John Baligrodzki

Getting my TBM army zero ready for the flying season. Wanting to give it a very well weathered look. Looked online for pics of zeros with paint missing, etc but really could not find any decent pics . Hoping someone here can help. Flying this very plain 91" span ship for 3 years. Flies great but getting a bit bored with it.Time tto change it's look.

Will post pics Saturday. Have one very short book on the Zero, but pictures are not very good. None show any weathering.

Looking forward to some help!

John B.

vertical grimmace

My Feedback: (1)

Paint it silver. Then paint it green. Then start rubbing it with steel wool and scratching it in places. Maybe even rub some wax in some places before painting the green so it comes off easier.

Dash7ATP

Did they last long enough to get a weathered look?Dash

metaldriver

It wasn't so mch a question of lasting long enough as it was primer. Later in the war the primers used were either poor quality or none existant. Thus the large areas of paint flaking or chipping off. Common to both IJN and IJA aircraft,though more so with naval aircraft. On another note the Green Zero was just a land based naval aircraft. The Imperial Japanese Army Air Forces didn't get along with the Navy(worse than our armed forces) thus according to all history books I have read the IJA(Army) did not use the Zero. They used the Nakajima Oscar.

Flyin Hwn

Try Osprey publications Japanese navy and army aces. Many weathered pics in color.

77chickenhawk

Hello John well I thought I would post you a link of my CMP zero bash. I did a lot of research and picture Hunting to find the result of what my paint job is. Pretty much what you say you are looking for so take a look through my thread and Maybe it will give you some ideas.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_90..._1/key_/tm.htm

Here is one picture I took last week. It's not done yet but Real close

Flyin Hwn

John,
What I`ve done to all of my Ziroli Zero`s was first do all panel lines with chart tape and grey primer ( grey color easier to see ridges of panel lines). Then I shoot silver( not aluminum as aluminum is too shiny) as silver will look like oxidized aluminum which helps weathering effect.

Now chipped paint look: Wet salt for chipped paint look at leading edges of flying surfaces,cowlings and cowl flaps. Bar wax or brush on rubber cement (rubber cement rubs off like butter)for medium to large patches.

Shoot lighter colors. Usually grey.

More wet salt and/or wax on grey paint as sometimes only the green chips or wears off.

Shoot the green paint for the army a/c.

More wet salt, wax and/or rubber cement where insignias or nomenclatuers to be.

Paint on hinamaru`s(meatballs) and nomenclatures

Let dry for at least a day

Start chipping: Grab steel wool and rub in direction of the windstream.

To finish wet sand lightly in direction of windstream to desired effect

Idigbo

Heres a couple of pics of my (a mate owns it now) heavily weather beaten A6M3 model 32. Built by Steve White and repainted by me last year. The issue they had was a lack of primer, the darker paints used to flake off in sheets!! I painted silver first, then the shading and colour, then the heavily flaked bits were achieved very easily by using the brown parcel tape, stick on, peel off, simples. he weakest paint bond is the colour to the silver, so that gives up first. For the worn areas I used wet and dry paper used wet til the silver comes through. There aren't many good photo's of the weathered stuff but the one I did pleases its owner and me so thats the important thing in this case! You'll always get someone thinking its to weathered, likewise a few that would have gone further.

Ian.

Meschmidt

My Feedback: (15)

Zeros look the best when weathered good. My first attempt at weathering a warbird. Done with a pencil, magic markers, and black spray paint out of a can. Plane is 12 years old now and looking better than ever! Some other pictures in my gallery. Video of it flying at spacecityrc.com website. Video mistakenly labeled as a CMP Zero. It is a World Models. Paul

John Baligrodzki

Thanky you to everyone. Just the info i am looking for. Here are some pictures. Will comment on them in the next post.

John B.

John Baligrodzki

Here is where I am at with this project. As the ship is painted already any bare metal/flaking paint will need to go over the green. The fuse has panel lines and some rivit detail. Wings and stab have nothing. So took a fine point Sharpie and added basic panel lines to stab and wing. Plan to base flaking paint off those lines. Can always redraw them if needed. Stab pickshows how they look.

Next pic shows how the 0000 steel wool shines up the paint. Aft of the switches has been buffed forward has not.

Last pic shows the fuse. Original canopy no longer useable so have replaced it with a Ziroli. Fits quite well. Used the closest matching rattle can I could find. Will have to be good enough.

Was thinking about using the canopy frame paint and giving the plane a mottled look. Not sure how this would look. Would of course buff the paint and the put washes over the whole ship to blend everything.

Considering this is a simple sport scale only ARF perhaps should just add the flaking paint and be happy with that.

Further suggestion of course appreciated!

John

John Baligrodzki

Decided to just dive in with a brush and silver paint and get to work. Seems the faster I work the better it looks. Heavily plaugerized the photos Idigbo provided. Thanks! Still need to do the outer wing panels. Overall will be way better than the cookie cutter ARF I had before. Once I get all the flaking paint done will weather the leading yellow edges with some stains, etc then some washes on various panels. Will add some of the raised panels with aluminum tape. Canopy still to be weathered.

Appreciate everyones help.

John B.