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BUILD LOG - Tamiya's 1/32nd A6M5
- Thread starter Scrodes
- Start date
It's the idiots tool for perfect interiors, engines, gear bays. It naturally adds shadows. Just one more tool for your enormous arsenal.
I don't really know where to start with the jig - aside from copying the angles of the beaching trolley, past that point I'm a little lost. I'm not sure how to align the floats to their struts to the plane itself.
That's half the reason I'm building the A6M5 too, keep me sane while I stress over the Rufe.
Flyingbabydoc
Well-known member
Amazing job, congratulations! 
phantom II
Master at Arms
A very quick sneak peak of this weekends coming update....
The cockpits are done!
Tons of new techniques tried here, most of which I have learned from your friend and mine, ChukW.
Yes, yes, I know about the seam on the lightbox on the top of the sidewall, I left it there because it wont be visible.
How much do you thin the smoke and what do you thin it with ? :idonno
Great looking detail by the way
Cheers, Christian B)
Thanks guys!
Smoke is just one of Tamiya's regular clear paints, I thin it the same way I do with every Tamiya paint [about 60/40 paint to Tamiya's Lacquer Thinner.] It's a clear paint so you don't need to thin it extensively like you would a black or other opaque colour.
How much do you thin the smoke and what do you thin it with ? :idonno
Great looking detail by the way
Cheers, Christian B)
Smoke is just one of Tamiya's regular clear paints, I thin it the same way I do with every Tamiya paint [about 60/40 paint to Tamiya's Lacquer Thinner.] It's a clear paint so you don't need to thin it extensively like you would a black or other opaque colour.
phantom II
Master at Arms
Thanks guys!
How much do you thin the smoke and what do you thin it with ? :idonno
Great looking detail by the way
Cheers, Christian B)
Smoke is just one of Tamiya's regular clear paints, I thin it the same way I do with every Tamiya paint [about 60/40 paint to Tamiya's Lacquer Thinner.] It's a clear paint so you don't need to thin it extensively like you would a black or other opaque colour.
Right, an opaque paint that I consider sticky. I would think you would want it to be very runny so that the capillary action would draw it to the proper places ???
Do you use the Tamiya X-20A for thinner ? I have been using other thing for a few years now . They work very differently .
Cheers, Christian B)
phantom II
Master at Arms
Thank you .
X-20 is the Lacquer thinner .
X-20A is the weaker o f their thinners.
Somewhat confusing . :S Christian B)
X-20 is the Lacquer thinner .
X-20A is the weaker o f their thinners.
Somewhat confusing . :S Christian B)
Thanks folks,
I'm sitting at the bench as I type, I'm putting the conversion pieces into the A6M2 fuselage. (There are 5, all for the tail)
QUICK TIP; want to avoid the carpet monster? Use a small clear plasti bowl (I think this was in a package with lightbulb or something similar.) all the small parts I cut off go in here, and I use blue tack to secure it so I can necessarily send them all flying across the hobbytable.
I'm sitting at the bench as I type, I'm putting the conversion pieces into the A6M2 fuselage. (There are 5, all for the tail)
QUICK TIP; want to avoid the carpet monster? Use a small clear plasti bowl (I think this was in a package with lightbulb or something similar.) all the small parts I cut off go in here, and I use blue tack to secure it so I can necessarily send them all flying across the hobbytable.
EDIT - Sorry for the cell phone pics.
I can't remember where I left off, but the cockpits are done, the cowl mounted guns installed completed with Master Barrels - I love these things.
The biggest achievement has been the tail for the Rufe - it's a 5 part converstion and involves some nasty cuts. The fit was pretty good. Some of my parts had shrunk, but Bob from MDC had replaced a few and I didn't want to bother him for any more.
This isn't a cutout at all - this is where the tail hook usually goes. The Rufe has a fin on the bottom of it's fuselage. MDC provides the fin that is on the bottom of the plug for this hole. The plug was too small for mine - which is weird because it's a set size on the kit, not a miscut by me.
I didn't want to glue a shim to the plug because it would have been end to end like - to - and there wouldn't be much of a gluing surface. So instead I found a sheet of styrene the thickness of the gap, cut a steep triangle and stuck it tip first into the fuslage - this made sure that it was the perfect size in length (thickness of the sheet) and width. The added advantage is that I cut and sanded it flush and it was face to edge for gluing.
Like so
Yields
I'm no Chuk, but you get the idea, which is all that matters
The new vertical stab. The A6M2b kit has a separate piece for the spine of the fuselage, which has the fairing at the base of the stabilizer included. I have no idea why MDC decided to mold the fairing on their tail, as opposed to copying the shape of just the kit stabilizer. The problem this creates is that you have to cut the fairing off the spine and now the spine is two parts - the original part which not only runs to the base of the new fairing, and the fairing itself. Mine didn't fit and left a considerable gap despite being cut at the panel line. Again I have shimmed. I shimmed on the large side and sanded to shape. There was also a casting bubble on the corner of the new fairing, I shored that up with styrene rod (like a nut through a bolt)
The end of the tail. The Rufe has a full height rudder, as opposed to the Zero's rudder which ends just below the horizontal stabs. You have to cut the tail off the kit and replace it with this plug. This part shrunk considerably and I had to mix some 2 part epoxy to build the part out and flush.
All of the components in place and glued. Under the elastic you can see the separate spine and the gap on all three sides of the new fairing at the base of the vertical stab. Note the shimjob. Also note the fitment of the tail plug....
Lots and lots of time spent sanding, fitting and sanding and fitting - just a few strokes here and there managed to get the tail fitting pretty well. I knew I would need putty, but that's expected in any conversion.
The elastic running length wise was originally looped around the tail plug, holding it in place while the Zap cured.
The tails fits very nicely - it just took a fair bit of work to get it here. The tail plug on the other hand.... and this is the GOOD fitting side.
I WANT TO MENTION that the fitment issues are not the fault of MDC, my parts had simply been an early batch and had shrunk. The new parts I received for the wing fit much better (touch wood).
Puttied, epoxied, sanded and sanded and....primered. I'm really happy with how it has come out so far. You can see a few spots that need attention still - I'm already on it!
Overall, I'm really happy with the conversion set and am looking forward to doing the wing.
I can't remember where I left off, but the cockpits are done, the cowl mounted guns installed completed with Master Barrels - I love these things.
The biggest achievement has been the tail for the Rufe - it's a 5 part converstion and involves some nasty cuts. The fit was pretty good. Some of my parts had shrunk, but Bob from MDC had replaced a few and I didn't want to bother him for any more.
This isn't a cutout at all - this is where the tail hook usually goes. The Rufe has a fin on the bottom of it's fuselage. MDC provides the fin that is on the bottom of the plug for this hole. The plug was too small for mine - which is weird because it's a set size on the kit, not a miscut by me.
I didn't want to glue a shim to the plug because it would have been end to end like - to - and there wouldn't be much of a gluing surface. So instead I found a sheet of styrene the thickness of the gap, cut a steep triangle and stuck it tip first into the fuslage - this made sure that it was the perfect size in length (thickness of the sheet) and width. The added advantage is that I cut and sanded it flush and it was face to edge for gluing.
Like so
Yields
I'm no Chuk, but you get the idea, which is all that matters
The new vertical stab. The A6M2b kit has a separate piece for the spine of the fuselage, which has the fairing at the base of the stabilizer included. I have no idea why MDC decided to mold the fairing on their tail, as opposed to copying the shape of just the kit stabilizer. The problem this creates is that you have to cut the fairing off the spine and now the spine is two parts - the original part which not only runs to the base of the new fairing, and the fairing itself. Mine didn't fit and left a considerable gap despite being cut at the panel line. Again I have shimmed. I shimmed on the large side and sanded to shape. There was also a casting bubble on the corner of the new fairing, I shored that up with styrene rod (like a nut through a bolt)
The end of the tail. The Rufe has a full height rudder, as opposed to the Zero's rudder which ends just below the horizontal stabs. You have to cut the tail off the kit and replace it with this plug. This part shrunk considerably and I had to mix some 2 part epoxy to build the part out and flush.
All of the components in place and glued. Under the elastic you can see the separate spine and the gap on all three sides of the new fairing at the base of the vertical stab. Note the shimjob. Also note the fitment of the tail plug....
Lots and lots of time spent sanding, fitting and sanding and fitting - just a few strokes here and there managed to get the tail fitting pretty well. I knew I would need putty, but that's expected in any conversion.
The elastic running length wise was originally looped around the tail plug, holding it in place while the Zap cured.
The tails fits very nicely - it just took a fair bit of work to get it here. The tail plug on the other hand.... and this is the GOOD fitting side.
I WANT TO MENTION that the fitment issues are not the fault of MDC, my parts had simply been an early batch and had shrunk. The new parts I received for the wing fit much better (touch wood).
Puttied, epoxied, sanded and sanded and....primered. I'm really happy with how it has come out so far. You can see a few spots that need attention still - I'm already on it!
Overall, I'm really happy with the conversion set and am looking forward to doing the wing.
Slick! 