1/48 Zaku II - Part 2

I've given the sanded upper feet a touch up of primer, then masked off the ankle joint to give a final spray of light grey on the foot.For detail I used some Gun Metal Grey to represent bolts. For the foot base I did some detailing with Duraluminium, Magnesium & Brass.

Upper feet and soles painted on the 1/48 Zaku II

When dry the 2 parts of the feet snapped into place with no glue.



The feet went together without any glue

The lower leg is mainly 2 large pieces, so I am going to do this as a complete unit to ease in painting.  The 2 side pieces have poly caps fitted inside, and then glued them to make sure they will bear the weight of this large kit. The 2 rear engine Vernier parts were glued in place. The seam lines were sanded & filled before priming.

Lower legs of the Zaku II primed

Now comes the part where I can begin to give the legs some colour & detail as with this being a kit without an inner frame & a lot of moulded in detail the paint job needs to bring a lot of this out.

The legs were sprayed in the darker of the 2 blue colours I’m using which is UK Mediterranean Blue from Vallejo & 3 good light airbrush coats did the trick. To bring out the detail of the rocket verniers I  hand painted the recessed areas in “Metal Color” Steel, the verniers in Duraluminium then the inner section of the Vernier in Burnt Iron.

Using a cocktail stick I put very small amounts of Gun Metal Grey in the bolt holes & recesses on the leg, then as a final touch used Aluminium on the small vanes on the side of the legs.

1/48 Zaku II details now painted on the legs

The whole unit was put safe wrapped up for final fitting later on.

For making the knee joint I did not follow the instructions but made each one like a standard model kit.  Part (F9) was primed & then painted in Duraluminium, poly caps were fitted inside this, the inner part of one of the knee joints (F2) and then the unit goes together with the other side of the knee joint. The completed sections were primed then painted to allow them to dry.

Knee joints of Zaku II painted