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This is Hasegawa's
1/48th scale A6M2-N Rufe, built mostly out of the box, with only the addition of
Model Technologies seat belts and Aeromaster decals. This kit is a gem and
assembles very nicely, with no real fit problems. If you build this kit,
remember to put a lot of weight into the front of the float. Keep in mind
that you're building a tail-dragger that is gonna' have to sit level on the
docking trolley. Since construction was so easy, the real challenge
to this aircraft was the finish. In my opinion, aircraft
like this Rufe, painted only in dark green and gray need some shade variation to
bring them to life, in this case I went for a weathered look.
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After construction,
I started out with pre-shading the panel lines on the bottom with black paint
followed by an application of Tamiya JN Gray. The key to preshading is to
control the application of gray so that it doesn't completely cover and hide the
black,
but at the same time cover enough of it so the panel lines don't look
unrealistically dark. I knew pre-shading wouldn't work well on top because
of the dark green, so I decided to post shade. I sprayed the entire top
and sides with Tamiya JN Green. I then mixed some JN Green and white to a
9/1 ratio and sprayed that inside some panels, and streaked it over some others.
Next, I sprayed Tamiya NATO black mixed
with a little bit of dark blue on the engine cowling. When the paint was
dry, I buffed it out with a soft, clean rag. This serves 2 purposes;
first, it gets paint dust from spraying, or dead paint, as I call it, off the
model, making for a smoother surface and allowing for fewer coats of gloss.
Second, it helped blend the lighter green in with the darker green so the
transition between the colors wasn't so stark.
I glossed the model with two
coats of Future and then applied decals. The Aeromaster meatballs, which
were printed on a separate sheet from the other markings, would not react to any
decal solvent and would not settle into or over any surface detail, so I
scrapped them and used the kit meatballs. The rest of the Aeromaster
decals went on with no problem. I then washed the model to get off any
decal glue and solvent residue, then applied another coat of Future to seal on
the decals. I followed this with a very thin spray of Tamiya smoke over
the panel lines. Next was a coat of Testors Dullcoat, paint chipping done
with a silver pencil, followed by the addition of the windscreen, canopy,
engine, cowling, prop, outboard floats pitot, and antenna.
Chip
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