Tamiya 1/32 A6M5

[toadwbg]

As I get older, I really appreciate a well-Engineered and detailed kit like these uber-kits from Tamiya! Let's dig in:

 

 

Everything is going to be out of the box with this as my reference material:

 

[toadwbg]

The I instruction sheet and small PE and hinge parts can be a little intimidating at first. But with patience and followin the instructions things move along great. Everything fits like a jewel. The coxkpot is a work of art itself.

 

 

 

I used Tamiya bottle of XF-71 for the interior green and picked off black or silver details with a brush. I liked how they designed the Instrument panel to sandwich together.

Edited March 27, 2016 by toadwbg

[Stinger16]

Nice start, Looking real good, you will have fun building your zero, I know I did

 

Jeff

[Lothar]

I have that kit and it's on my to do list, so I'll be following your progress with utmost interest,

and I love what I see so far

 

Lothar

[toadwbg]

The only areas I've struggled is with the wire inserts for the landing gear doors. It literally takes 3 hands to put these together! I made a fixture of sorts out of blue tack to hold parts down and this did the trick.

[Bill_S]

A great start to a great kit! Watch out for those MG barrels, though. Until you get the fuselage glued together, they're just asking to get snapped off!

[toadwbg]

Wasn't a big fan of the material used for the seat belts but I made them work.. they are like a band-aid material which really doest work well and you have to trim them off the sheet- mine were not die-cut.

 

I added a brown wash to make them more convincing.

 

[Martinnfb]

Nice start, here is motivational picture, nicely showing the soiled lower part on captured plane.

[toadwbg]

The airframe goes together with a snap! No filler should be needed. Every joint is about perfect. I the PE hinges for flaps and rudder were pretty straight-forward. I went ahead and painted these areas and the landing gear Lifecolor's version of Aotoke (spelling?). Turned out OK but doesn't spray as well as Tamiya.

 

[Martinnfb]

and more

[toadwbg]

The landing gear is pretty interestingly designed and engineered. Follow the instructions carefully and do some dry-fitting.

 

 

I've read different reviews and articles on this kit that some of the gear doors should be the underside grey for Mitsubishi built Zeros and the Aotoke for Nakajima Zeros. I just followed the kit instructions.

 

Honesty I just really like that Metallic blue-green color and wanted to show as much as I could.

Edited March 27, 2016 by toadwbg

[Martinnfb]

[toadwbg]

 

Nice pics, looks like the captured Zero from Alaskan islands?

Edited March 27, 2016 by toadwbg

[toadwbg]

Time for the engine, much like the cockpit, this is a finely detailed and intricate assembly that's intimidating at first. Do lots of dry-fitting and note the keyed features that get the alignment fixed correctly.

 

The head scratcher here is how and when to paint? I prefer to assemble as much as I can before I paint within reason. After careful study, I broke apart the engine sub (sans-exhausts) down to 2 separate subs:

 

 

I'll airbrush everything aluminum first than pick-off black details.

[Wolf Buddee]

Nice work indeed so far. I like the way you made the kit supplied seat harness look the part. Looking at them in the box they don't look all that impressive but yours look quite nice in place.

 

I would try and do a little more to eliminate the seam at the top of thr gear legs though. The seams stand out a bit compared to the rest of the overall construction. Just a suggestion............

 

Cheers,

Wolf