A6M2b Zero 1/48

I painted mine in Pastel Green, (which some of them were that color) the blue color being referred to was actually an anti-corrosion coating they put on all the inside parts, wheel wells, cockpit, etc, etc.

It is my understanding that only the Navy Zeros got this treatment, and the Airforce ones didn't, as they weren't out to sea other than to be transported from base to base if it was too far to fly. The coating was actually transparent, and made with Zinc, which apparently turned the carrier for the anti-corrosion blue, and once applied over the interior green (which I believe is supposed to be the Tamiya Mitsubishi Green, or Vallejo Pastel Green is a dead on match) to the turquoise blue color you see on some of them.

If a kit called for "Brilliant Metallic Blue" that is likely the closest color to replicate it, however it would be inaccurate. It did have a metallic sheen to it, but the color would be too blue, as the real color had quite a bit of green in it from the original interior color before the corrosion protection was added to it. As well, the metallic sheen in a 1:1 example, was pretty fine....once transferred down to a 1/48 kit, it would be even finer, and almost non-existent at that scale....as well probably at 1/32.
 
Thanks Ace.

Ya, everything inside the plane was painted that blue green colour except the cockpit itself. My colour may not be a 100% accurate. I had pictures of three different walkarounds. One was a lighter colour (I think this is what Scott was referring to), another was a dark olive drab looking and a third had a middle green colour. I did mine along the lines of the medium green. I'm not worried about it being 100%. Won't see much of it once the canopy is in place. If I were doing a detaile 1/32 I would probably take this a bit more serious.

The Zero now has wings and is looking like a plane. I like the outline of this thing. I could frame it as is and put it on the wall. A few pics..

IMG_9694.jpg

IMG_9676.jpg

IMG_9680.jpg
 
Thanks guys. I am still trying to decide if I want to go through with the wrecking of this Zero. The original plan was a base/small dio and some bullet holes with bent props. Nothing too drastic.
 
That is the problem Quaralane. It is hard to wreck a pretty bird like that. I suppose I could always buy a nice Tamiya Zero down the road.

You know what really sucks? I don't have a proper place to display a 1/72 let alone a 1/48!
 
I have actually been picking at this thing believe it or not. Here is what I have done. I have to decide if I want to put all the flaps/control panels(?) back on or not. There are some bullet holes there as well, not sure if you can see them. Stay tuned, should be interesting to see what this bird gets for damage. I'm not going to beat it up too bad. ;)

IMG_9822.jpg
 
Hi ya Noname ,

Making some great progress on this one ,I like the idea for the base ,should look the part ;)

Chris.
 
I do love the shape of Zeros. Wish I had time to build the one in my stash too :(

Cockpit looks brilliant and it looks like everything is going pretty smoothly ;-)
 
Thank you Myke and Chris. I have been working on the Merc at the same time as this so progress is slow. Trying to get the thing sorted for primer. Had trouble deciding on how far to go with the damage. I think I may have to go easy on it. I don't want it to lose it's girlish figure.
 
Sorry I haven't kept on this folks. It is on hold I guess. I had a plan for this Zero that would make it an unusual vignette/dio but never decided on some particulars. One of my ideas invovled some custom decals and I have no decal paper, so....

When ever I do finifsh this I'll be sure to postpics here of course. :)
 

Latest posts

Back
Top