Work on engine sub-assembly is pretty straightforward. Engine consists of two parts that need to be glued together, painted and plugged into a hole in front of fuselage. Once the cowling is in place, you won't see much of it, but nevertheless, I've decided to go the extra mile with the paint job. I've started with the base coat of flat black, followed by Vallejo Gunmetal Grey and highlights of Chainmail Silver. As a final touch I accentuated the shadows with Games Workshop Black wash. To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure whether all this "effort" (everything took about 10 minutes) was worth the bother or was especially realistic looking, but I was pleased with the final result.
Cowling is supposed to be painted with a 50/50 mix of Humbrol Black and Midnight Blue, but since I forgot to buy the second, I mixed Humbrol's Black with Vallejo's Model Color Dark Prussian Blue. Guess what, it worked without any problems and I was able to put it through my airbrush without any problems.
Finally, it was time to mount undercarriage components. Don't know why, but it's always my least favorite part of assembly process. All those small, fiddly and fragile pieces - something always breaks in two. This model was no exception; as I cut away the wheel covers, one of them broke cleanly in two at the most fragile point. I was able to glue the broken component back together, but I wasn't able to restore its proper curved shape. Word of advice - be very careful when getting those tiny components out of their frames.
Undercarriage of a Zero is surprisingly complex, also in the rather rudimentary rendition of Airfix. Ensure especially that the wheel legs (or whatever they'r called) are inserted all the way in, because the fit is rather snug. I discovered only after the glue dried that one of them didn't go all the way in, with the model being permanently slightly lopsided. The tilt isn't all that visible, but I know it's there and that knowledge alone is enough to bug me.
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