Mitsubishi A6M2b Zero; 1/32 Tamiya

[Cees Broere]

Indeed, no pressure my friend.

[Troy Molitor]

Wonderful start on this build.   Thanks for sharing this one with us Erik.

 

Troy

[One-Oh-Four]

3 hours ago, Troy Molitor said:

Wonderful start on this build.   Thanks for sharing this one with us Erik.

 

Troy

 

Well... The wonderful part up till now is Scott’s work. I’ll see if I can match the quality!

 

The next couple of days I’m afraid I’ll be supporting my oldest son finalizing his history paper he needs to finish to be able to graduate.

Interesting topic: How did (the outcome of) the First World War cause the Second World War. The economic, political and German societal (Weimar Republic) causes need to be adressed. 

[A6M]

I finally had time to sit down and open a Fotki account (thanks for the suggestion, Erik). Here is my first test posting.

 

The upper image is of the Oxygen Flow Regulator. The pilot's oxygen mask would link into the fitting on the lower right side (by the sh in Mikesh). Beside this fitting is a valve to set the desired flow pressure. On the top left is an on/off switch

 

The second image illustrates where the OFR was mounted below the centre of the instrument panel

 

 

 

[One-Oh-Four]

A little babystep. As pointed out already, the double compressed air-bottle setup on the left fuselage side was an A6M5-feature so I have been busy fabricating two horizontal single-bottle brackets. Comparing them to the photo posted by Scott of the setup in an A6M3 I freewheeled a bit. If they'll be visible at all remains to be seen....  

 

This was the Eduard-modified kit setup:

 

 

I first tried to copy the Eduard bracket for the single bottle as found on the back of the cockpit bulkhead from plasticard, but I was already dissatisfied even while I was cutting it. When the knife went a little wide; that was it! New tactic: making a photocopy of the bracket, trying to drill  the lightening holes after which the bracket could simply be cut out with a small pair of decal-scissors. Of course, drilling in a piece of paper doesn't work!

 

I didn't want to abandon the basic idea at that moment yet so I repeated the photocopying, this time punching the holes with the punch-and-die, what sort-of worked. After cutting out the part, I immersed it in Future, hoping to reinforce the paper with it after it had dried. This also sort-of worked, but I couldn't get excited about it... Nothing beats the instructional value of (other people's) failure, so:

 

 

Then I had my Eureka-moment: why not try to cut the original double bracket in half, thereby creating two single brackets? Lo and behold, it worked! I cut the two bottles apart and sanded the bottom of one round to conform to the shape of the horizontal bottle on the fuselage floor. Because the bottle only poses for this photo, the straps haven't been fastened over the bottle yet.

 

Hmmmm, looking at the photo of the A6M3, it looks significantly different..... Maybe I'll try something else, yet... 

[fmatthews]

Looking great-nice work!

[LSP_Ray]

12 minutes ago, fmatthews said:

Looking great-nice work!

[Rick K]

Watching you put the finish on this one Erik!  Great detail work!

[A6M]

Here are some details on the CO2 tank mount for the fire extinguisher system.  The B&W photo is from A6M3 32 c/n 3030. The colour image is from an artifact in the collection of Legend Flyers in Everett WA. The line drawing is from the A6M2 maintenance manual.

 

Ryan  

Edited April 7, 2019 by A6M

[A6M]

I found another image in my files that provides a much more detailed view of the CO2 tank mounts. This is from the  A6M3 22 c/n 3685 in the Duxford collection. Rob Thwaites was kind enough to photograph this plane for me back in 2008. In the photo you can see the two mounts were not identical in configuration.  

 

Ryan

 

 

[One-Oh-Four]

Wow, great info, Ryan! I'll chop out the brackets I used and try to replicate these!

[jep1210]

I'm not a huge fan of Zeros or most Japanese aircraft but this build has me considering adding one. Looking great so far.

[A6M]

I'll help as much as I can. I'm in the process of rewriting my A6M2 Tweak List and the exercise is proving profitable. Going through all my notes and pulling them all together is turning up a number of little details, especially in the later Nakajima-built M2s.

 

Ryan

[One-Oh-Four]

That's great! Thanks! 

[A6M]

I've bogged down on Section 9 of the Tamiya instruction sheet. There are lots of cockpit changes for the later Nakajima built M2. However, here are my notes for Section 1 so at least that initial step is covered for you.

 

Section 1

- The Mitsubishi consistently painted the cockpit interior a dark green (FS 4098). Nakajima at first started with a similar shade of green, but by mid-1942 switched to a much lighter green (FS 4373). In contrast to Mitsubishi, Nakajima Zeros had the seat supports and landing gear and flap levers painted gloss black. Both the guns and radio equipment, however, followed the pattern found in Mitsubishi examples.

- The rivets on the rear cockpit deck were not flush and should instead be raised.

- The ammunition expenditure counter E3 can only be found on the very early Mitsubishi built A6M2. However, the hemispheric lamp should be attached just below E26. It is overall natural aluminum.

- The two CO2 (not oxygen) pressure bottles E62 were part of the fire extinguisher system introduced in early Dec 43. Prior to that date there was only a single horizontally-mounted CO2 bottle in this location. This CO2 bottle should be painted green with the valve facing towards the front of the aircraft.

- There is a small circle inscribed on the outer left side of the fuselage just below the rear oval access panel. This is the location of the compressed air refilling valve and should be drilled out.

 

Ryan