1/48 Zaku II - Part 7

Need to do some work on the upper legs. The top leg armour & the covers for the side of the knee joint followed the usual process & were primed like the rest of the kit, but I did glue in the front piece the fittings joint for the energy cables ready.


Knee covers for 1/48 Zaku 2

Primed leg armour

 

Instead of doing it like in the instructions, the hip joints were made as a normal model making & they are just 2 pieces with a poly cap in the centre. These were primed & painted in Duraluminium.

Painted 1/48 Zaku 2 hip joints

 

I know on the finished model it won’t be seen, but I like to try to give some detail to the kit, so on the knee joints I painted the inner sections in Burnt Iron & what is meant to be bolt heads in Brass.  The knee covers were given light coats of UK Azure Blue & then dry some highlights of Steel in the recesses.

Painted 1/48 Zaku 2 knee joints and covers

 

The covers for the top of the leg were painted with the darker UK Mediterranean Blue & with Steel for highlights where I thought it was needed. These & the knee covers just push into place.

Fitted top armour on Zaku 2 legs

 

To add some contrast the knee cover was primed & painted in the same Light Grey as the torso with some of the darker blue just to blend them in a bit.  All these bits now push into the already made lower legs & they are nearly done.

1/48 Zaku 2 legs nearly finished

 

All the pieces for the side energy cables were sanded & primed as before & went through the same painting process to produce the very shiny metallic blue effect.  When it comes to fitting, the cables to the legs please take great care when pushing the poly caps onto the pieces & then gently push the pieces together before putting on the model.

I tried to be smart at first by putting the large parts on the kit & then fit the small single pieces; well I pushed to hard & caught the metallic paint so had to sand & re spray one side.

The hip joints pushed into the top of the legs & now there are finished.

Finished Zaku 2 legs

The arms need to be finished now & the top armour was primed& these & the shoulder joints sprayed in the darker blue & some steel accents added to the recesses. The elbow joints had some detail work added like the knees just for my personal enjoyment.

Painted arm joints and inner frame

 

The covers for the elbow were done in light grey top follow the theme for the legs & all the pieces & the earlier lower arm parts fitted together.

Finished 1/48 Zaku 2 arms