Nice progress, Brent. Looks to be another awesome build by you.

Ernest, superb finish on the wing surfaces. How do you do this? It looks fantastic.

That is absolutely beautiful Ernest. Wow.

that zero is stunning!!!!!! Good job mate!

Thank you to everyone for the very kind words.

Brent your Super Pershing is looking very good indeed. I don't know if all Tamiya's 1/32 aircraft have thick decals. The A6M2b Zero was their second new mold 1/32 aircraft. following the A6M5 that came out in 2000, adding new parts only, so it is the same mold. I am guessing the decals date from about 10 years ago, when the A6M2b kit was released. I have Tamiya's newest 1/32 plane, the F4U-1A Corsair in my stash, when I build it we'll see how the decals do. I can tell if I have the struggles I had with the kit decals on this build, I will trash the kit set and buy AM decals.

Jesper - following is the technique I use to airbrush an aircraft that has a single color. After priming, I pre-shade the panel/rivet lines a color that I think will harmonize well with the base color; in this case I used Tamiya's NATO Black. I don't try to be really precise while airbrushing the pre-shading, and in fact, add random areas with the color. This will than fool the eye into thinking the base color has more depth when it is finished. I than spray 4-5 very light coats of the base color, applied at a shallow angle so as not to fill in the panel/rivet lines. I "eyeball" the progress and stop at 4 or 5 coats when I am satisfied.

Of course this takes a while to do, I painted the base coat on this model over three separate airbrushing sessions, but I think this gives the modeler the most control over the amount of paint laid down. The paint itself is thinned a little more than normal, which is about 50/50 for me, being thinned at 60% thinner to 40% paint. This is to keep the coat light enough that I can spray it wet on the surface but not over cover the underlying paints completely. I have found that this keeps the coats smooth.

I then do some very subtle post shading to either bring out detail I covered through airbrushing, or to add a bit more depth where necessary.

The fading is done with a finishing product sold by True Earth; it is essentially and acrylic glaze and ready to airbrush right out of the bottle. I setup my airbrush, for this job I use my H&S Infinity, just as I do for spraying Luftwaffe camo scheme. That is, 5-10 psi and the trigger travel set to minimum. I than spray very, very lightly into the center of panels or other area until I have lightened that area to what I feel is right. I spray the effect unevenly to simulate fading due to the sun. This also takes quite a bit of time, and not a little practice, to get right - less is more in this case. When finished you have the effect you see in the photos, which admittedly is not for everyone's taste.

Moving right along with the build following are a few shots showing some "chipping" wear. I decided to do so this time with a silver pen and pencil rather than using the hairbrush technique. The silver pen simulates chipping down to the bare metal and the pencil does a good job replicating either scuffing or light chipping.

I also weathered the underside of the model, again using a couple of finishing products from True Earth to replicate the streaking that occurred due to operating in the salty air of the Pacific. I still have to add various exhaust and other stains.

Overall view after first pass of streaking.


Close up of port wing, streaking complete.


Cockpit sill chipping and scuffing.


Chipping along wingtip fold area.

Thanks for the reply matey. I've been eyeing up the recent big scale aircraft releases and as I don't really have an aircraft bits/decal collection I'd be largely relying on the kit decals ....

And I'm really enjoying watching your build take shape !

cheers
Brent

Howdy Y'all
I made a little progress on my model. A very relaxing kit to build so far.

Take care,
Don "Lakota"

That Zero is stunning Ernest, absolutely beautiful.

Ernest, that's a true beautiful. I don't build aircraft but I want the kit now.

Nice progress Don. That looks like a nice relaxing build in progress.

Colin and Tim, thank you for the kind words. The build has turned out pretty well, with the only downer being the kit decals which were very, very thick - pretty common for Tamiya aircraft kits - and the only weakness on the one. Next time I will go with an AM decal set.

Making progress, build is done and a coat of primer

To One and All,
First, a couple of shout-outs,

Ernest - the Zero is really awesome, I like the subtle streaks on the wings - something that is often overdone.

Scott - Nice progress on the Stug III - I really like those Tamiya 1/48's!

Brent - nice work on the bunch of Pershings.

Dustin - Really good Tiger - this campaign is turning into a Tamiya 1/48 fest!

Now for some progress on the MkIV. Actually it is almost ready for painting. During the week, completed the sponsons;



Cleaned up the countless track links - approx. 185, since you get a few spares - in case the carpet monster is a bit peckish...



Then build them, well just snap them into place, into short lengths. They said 87 per side, I found that I needed on extra link each side.



I them assembled the sections into the full length and painted them.



While the tracks were drying, I attached the sponsons, the unditching rails and few extra bits. The tank is now completed, except for a couple of parts to go on after painting.



Hopefully some time this week to hit the painting phase, my favorite part of a build - making the piece come to life! (or at least that is the intent)

Comments always welcome.

Thanks,
Stephen

Stephen,
Good looking build. How did you paint the tracks? They really do look like old steel. Very impressive.

Got my Tilly II all ready for the pain barn.



The molded-in detail on the exhaust was horrible so I shaved it off and re-wrapped the pipes to simulate the asbestos insulation.

Scott, nice progress on the Stug!

Stephen, great work thus far. The tracks look especially well done!

Mark, sweet little scratch building for the exhausts. general assembly looks very good.

Ernest

Marc and Ernest,
The tracks were a piece of cake to assemble, just click in one pin and then the other, very nicely done. Once assembled I painted them with a black wash from a batch I made a while ago. I used a brush, so that I could get into the nooks and crannies. Once that was dried, I again brushed on the AK Track wash, a real nice shade of dirty, rusty tint. The two of them really worked well, to my surprise. They really look like old, used steel. This will provide a real nice base for some metallic highlights on the ribs, from ground contact and then dirt/mud gunk when the entire beast gets weathered. Thanks for the comments.

Stephen

Hello guys,
your build progress look very nice. When I finish couple of models I join to you.

I have completed these days , work on SU 122 ... here are the final photos ...

Nice work Giuseppe. I like the very original photo technique as well!

Ernest

Hello everyone! I know it is a little late but I wanted to get in on the group build. I am days away from finishing my Tasca Firefly and have a Tamiya M51 Supersherman I was planning to do next. I got the kit for Christmas from my wife (yeah, she is a keeper) and picked up the Legends detail PE set and resin stowage set as well as pair of Tasca M2 machine guns. I also bought a book specifically on the M51 during the Six Days War for reference. I plan to build a tank from the 14th Armor Brigade in June 1967.
This is my first ever group build and only my fourth model kit since I was a teenager so I am hoping to learn from you more experienced modelers as I watch your work progress. Hopefully I can get this thing done on time and earn my first campaign ribbon in addition to some new friends in the community.
Happy modeling,
Bryan

Starting pic.

Welcome aboard Bryan!

Ernest

Ready for paint.



Everybody has very nice progress. Great job all.

AK black on.

Looking good Dustin!

And the S'Pershing is progressing. Base shading and blending back complete, camo next ....

cheers
Brent

Managed to get some airbrush time in today.

Main cam and some details done

Those look very nice Brent and Scott.