1/32 Hasegawa Mitsubishi A6M5 Zero Type 52 "Night Fighter"

[Anthony in NZ]

On 1/29/2023 at 9:03 PM, IainM said:

Wow....thats crazy good!  It even looks comfortable!  You're too modest mate, this is stunning so far

 

[IainM]

On 1/30/2023 at 12:30 AM, LSP_Kevin said:

Lovely work, Iain!

 

Kev

Thanks Kev!

12 hours ago, Greif8 said:

Superb cockpit Iain and clever scratchbuild as well.  

 

Ernest

Thank you. Learnt from experience.....

10 hours ago, Borsos said:

Never mind the seat belts, you‘ve taken photos of a brilliantly done leather surface on your cushion. That’s one of the best renditions of used leather I’ve seen yet!

Andreas

Thanks Andreas! Can't take the credit though, here's the link to the tutorial I watched.

[IainM]

10 hours ago, Anthony in NZ said:

Wow....thats crazy good!  It even looks comfortable!  You're too modest mate, this is stunning so far

 

Cheers Anthony! Appreciate such comments from one of the Masters...!

[IainM]

I thought I had done an intermediate update on this build, but obviously not..... In any case, this is how the build stands at the moment  -
All major components have been fitted, filled where necessary (quite a bit around the forward upper insert), sanded, primed, re-sanded and filled the problem areas (you know how it goes), then enamel wash in the panel lines to see if I'd missed anything and whether the detail I'd sanded and rescribed were OK.
Happy with how it has turned out - a few minor things, but not in places that are obvious/visible, so I'm going to leave it at that.













Next step will be to mask off the canopy area from the grey primer areas, and spray a coat of the required Japanese Green colour over the black, which is the interior framing colour. Once that's done, the HGW rivet set gets laid down, followed by the various paint layers.

As an aside - the box art on the kit shows a Nakajima built machine (giveaway is the up-sweep of the green demarcation paint job towards the horizontal stabs), but the instruction colour call-outs are all for a Mitsubishi built machine. So as I only realized this issue after I'd built/painted the cockpit, etc in Mitsubishi colours, I'm going to be altering the exterior paint job to suit a Mitsubishi built machine, with the constant demarcation line from wing root to tail. So just something to be aware of if you ever build this kit - change your interior/wheel well/cowling colours to suit the painting profiles as given in the kit.

Iain

[Greif8]

That primer coat looks ultra smooth Iain!  Good progress all around.

 

Ernest

[Rampenfest]

Fantastic build! That seat is top notch! 

[amurray]

I'm very late to this party.  Sorry!

 

Please provide a link to the leather finishing YouTube site.  Yours is the best leather finish I've ever seen.  

 

I have this kit and want to do it before too long (i.e. before I croak).  Your photos are excellent.  Please understand this is no criticism of you but the wings don't look right.  It may just be perspective.  To satisfy my curiosity I'll compare my Hase kit to my Tamiya kit to my blueprints.

 

Great job!

[Nighthawk Calling 1]

Great job on the leather look of the seat, could you not have draped the lap belts or one off the side of the seat to show more of the seat cushion? Anyway great job so far.

[IainM]

2 hours ago, amurray said:

I'm very late to this party.  Sorry!

 

Please provide a link to the leather finishing YouTube site.  Yours is the best leather finish I've ever seen.  

 

I have this kit and want to do it before too long (i.e. before I croak).  Your photos are excellent.  Please understand this is no criticism of you but the wings don't look right.  It may just be perspective.  To satisfy my curiosity I'll compare my Hase kit to my Tamiya kit to my blueprints.

 

Great job!

Here is the link to the video tutorial. From LPJ Models
I do think the wings look off-ish because of the lens perspective. I'm only using a cheap kit lens, and because of my lighting setup, I can't get a proper angle to shoot true perspective. I never compared my Tamiya kit to this Hasegawa one, but this Hasegawa kit looks OK to my eye.

Cheers!
 

[IainM]

1 hour ago, Nighthawk Calling 1 said:

Great job on the leather look of the seat, could you not have draped the lap belts or one off the side of the seat to show more of the seat cushion? Anyway great job so far.

Cheers for that! Yes, if I was going to have the hood open I would have done it with a belt draped elsewhere, but since it's going to be closed in order to display the 20mm cannon, there was not much point as nothing much in the cockpit is going to be seen

[Grissom]

I love the attention to detail and care you're giving this model, Iain (as with all your builds that I've seen).   The most intriguing thing about this model is the upward firing cannon.   I know the Luftwaffe employed similar weapons on some of their Fw-190 night fighters but theirs (to my limited knowledge) didn't have the muzzle(s) so close to the pilot.   Even though, as I understand you, the muzzle protrudes through the canopy glazing, surely it's proximity to the pilot must have been an issue?   Did the Japanese do something to mitigate the noise and shocks coming from the cannon's muzzle or did the pilots simply have to put up with it?   

 

Cheers,

Wayne

[IainM]

11 hours ago, Grissom said:

I love the attention to detail and care you're giving this model, Iain (as with all your builds that I've seen).   The most intriguing thing about this model is the upward firing cannon.   I know the Luftwaffe employed similar weapons on some of their Fw-190 night fighters but theirs (to my limited knowledge) didn't have the muzzle(s) so close to the pilot.   Even though, as I understand you, the muzzle protrudes through the canopy glazing, surely it's proximity to the pilot must have been an issue?   Did the Japanese do something to mitigate the noise and shocks coming from the cannon's muzzle or did the pilots simply have to put up with it?   

 

Cheers,

Wayne

Hi Wayne
I hear you! I wasn't aware that the Japanese had fitted a Zero with an oblique cannon until Hasegawa released this kit....but having then done some very light research, I can only surmise it was a stop-gap feature for homeland defense to counter the B29 bombing raids over Japan towards the very end of the war.
I do think that the pilots of these Zero's must have had some hearing issues after flying a mission - even though the muzzle is outside of the canopy, it still sits pretty close to the pilot.....desperate time, desperate measures. I think though that the pilots ears would be ringing......

[DeanKB]

3 hours ago, IainM said:

Hi Wayne
I hear you! I wasn't aware that the Japanese had fitted a Zero with an oblique cannon until Hasegawa released this kit....but having then done some very light research, I can only surmise it was a stop-gap feature for homeland defense to counter the B29 bombing raids over Japan towards the very end of the war.
I do think that the pilots of these Zero's must have had some hearing issues after flying a mission - even though the muzzle is outside of the canopy, it still sits pretty close to the pilot.....desperate time, desperate measures. I think though that the pilots ears would be ringing......

Some interesting background from "Fighters of the Dying Sun - The Most Advanced Japanese Fighters of the Second World War" by Fonthill;

 

".Mitsubishi A6M2, A6M3, A6M5, and A6M5-S
Zero Sen
At the outbreak of the Second World War, the IJN lacked specialised
aircraft for night warfare. The Mitsubishi A5M and A6M fighters were
often used for both day and night fighting, crewed by specially selected
pilots for their excellent night vision, which was boosted using a
methamphetamine called M-33-N Philopon.
The Zero fighters were extensively used in night missions,
defending their airfields against the attacks of the Douglas A-20, North
American B-25, and Lockheed PV-3 medium bombers. Sometimes, they
attempted interceptions using searchlights for guidance—a tactic that
was first used at Rabaul by the Zeros of the 204 Kōkūtai.
Some A6M2 of the 203rd Kōkūtai Shumshu Detachment, defending
the Imaizaki airfield in the Kuriles Islands, were painted in black with
no apparent modifications, but that local initiative was not generalised.
Most Zeros used for night missions kept their original FS 14077/FS
24201 paint scheme.
By the end of 1944, some A6M5-Ko of the 1st Hikotai, 302nd
Kōkūtai, based in Atsugi, were experimentally fitted with one Type 99-
2, Model 4, 20-mm cannon mounted in the fuselage, behind the pilot,
at 30 degrees to the aircraft’s centreline, protruding through the leftside
fuselage skin. It was not a night-fighting device; with that angled
cannon, it would have been possible to fire at the enemy fighter, in a
dog fight, before the Zero got to his tail. This modification was
apparently designed to fight against the Hellcats.
The sideways-angled cannon was very unpopular because an
accident killed a maintenance man who was walking on the wing. The
system was modified by installing the cannon 30 degrees forward and
10 degrees to the left in a Schräge Musik configuration, firing through
the rear section of the glazed canopy. When the Americans changed the
method of attack of their B-29s from high altitude to night low
altitude, the Zeros, Raidens, and Gekkos of the 302nd Kōkūtai had
their chance to destroy eleven Superfortresses. In October 1943, the
needs of the war forced the IJA to create new units specialised in night
warfare that were usually integrated by Zeros and Gekkos.
There never was an official version of the Zero night fighter, though
the A6M5-S designation was used by some post-war historians
referring to the A6M5 and A6M5-Hei with Schräge Musik armament.
Every Kōkūtai made the field modifications that they considered to be
necessary.
The 153rd Kōkūtai, based in Babo airfield (New Guinea) operated
with some A6M3 Model 32, with Schräge Musik armament, in July
1944. At the same time, the 201st Kōkūtai of Tacloban (the
Philippines) had several A6M5 Model 52 that had also been modified.
The 252nd Kōkūtai, based in Taroa airfield (the Marshall Islands), used
the A6M3 Model 22 as modified night fighters at the beginning of
1944. At Rabaul, in March 1944, the Hikotai 316 became a night
fighter unit equipped with modified A6M3 Model 32 and the 332nd
Kōkūtai of Iwakuni, used A6M5-Hei Model 52, with Schräge Musik
armament, in July 1944."

 

 

[IainM]

@DeanKB Thanks for that interesting info!!

[Grissom]

Hi Iain, Hi Dean?

 

Thanks for your replys.   I guess both the space required for the cannon (internally) and the aircraft's centre-of-gravity dictated where the gun would go.  It must have been deafening for the pilot, even above the sound of the radial engine.