Airfix Mitsubishi A6M2b Zero - Part III

With main components of the model having been assembled and primed, it was now time to have some fun with the airbrush. As usual, as the first step in painting process, I did my best to preshade the model by outlining all panel lines with black. As images below are showing, my control of the airbrush still leaves a lot to be desired, but the end result was adequate. I can also add that I find preshading to be excellent and stress-free airbrushing exercise - it doesn't really matter what mistakes I'll make, since everything will mostly be covered by other colors anyway.

Next, it was time to paint the yellow strips at the leading edges of the wings. Airfix provides the decals for those details, but it's very simple to paint them and then mask them of. The only suitable acrylic yellow I had available was Humbrol 154 and it was half-dry (damn it, Humbrol, one could almost suspect a conspiracy on your part here - first those annoying tin cans for your enamels and now plastic jars that can't keep paints in shape more than a couple of months after 'breaking the seal'). I managed to revitalize the stringy mass in the jar with some acrylic thinner, but at first the results weren't satisfactory. Nonetheless, wanting to proceed, I continued applying thin layers of paint and after a while I deemed the coverage to be adequate. I left the paint job to dry for a day before masking of the areas supposed to be yellow, allowing it to cure properly.

To be fair, I have to point out that yellow paints are in my opinion very frustrating to use in general, so maybe it's a bit harsh to blame Humbrol for 'low performance' of its 154 Insignia Yellow.

With yellow leading edge stripes masked off, it was now time for the 'main event'. I'm not sure if my reasoning was correct, but for this part of the project I've decided to use Tamiya's paints instead of Airfix's Humbrol recommendations. After all, Tamiya being a Japanese company should know what Japanese Navy Grey and Green looks like. Right?

Regardless of the correctness of my choice, I must say this - airbrushing with Tamiya's paints is pure joy. I have my now used acrylics from Humbrol, LifeColor and Vallejo Air and I was a bit amazed over the difference in behavior of Tamiya's paints. Perfect finish and great control over paint flow! For the first time I was able to retain the preshading effect and also adding the highlights without having to struggle. Furthermore, Tamiya's paints seem a bit tougher once dry. This characteristic unfortunately makes also cleaning of the airbrush into a bit of a challenge, but that's a small price to pay.

One of the advantages with airbrushing -
if you mess up,  you get a 'redo' since the paint layers are so thin.

Paint job of the aircraft body.