Nice! 
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BUILD LOG - Tamiya's 1/32nd A6M5
- Thread starter Scrodes
- Start date
Here's a quick tip with a crummy pic.
Most sources for small wire leave you with a wire that's been curled or bent etc. It's always best to scratch something from wire that's straight to begin with.
Here's a painfully easy way to get that wire completely straight. Put the wire on your work surface; a cutting mat works best because it offers some friction. now roll the wire back and forth - I use a sanding stick because the grit makes the wire roll. Roll it back and forth over the wire and down the length. Et voila! It helps to have the wire straight-ish before you start - pull both ends.
I'm sorry the photo is out of focus, I was running out of hands. You an see that the end to the right has been straightened.
Here's one of the engines - the balance tubes are now in place (round styrene) as are the stiffeners for the cylinder heads (flat styrene). These need to be painted, but first I'm going to make up a single pair of ignition wires to be used as a template for the other million.
Most sources for small wire leave you with a wire that's been curled or bent etc. It's always best to scratch something from wire that's straight to begin with.
Here's a painfully easy way to get that wire completely straight. Put the wire on your work surface; a cutting mat works best because it offers some friction. now roll the wire back and forth - I use a sanding stick because the grit makes the wire roll. Roll it back and forth over the wire and down the length. Et voila! It helps to have the wire straight-ish before you start - pull both ends.
I'm sorry the photo is out of focus, I was running out of hands. You an see that the end to the right has been straightened.
Here's one of the engines - the balance tubes are now in place (round styrene) as are the stiffeners for the cylinder heads (flat styrene). These need to be painted, but first I'm going to make up a single pair of ignition wires to be used as a template for the other million.
Dub-dub-double post update!
Making up the ignition wiring.
The reference photos I'm using are from the NASM's Gekko (as it uses the same engine). The drawings - even in the Aero Detail book! - are hard to decipher as far as where the wiring goes.
Basically as far as I can tell, in front of each pushrod, there are a pair of wires - one in the shape of a ? and another one that is bundled to it. The question mark shaped wire goes to the spark plug on the front cylinder, the other wire runs over the head of the front cylinder and terminates at the spark plug of the rear cylinder.
For me - the trick with wires like this, is that they should all look about the same, but I don't want them to be identical. For this reason I don't use a jig or a template, but I bend each one by hand.
Much like painting - I straighten the wire (as above) because I want to start off with the base for each part being the same. (in painting, either primer or plain plastic, so the underlying colour effects the overlying paint the same way - if that makes sense).
I take the straight wire, and bend the cure of the wire around something with the radius I want - drill bits are great for this! Now I can use this tool for each of the 14 wires I have to make up (two engines) keeping the radius of the curve about the same. Note that to the left of my thumb (left in the photo) I have left a straight portion, which I will bend 90 degrees to insert into the head.
Now I lay the wire flat on my cutting mat (made easier by the use of a wire rolled flat to begin with!) I have made a mark on my tweezers (a piece of tape on the backside in this case) so that I can bend the 90 degree stretch to the same width on each one (because the tweezers get wider as you go back) I bend the wire 90 degrees as best I can, rotate the pliers 90 degrees horizontally and make sure that the wire is bent 90 degrees in that plane as well (i.e. perfectly straight up.)
Then I insert the wire into the hole I drilled out where the spark plug was molded on. I can change the general look of the wire by holding that end in the cylinder head and pulling the other end towards the center of the engine.
Keeping in mind this wire is still part of the section that I straightened out (6" or so). I cut the excess off using sprue cutters, leaving a little extra so that once the engine is entirely assembled I have some room to play.
Making up the ignition wiring.
The reference photos I'm using are from the NASM's Gekko (as it uses the same engine). The drawings - even in the Aero Detail book! - are hard to decipher as far as where the wiring goes.
Basically as far as I can tell, in front of each pushrod, there are a pair of wires - one in the shape of a ? and another one that is bundled to it. The question mark shaped wire goes to the spark plug on the front cylinder, the other wire runs over the head of the front cylinder and terminates at the spark plug of the rear cylinder.
For me - the trick with wires like this, is that they should all look about the same, but I don't want them to be identical. For this reason I don't use a jig or a template, but I bend each one by hand.
Much like painting - I straighten the wire (as above) because I want to start off with the base for each part being the same. (in painting, either primer or plain plastic, so the underlying colour effects the overlying paint the same way - if that makes sense).
I take the straight wire, and bend the cure of the wire around something with the radius I want - drill bits are great for this! Now I can use this tool for each of the 14 wires I have to make up (two engines) keeping the radius of the curve about the same. Note that to the left of my thumb (left in the photo) I have left a straight portion, which I will bend 90 degrees to insert into the head.
Now I lay the wire flat on my cutting mat (made easier by the use of a wire rolled flat to begin with!) I have made a mark on my tweezers (a piece of tape on the backside in this case) so that I can bend the 90 degree stretch to the same width on each one (because the tweezers get wider as you go back) I bend the wire 90 degrees as best I can, rotate the pliers 90 degrees horizontally and make sure that the wire is bent 90 degrees in that plane as well (i.e. perfectly straight up.)
Then I insert the wire into the hole I drilled out where the spark plug was molded on. I can change the general look of the wire by holding that end in the cylinder head and pulling the other end towards the center of the engine.
Keeping in mind this wire is still part of the section that I straightened out (6" or so). I cut the excess off using sprue cutters, leaving a little extra so that once the engine is entirely assembled I have some room to play.
135engineer
Active member
great detail work .....great sbs
I am soooooo so so so so sorry folks.
I have barely had time to build and at the end of those non-existent time periods I scraped seconds in to update my threads.... but forgot about this one.
So yeah, there has been a lot of progress.... Here's the latest installment.
Well, we have some progress!
And look at this little guy!
Many, MANY thanks to Mal at Miracle Masks. He made these markings custom from a profile I sent him. I was having a dumb moment and just couldn't understand how the markings for the tail were supposed to be done. He was immeasurable help. He even re-wrote and drew out instructions for me
First though - I needed to tack the rudder in place and straight. I couldn't glue it because the rudder pedals aren't straight so the rudder won't be straight.
I used a clothes peg to keep the rudder straight for masking and painting, and used masking tape to keep the rudder in place.
Sometimes jigs aren't used for alignment so much as they are for handling large assemblies. Attaching the wing floats is coming back to haunt me, but I don't know that this would be any easier with just the main float in place.
The first mask has been applied, painted and removed. You can see the placement box still on the tail. This is the second mask which fits directly in the PB to align the masks. The new mask is a little bit smaller and will leave a white border of 1mm around the letters and stripe.
In the end, I was thrilled with how well this came out. I did touch up the white. Now that I've used Miracle Masks, I will use them as often as I can.
Post touch up on the letters, before the band was fixed.
The Zeke still needs legs. I originally planned on simply displaying the A6M5 on its stand with the wheels up.
The gear does articulate, and I don't consider this a 'toy like feature' as others do, because they look the part and the oleo elbow flexes with the gear. They elbow is made of two pieces and snapped together perfectly. I wish everything was this well made
I realized last week that the kit has rubber main tires. So I ordered a set of resin replacements which just came in. They're nothing pretty, but they're not the cheap rubber ones that never manage to look scale.
I think that's it for now. I have to touch up a bunch of the green paint where it came off. This is not a fault of the miracle masks, but rather the Vallejo gray primer - this seems to be an ongoing issue right now for a lot of people, it's simply coming up no matter how well the surfaces are cleaned.
Yeah Baby! 
Yeah the Hasegawa kit. :pinch: Oh well, can't win them all.
Woooo....she's standing pretty. 
phantom II
Master at Arms
Looking good
Cheers, Christian B)
Cheers, Christian B)
Yes essentially - it's supposed to be an even 1mm around the entire serial. The end result ended up looking like a decal that was out of register. I'm having the same problem with the last set of masks, but it looks like I have an email in my inbox from Mal as we speak.
She looks great!
