Mitsubishi A6M2b-21 Zero (Airfix)

Bill Gilman
Photos of the cockpit are added...still some work to do before we button up the fuselage halves!

Roland Sachsenhofer
Hello Bill,
so much wonderful detail in that scale- you have my full respect. To sacrifice your OOB dreams have been well worth!
By the way: I really like the tradition of Airfix´great box art illustration!

Duncan Cook
go for it Bill.
Yes Roland, the Airfix Boxarts are legendary.
Int he early 70s Airfix boxartsshowed much" action"
So much action that parents in Germany were scared they childs could turn military that the gouverment made a law against these boxarts. Boxarts whith crashing airplanes were Illegal. Only "peacefull" boxarts where allowed .The Law is still there but it is forgotten.

Philip De Keyser
Looks great Bill, there is a lot of detail in these little kits, looking forward to the nex pix, greetz Phil

Bill Gilman
Added a couple of new pictures. The cockpit is now finished and the fuselage halves assembled. Working on the engine now - you won't see much when it's finished so I think I may not add ignition wiring! 🙂

Wilfried Bogaerts
Normally I would press the 'Like Button' now but this feature is not (yet😉 ) available on Scalemates so I'm gonna inform you the ol' fashioned manner and just type down the words...

I LIKE IT !

Steve Wilson
Yeah! Will great idea, showing the total of likes under the button...🙂

Bill Gilman
Looking at the actual cockpit, everything seems so delicate and dainty. Then I look at these photos, and they look rather crude. Stupid magnification...

Bill Gilman
OK, all you Japanese aircraft experts, step right up. Two questions: First, was the gunsight in the Zero offset slightly to starboard, and Second, did the Zero have a panel line along the top of the fuselage spine? Thanks...

Bill Gilman
You guys may have missed my questions first time around (see previous post). I ask about the gunsight since Airfix has molded it that way (offset). The pictures I have of Zero cockpits seem to show it centered (which makes more sense to me). The question about the panel line is because I know a lot of WWII fighters had one (for instance the 109). Don't want to make an embarrassing mistake!

Duncan Cook
Is'nt something helpfull in the booklet I send you?

Wilfried Bogaerts
Hi Bill, I have my doubts about the panel line along the top of the spine, most pictures are unclear in this area. Some profiles viewed from above do indicate a panel line there but beware, this is infact the antenna wire running from the top of the antenna mast to the top of the tail fin. My opinion about the gunsight (according to one drawing I have in A6M Zero In Action, but this is from an A6M5) is that is should be centered. I also found a picture of a museum Zero and it looks to be centered too (but don't know wich variant this is)

Have a look here for that cockpit shot
aviation-history.com/mitsubishi/zero.html

Here's a link to a build of the Finemolds Zero. Strangely I noticed that in this build the gunsight looks to be off center...
h3.dion.ne.jp/~mokei/e-gallery-fm_zero.htm

Place it in the center, it will attract less attention compared to an off-centered gunsight, besides, I'm not gonna tell anyone 😉

Tennouheika Banzai !

Roland Sachsenhofer
Hello Bill, I personally would opt for the de-centered variant. My opinion is illustrated by the pictures I am sending with: it seems, as if the gunsights position would be right in the centerline, but the actual "revi" with the actual sight is build slight of on the right sidehalf of that console. This interpretation would explain the nebulosity of this matter.
Take a look here...
flickr.com/photos/dd..et-72157613748814419
and here...
[img1]

Greetings! Roland

Wilfried Bogaerts
Aha this pic proves that the gunsight is indeed mounted slightly to the right hand side! The drawing and picture I have are taken from the left so you have a parallax error, it looks centered but it is not. Means that Airfix and Finemolds did their homework ?

Bill Gilman
Great pictures, Roland! Thanks everyone, this all helps a lot. And it does look like Airfix and Finemolds did their homework. Tamiya and Hasegawa may have also, but I couldn't tell from the pictures I found on the web because they were taken at an angle, as Wilfried described.

Bill Gilman
So Roland, who let you climb around inside their Zero? 🙂 🙂 🙂

Wilfried Bogaerts
🙂 🙂 🙂 He hides himself in the toilet of the museum and after closure he got all night to crawl around and take useful pics 🙂 🙂 🙂

Bill Gilman
I put a coat or two of Gunze H24 on the underbelly of the Zeke. Too orange for my taste, and quite a bit more orange than the C.1 through C.4 samples I've found on Nick's site. Time to mix up a special brew! 🙂

Bill Gilman
Using this as a reference (scroll down for the samples of C.1 through C.4, along with an authentic canvas sample from a Willow trainer):

britmodeller.com/for...php?showtopic=66239

I made a mixture of 50%Gunze H24 Orange Yellow and 50% Gunze H34 Cream Yellow. I sprayed this on the bottom of the Zero, and I think this is a better match, especially to the sample from the Willow. The C.4 color is typically cited as the proper color for the wing leading edge identification areas, and I think that H24 will work OK for that. Next up we'll spray some Gunze H59 IJN Dark Green on the top side.

Roland Sachsenhofer
Bill, I am studying this with great interest. Being fond of Japanese aviation means, you have to do a lot of guessing about old, yellowed an colour shifted photogaphs... Your colour-decisions seems to fit perfect, great work!

Bill Gilman
I just purchased Nick Millman's excellent work on "Painting the Early Zero." You can buy this from him at his website, and he delivers it via e-mail (PDF file). Having read through it last night, I can heartily recommend it. Well worth the £8.50 - it covers exterior and interior colours, based on the recent research. Nice balanced coverage of the "grey-green" and "caramel grey" discussions.

Bill Gilman
The Zero has been painted and some post shading applied prior to adding the transfers. I still need to paint the aotake for the wing fold joints, along with gear doors, etc. The trainer versions had a white outline around the hinomaru on the bottom of the wings, but the decals don't. I'll need to paint a white circle on the bottom of the wings that is a little bigger than the transfer.

Wilfried Bogaerts
🙂 BELGIUM: 12 point !

Bill Gilman
Wilfried, I can't decipher your message. Either the font for Belgium is in 12 point size, or Belgium beat somebody in the Windsurfing championships by 12 points, or something to do with Belgium and 12 points is of dire importance to my Zero model. Give me a clue, but don't make it so obvious that everyone can tell I'm a ninny. 🙂

Bill Gilman
Added a few more progress pictures, including my attempt at replicating the infamous aotake!

Urban Gardini
Lookin' absolutely stunnin' here mate!

Bill Gilman
Hello Scalemates! I've added the decals to the Zero. Airfix now uses Cartograf for their decals, and these went on without any problems at all. After getting them all on, I realized I hadn't painted the yellow on the wing leading edges - d'oh!

The kit came with decals for the wing leading edges, but I don't like the color. I see some creative masking in my future! 🙂 🙂 🙂

Bill Gilman
Latest photos have been uploaded. I've added the I.D. stripes on the leading edges of the wings with Gunze H24 Orange-Yellow, which is a good match for the Japanese color C1. I did a light burnt umber panel line wash, and a black wash in the wheel wells. I painted the drop tank with Alclad Aluminum and mounted it on the centerline of the plane. Tires and gear doors were painted and added, along with the prop (aluminum on the front and a red-brown primer on the back). It's starting to look like a Zero! 🙂

Christian Lehmann
Looks great

Philip De Keyser
Awesome job Bill, looks great, greetz Phil

Holger Kranich
Amazingly done, Bill! What a masking-battle! Looks great!

Augie
nice bill 🙂

Holger Kranich
Hey Bill, i hope the storm doesnt bothers you too much! Good luck from over here! Holly😢

Zimmermaniac
looks great already

Roland Sachsenhofer
Hi Bill,
respect! Looks wonderful, pretty, clean and smooth. I´m wondering, how it will look finished!

Metodi Metodiev
Very nice, I like it alot

Bill Gilman
OK, I'm calling this one done. I've added several pictures of the finished model, which really was a delight to build.

I decided to open the canopy early on, since the cockpit detail that Airfix provided shouldn't be covered up. I used the windscreen and rear canopy from the kit, and used the sliding portion from a Falcon vacuform. I did some paint chipping with a silver pencil, but I didn't want to overdo it like I've seen on some models.

I like how it came out, and I'm looking forward to doing some more of these new Airfix kits. I suppose the 109E-4 beckons...it is on top of the stash pile. 🙂

Zimmermaniac
nice results there 🙂

Lionel Marco

Indeed! 🙂)

Holger Kranich
Bill, it definately paid off to drill the seat! Its looking very good!

Its overall a beauty! But i cant wait to see a one-o-nine on your bench!😢

Philip De Keyser
Another awesome work Bill, congrats with the result, it looks really great
greetz Phil

Bill Gilman
Thanks, guys!

@Holger - OK, I'll build a 109. I was thinking that this one would be pretty cool, especially with the natural metal finish:

anigrand.com/AA2016_XF-109.htm

Question for you antenna experts: What is the best way to add insulators to the antenna wire? I thought about maybe just some dabs of superglue might do the trick in this scale, but if there is a better way I'd like to learn it! Cheers!

Holger Kranich
Haha, LOL!😢

Many people use whiteglue (glue for wood, dont know how you call it) for this puposes. I tryed it once and it worked.

Roland Sachsenhofer
Hello Bill,
first: it is a delight to look at your Zero; you really did a great work! Most of all I admire your clear and precise work... a delight and exemplary.
You ask about a method to sculpture the insulators: my technique is to use a small amount of putty which I am trying to form in a roughly triangular shape... it´s working someway in 1:32 and 1:48 scale. Would be interesting to see if it does in 1:72 😮)

Wilfried Bogaerts
Bill, very nice result ! I hope you didn't had too much trouble in pointing the national insignia in the correct direction ? 😄

I use Microscale's MICRO KRISTAL KLEAR for insulators. I think it works fine in the Gentlemens Scale.

Bill Gilman
Wilfried - Oh crap! Did I put the hinomarus on upside down?? 🙂

Urban Gardini
Ouch! To bad on the hinomarus, but they're not up side down, just slightly angled to the right...

Wilfried Bogaerts
LOL 🙂

It isn't that noticeable, I won't tell anybody if you don't...

Urban Gardini
I promise to keep it quiet!

Urban Gardini
But five degrees is still five degrees n' that's what 's countin' when you get in the way of a nutter...

Augie
a fine looking bird bill 🙂

Wilfried Bogaerts
and with wingfold Augie ! 😄

Augie
Lol you and your wing-fold fetish 😛

Steve Wilson
Steve Wilson I'm a breast man myself, not enough meat on the wings😉8)

Augie
lol no comment steve😉

Urban Gardini
Hahaha... Who doesn't prefer breasts over wings?

Christian Lehmann
Well done bill. I like the weathering which is not overdone.

Adrian LR
I like it! Very nice finished. Congratulations!

Choppa Nutta
I like the look of this, very sweet indeed 👍 🙂

Aghis Barberopoulos
This 72 zero looks very good Bill, more like 48 scale! One question though: The yellow lower surface seems peculiar to me, as my references show aircraft 134 to have grey undersides (box art shows it grey too).

Urban Gardini
Training units had yelloworange undersides and the decals in the kit is for such a unit.

Bill Gilman
I followed the advice in Nick Millman's Aviation of Japan blog. Read down and you'll see why he thinks the plane was used for training (yellow bottom) when it had the markings included with the Airfix kit:

aviationofjapan.com/..al-build-review.html

Choppa Nutta
nice !! didn't know that zeros were actually painted in the yellow undersides....
I really like colourful WW2 schemes

Augie
Very nice Bill 🙂 as allways top notch

Michel Huijghe
Very lovely build. 👍

Aghis Barberopoulos
@Bill: Trainer Zeros (A6M2K) were painted orange overall at production. Note that this color was orange, not orange-yellow like the ID colour. Since this is not a two seater, anything is possible... In any case, this does not deduct from the overall work which is quite impressive.

Es-haq Khosravi
Great job!

Bill Gilman
The scheme as applied to my Zero is well documented. The latest research into the paint colors used by the Japanese has changed some of the old beliefs, such as orange being used for trainers. On the Aviation of Japan web site, you can request a PDF file that documents this, and shows the actual paint swatches used. Very well researched, and the color was in fact an orange-yellow but different than the ID stripes. Request the document and have a nice read. Cheers!

Aghis Barberopoulos
I do have my own sources Bill. The colour used is dubbed Ki-Iro, more orange than yellow, but one might called it orange-yellow to differentiate it from deep orange I guess. There is also photographic evidence from a K2Y1 set of wheels from the Kawaguchiko Motor museum. Your interpretation of it is respectable, I just think it looks kinda yellowish. Cheers too!

komoras
Great Zero! 👍

Urban Gardini
@ komoras

Anything Bill builds gets done properly! So do check out his profile for a lot more stunning builds, you'll lose your jaw...