on Greg, come on Greg..bring up the Cessna... Your Zero looks fantastic and love that base too 👍

Greg Baker
Looks like there's nowhere to run and hide now. Since the Cessna is an F-Toys (basically gashapon) kit and prepainted, I was debating taking the easy way out and just using it "as is". But that somewhat defeats the purpose, right? Model building is about the journey, not just buying a finished product.

So now I'm looking for some Korean oven cleaner that will take the tough paint off the F-Toys kit without damaging the plastic... stay tuned.

Spanjaard
you can try with some alcohol first (no, the one you drink not, IPA or something😉 ) it is less agressive. if it does not work, then oven cleaning would be a good one. i got a bottle, but never used yet.

Greg Baker
I've tried everything in my drawer so far... nothing really works although Tamiya Lacquer thinner does kinda work after a long soak and a lot of scrubbing. Not well enough. On the assembly side of the problem, it's going relatively well so far. I took your advice on using the shaft of a syringe and it worked. AREA 88 : Kamikaze (Cessna 172) | Album by strobez (1:144)

Spanjaard
it will gave in eventually 🙂

Greg Baker
I was a bit worried about soaking the plastic in the Tamiya Lacquer thinner though... it will eat the plastic, won't it?

Martin Oostrom
Try it on the old one first?

Spanjaard
Martin is right on that. You can actually drop a piece of the sprue to n the thinner and wait to see how long before it affects the plastic, and once that is known, try with the old plane, and once that is sure to work, the model at hand

Jozef Goos
Wow very nice!

Greg Baker
Since I realized that, being a pre-painted "kit", the sprues are also covered in paint... I now have lots of handy test pieces... which are currently floating in various jars of concoctions on the floor in the spare bathroom... something is bound to work. My bet is on the drain clog cleaner... but we'll see.

Ben M
Why not hit it with some 2000 grit to smooth it out and just paint over the old paint?

Daniel Klink
Without pics, i cannot say anything about it😉

Spanjaard
so the base is a decal? printed at home?