Plastic Modeling

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Ultramaroon

Loving the zinc chromate. Can almost smell the CPC and hydraulic fluid.

I am very happy with the results so far. The pictures make it look huge though.
I finished the pilot (had to do him to put the canopy on for paint) and you can get an idea of how small it really is.

Base coat.


Detail paint



All blended



Flat coat and how big he actually is



At the office

[soundman98]

my eyes are going blurry and my hands are cramping up just thinking about that...

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

I am very happy with the results so far. The pictures make it look huge though.
I finished the pilot (had to do him to put the canopy on for paint) and you can get an idea of how small it really is.

Amazing work! A joy to follow. Glad you found an easy solution for sharing pics.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Ultramaroon

Amazing work! A joy to follow. Glad you found an easy solution for sharing pics.

Still working on camera settings though. I should be able to get better quality pictures than I am. We are in lock down for another three weeks so I have nothing else to do. This is keeping me sane at this point.

[Tcoat]

While digging through my old stuff for wing fold bits I found a pair of tiny B-24s.
Now how could they possibly be used with a 1/48 Zero?

[Spuds]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

I am very happy with the results so far. The pictures make it look huge though.
I finished the pilot (had to do him to put the canopy on for paint) and you can get an idea of how small it really is.


At the office

Is it just me or is the pilot scaled a bit too small for the aircraft?

You certainly are a magician with the paint lol.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Spuds

Is it just me or is the pilot scaled a bit too small for the aircraft?

You certainly are a magician with the paint lol.

Photo angles maybe.
He is bang on and barely even fits.
Until I started building this I never fully appreciated just how small an aircraft the Zero really was. The lines in pictures make it look really long when it is actually pretty short and stubby.

Same scale as a CF-101 Voodoo




Or a 1/43 (so slightly larger scale) FRS

[Spuds]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Photo angles maybe.
He is bang on and barely even fits.
Until I started building this I never fully appreciated just how small an aircraft the Zero really was. The lines in pictures make it look really long when it is actually pretty short and stubby.

Same scale as a CF-101 Voodoo




Or a 1/43 (so slightly larger scale) FRS

The only reason I say that is that most pictures I have seen show the pilot back against the headrest and almost too tall for the canopy. I guess this guy could just be short comparatively to the folks in more recent pictures (which I think is pretty likely). Or picture angles as you say.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Spuds

The only reason I say that is that most pictures I have seen show the pilot back against the headrest and almost too tall for the canopy. I guess this guy could just be short comparatively to the folks in more recent pictures (which I think is pretty likely). Or picture angles as you say.

I think you will find that part of it may be size. A 6' Texan dude will be back further.
Anther part is That a lot of people are probably up higher for the photo op. You wouldn't even see most of them if they were down in place.

This guy is way forward and down, not even close to the "headrest".


Same here


No way they guy could even reach the pedals from there unless he is 7' tall!


Same here

[Spuds]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

I think you will find that part of it may be size. A 6' Texan dude will be back further.
Anther part is That a lot of people are probably up higher for the photo op. You wouldn't even see most of them if they were down in place.

This guy is way forward and down, not even close to the "headrest".


Same here


No way they guy could even reach the pedals from there unless he is 7' tall!


Same here

And this is why you are the king of the modeling thread. I retract my flawed observations.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Spuds

And this is why you are the king of the modeling thread. I retract my flawed observations.

Maybe on this site but in the model building world I am barely middle of the road on both building and researching.

"High everybody this is my 100% scratch built 1/700 scale Bismarck. I mixed the resins for the plastics myself from a concoction I made up in my garage one afternoon. I was going to super detail it but decided to keep it simple ( posts pictures of a the interior of the galley with a hand carved figure cooking bacon and eggs and boiling potatoes.)"

Oh and since they are usually family oriented forums even though the average age is someplace around 112 (I am the kid) they are highly moderated and even the slightest infraction is an automatic ban. Tis leads to some of the most subtle passive aggressive comments you will ever see. "Oh I don't wasn't to criticize and I am sure you know what you are doing but that shade of green is a full half tone off what it should be. I can show you the real one if you just stop work long enough to listen to me. I know you want to do your best".

Finally the level of research some of these guys do is nuts. They have volumes and volumes of actual books all on one topic and seem to read them from cover to cover. I build kits usually out of the box and try to use the finish to enhance it. These guys will sand all the detail off a kit and add their own because a panel line was off by a 1/2 scale inch! They have no qualms about telling you what you did "wrong" either since they seem to think that everybody is as fanatical as they are when it comes to details. "Oh I see you are trying to model the A6M5. There are loads of issues with that kit you will want to correct. The wing angle at the mid point is at 96.3 degrees but if you look at this drawing you will clearly see that it should actually be 96.19562 degrees you will need to do some serious work to correct that. Oh and you are totally wrong on your depiction of tail number A-1234! It was built on July 12, 1944 at 2:03pm. The riveter Ichitaka Ohfive was drunk that day and the 4th rivet from the left in the 3rd row down should be slightly out of line with the rest. An easy but important fix" .

Believe me my close enough and it looks right approach is looked down on by many!

[soundman98]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Maybe on this site but in the model building world I am barely middle of the road on both building and researching....
Believe me my close enough and it looks right approach is looked down on by many!

reminds me exactly of audio forums, and also exactly why i don't take part in them. somewhere, the 'purists' get lost in their own fanatical ideal and loose sight of simply enjoying the hobby as they started it.

i most enjoy seeing people start into the hobbies, and love doing things cheaply that the purists insist can only be done with incredibly expensive methods and tools.

this is the part of forums that facebook really killed unfortunately though. it's easier to just ask the same question on facebook a million times instead of pouring over forum resources for it. it's got much further reaching implications than most people seem to think. it encourages the concept that every persons idea is new and unique, and no one's ever come up with a similar idea before. it's impossible to progress on ideas if everyone's convinced that they're the first one's to come up with it!

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

"Oh I see you are trying to model the A6M5. There are loads of issues with that kit you will want to correct. The wing angle at the mid point is at 96.3 degrees but if you look at this drawing you will clearly see that it should actually be 96.19562 degrees you will need to do some serious work to correct that. Oh and you are totally wrong on your depiction of tail number A-1234! It was built on July 12, 1944 at 2:03pm. The riveter Ichitaka Ohfive was drunk that day and the 4th rivet from the left in the 3rd row down should be slightly out of line with the rest. An easy but important fix" .

Now that you mention it, I do have a couple observations regarding the instruments.

[NoHaveMSG]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Finally the level of research some of these guys do is nuts. They have volumes and volumes of actual books all on one topic and seem to read them from cover to cover. I build kits usually out of the box and try to use the finish to enhance it. These guys will sand all the detail off a kit and add their own because a panel line was off by a 1/2 scale inch! They have no qualms about telling you what you did "wrong" either since they seem to think that everybody is as fanatical as they are when it comes to details. "Oh I see you are trying to model the A6M5. There are loads of issues with that kit you will want to correct. The wing angle at the mid point is at 96.3 degrees but if you look at this drawing you will clearly see that it should actually be 96.19562 degrees you will need to do some serious work to correct that. Oh and you are totally wrong on your depiction of tail number A-1234! It was built on July 12, 1944 at 2:03pm. The riveter Ichitaka Ohfive was drunk that day and the 4th rivet from the left in the 3rd row down should be slightly out of line with the rest. An easy but important fix" .

Believe me my close enough and it looks right approach is looked down on by many!

I watched a few videos on youtube recently by this guy building a replica of a real tank from photos and the information he knew about the actual tank was mind blowing. When it went into service, when it was refitted, when it was destroyed in combat. He also cut and filled all the weld detail because it wasn't "scale enough" and made his own weld beads by hand and bolt heads. After watching about 2 hours worth of his videos I had decided I had enough internet for the day