A6M2b Triple Build
Tamiya: The most expensive kit of the three, though not by a huge margin. The sprues are clean and crisp with no visible flash. Surface detail is outstanding.
Airfix: Panel lines are simplified and exagerrated, which seems to be characteristic of a lot of Airfix kits. The detail isn't as crisp as the others and looks sort of rounded off. There's quite a bit of flash around the cowling, and the way that they've chosen to gate the engine is ridiculous.
Hasegawa: This mold is either from 1972 or 1993, depending on how you read the timeline. Either way, it's by far the oldest tool of the three. There's a little bit of flash, but generally the sprues are clean. The surface detail rivals Tamiya, with clean, recessed panel lines. Tamiya makes better use of textures and has greater subtlety, but Hasegawa's surface detail is very good.
Top to bottom: Tamiya, Airfix, Hasegawa
Tamiya is the clear winner as far as detail and complexity, though Airfix is respectable. Hasegawa's offering is notional at best.
Tamiya is the clear winner as far as detail and complexity, though Airfix is respectable. Hasegawa's offering is notional at best.
Left to right: Tamiya, Airfix, Hasegawa.
Tamiya is far and away the best of the three, and construction was a pleasure. Airfix is pretty good, especially for a $10 kit. I'll add some scratchbuilt details to Hasegawa to give it a little visual interest. Honestly it's hard to be overly critical of Hasegawa as the oldest mold of the three, especially since most of these details will be hidden away. That said, cockpits are fun, so a bit of disappointment there.
Tamiya is far and away the best of the three, and construction was a pleasure. Airfix is pretty good, especially for a $10 kit. I'll add some scratchbuilt details to Hasegawa to give it a little visual interest. Honestly it's hard to be overly critical of Hasegawa as the oldest mold of the three, especially since most of these details will be hidden away. That said, cockpits are fun, so a bit of disappointment there.
Left to right: Airfix, Tamiya, Hasegawa
The differences here are more subtle. The lack of connecting rods on the Hasegawa engine is odd, and it's noticeably smaller than the other two. The Hasegawa and Tamiya cowlings are comparable. The Airfix part had some unfortunate flash and a notable gap that I filled with black CA.
The differences here are more subtle. The lack of connecting rods on the Hasegawa engine is odd, and it's noticeably smaller than the other two. The Hasegawa and Tamiya cowlings are comparable. The Airfix part had some unfortunate flash and a notable gap that I filled with black CA.
Even though the plan was to do these OOB, I couldn’t resist a little scratch building. It’s not accurate or anything but it adds some interest.
Primed
For the aotake, I thought clear blue over silver would be more effective. Tamiya is the only kit that called for it, but it’s a good opportunity for a paint test.
Details painted, panel line wash, some light dry brushing and matte.
Engines painted, wash applied and matte. Not my best work, but I’m not inclined to go for any hyper detailing on these builds.
Decals down, wash applied, matte… ready to assemble the fuselage.
The camera don't lie. Fixed some issues with the decals that I somehow missed.
Fit was pretty good on all three.
But some janky engineering from Hasegawa. I don't know why they couldn't affix the instrument panel to a bulkhead like Tamiya or the cockpit tub like Airfix. Part A3 just sort of floats between the two fuselage halves. There's a locating pin there, but it really doesn't anchor the part very well.
This is just a work of art from Tamiya.
Filled a small divot in the Hasegawa with black CA. Surprisingly the Airfix did not go together well, as if the edges of each side were slightly rolled inward.
Tamiya is the only one that really nailed the fit here, but unfortunately I forgot to paint it. Assembly will need to wait another day.
Testing the fit of Hasegawa here. It’s good, but it could be better. I nipped off the locating pins, so I can make the wing roots sit flush.
Ugly flash on the Hasegawa stabs.
Letting Hasegawa and Airfix cure overnight before moving on.
Clipping off the locating pins wings worked, but there was still a tiny gap at the wing roots. I applied a little more glue and let them cure under tension. Tamiya lags behind, waiting for paint.
Nothing here a little dab of Vallejo putty won't fix.
After a bit of sanding, both the Airfix (L) and Hasegawa kits are looking good.
This is the Tamiya wing. I was a little overzealous with the cement, and some oozed out when I clamped the parts together. I'll be able to assemble the wings and fuselage in the morning.
My not-at-all janky jig to keep the stabs level. Not pictured, the Airfix kit, also mostly assembled. The Airfix engineering of the stabs is sensible. The fit is snug, and the left and right tabs are different sizes, so there's no way to mix them up. The Hasgawa stabs are loose. So loose that I thought about making shims of plastic card. That probably would have been the smart move, but I figured I could keep them stable enough to dry in the proper position. Even though left and right have different part numbers, they look like they're identical, both left to right and top to bottom.
Three tiny zeroes
Everyone's favorite thing: cleaning up tiny parts. That's Airfix through most of the undercarriage.
And there's Hasegawa. To my surprise, there was a lot less flash on these.
This was poorly molded though. No amount of scraping and sanding could make those edges align. (Hasegawa)
In the process of sanding, I managed to break off both locating pins, so I replaced them with a bit of wire. It's probably not necessary, but I really don't trust myself to center the tank without them.
Not the accustomed fit from Tamiya...
...though nothing a little pressure can't fix.
I'm disappointed in the location of these ejection marks. I checked the wheels against the gear door, and they will be visible. I hope the old CA trick fills them sufficiently so that I can get away without sanding.
And that's the Tamiya undercarriage mostly cleaned and ready.
Even under the magnifier it's hard to tell, but I think these ejecting marks have been well filled. They'll be partially hidden by the wheels, so it's likely good enough.
Landing gear door comparison: These are all pretty good. Hasegawa opted for a simplified inner door, and I honestly don't mind. Airfix is less well-defined and looks a bit crude, but that's nitpicky. The other sides of the doors are nearly identical.
Landing gear comparison: Hasegawa lacks the "spur" at the tip of the strut. Once again the detail on the Airfix parts is less crisp, which is very much a thing with this kit. Airfix is the only one with lugs on the wheels; I don't know if that's accurate. (The other side of the wheel is very similar to Hasegawa and Tamiya.) The Tamiya tire has molded ridges that I did my best to preserve, though I did need to scrape and sand away a mold line in the center of the tire. Hasegawa's wheels had extremely pronounced ejection marks on one side. They were raised, so I didn't need to fill them, but they were also hard to remove. I'll hide those on the landing gear door side, which is probably what they intended in engineering them this way.
Good bit of flash there.
This from Hasegawa is too cute by half. It’s not a bad way to get the prop blade angles right, but in 1/72 this is too much. Should have been molded in one piece.
Prepped for priming.
Now the part I’ve been dreading. Tamiya is the only one that offers both open and closed options. Airfix and Tamiya canopies are both finely detailed; Hasegawa not so much.
That’s one down. I couldn’t tell you how long it took, but it wasn’t done quickly.
And two.
I never have much luck with this stuff, but those last two panes were... a real pain.
And there's three.
I'd neglected to paint the forward ends of the cockpits. That has been remedied.
About half the pieces have been primed in black. Two of the props will be bare aluminum, as well as the landing gears, so they're black. I'm planning to silver-base the Hasegawa kit so that I can do some paint chipping, so the Hasegawa landing gear doors get black too. The rest of the little parts, along with the Airfix and Tamiya airframes, will be primed in gray.
Finally ready to be primed. I'm really not sure how I'll go about masking the Tamiya cockpit. I thought I'd glue the middle section in place and paint everything at one time, but that didn't work. Some combination of foam and tape, I suppose.
The bump between the back of the canopy and the fuselage was too much for me to ignore on Hasegawa. Vallejo putty wasn't up to the task, so I'm using Tamiya putty instead.
Cleaned up. I won't bother scribing the panel line here, since Tamiya is too crumbly for that.
Primed at last, and everything looks pretty good. I couldn't figure out a satisfactory solution to masking the open Tamiya canopy, so I used the middle section after all. Unfortunately I might have overthinned the gray primer (Mr. Surfacer), so I worry a little that it may have bled under the mask on those two.
Glossed for a natural metal finish.
And now the underside... Note the excellent jigs I made to protect the antennas. 😉
Tedious but necessary cleanup.
A bit of flash and a small gouge that I didn't see on the first go-round. (The molding on the Airfix cowling really has been subpar.)
A ghost seam that needed dealing with.
Dealt with.
The schemes for Airfix and Tamiya call for bare aluminum props, with matte black on the back side. The Hasegawa prop will be red-brown.
Natural metal finish Zero! It’s almost a shame to paint over this.
This photo doesn’t inspire much confidence. I used Vallejo chipping medium copiously thinned with airbrush thinner and flow improver. It still sputtered a bit but looked like it laid down pretty well. Now it looks like it has pulled back from the edges, but maybe that’s just the way it dries. I did the bottom first so any mistakes will be less visible.
The liveries I’ve chosen for the Airfix and Tamiya kits both call for IJN gray green (Tamiya AS-29). Not having any, Mr Color 56 is supposed to be a match, but it looks way too green to my eyes. Mixed with a little tan and gray to lighten it up.
I like the way it looks on better than I thought I would, but it’s still darker and greener than I’d imagined.
The concept here is to represent well-worn paint with hints of the aluminum below showing through. The technique is the same as black basing but with a base of aluminum paint.
After the blend coat. It’s subtle, but the aluminum is there. Later I will try to add some chipping.
I'm fairly well pleased with this.
It still reads as too green to me, but it's actually not far off the box art.
Even though I intend for the paint to be distressed, I’m afraid of going too far. Still love how it has turned out. I’ll seal with gloss and then paint the cowling, which will also be heavily chipped.
It was hard to find consensus on what IJN Mitsubishi green looked like. Gathered that it’s a little more yellow than Nakajima, so I used Tamiya XF-11 with a few drops of yellow. Then I got cute and thinned it with 91% IPA. It’s not grainy, but it’s very flat. I misted it with straight leveling thinner to try and even it out.
I wanted to seal in the chipping with a gloss coat before moving on to the cowling, but it looks like Aqua Gloss, being water-based, might have activated the chipping agent. It should still cure properly, and I'll try to buff it out in the morning. Lesson learned. Next time use GX100.
Two things happened in quick succession here. First, I found a better photo of the original aircraft and began to dislike the paint and chipping I'd done. Second, when I removed the masking tape you can see in the previous photo, it took most of the paint above the metal layer with it. Here it is, stripped and ready to begin again.
Here's Tora-110. Hasegawa represents the variation in paint color as a deliberate camouflage pattern, but I found a similar effect in other photos (none in color, unfortunately). To me it looks more like fading. It also possible that some areas were repainted in the field with whatever green paint was at hand. I also found a much more consistent wear pattern across most A6Ms, so I'll be glad of the chance to redo the chipping in a more realistic way.
Primed.
A nice thing about IJN planes, the markings are pretty easy to mask and paint.
Much as I may trust myself to do all kinds of fancy post-shading, apparently I don't trust myself to control my overspray.
A layer of white to make the colors pop.
This photo of captured Zeroes persuaded me that it was faded and discolored paint and not a deliberate camo scheme.
I'm not confident about the chipping. For some reason the paint wouldn't release with water. I may redo the stabs, but otherwise I'm at the point where it's probably better to leave well enough alone.
Here's the effect I was trying to capture, particularly the heavily worn plane in the top right.
Airfix on the left and Tamiya on the right, both nearly ready for their gloss coats. Hasegawa lags.
I switched to acrylics to see if I can get better results with my chipping.
The paint didn’t survive unmasking. This only shows part of the damage. Subsequent masking and unmasking has only made it worse.
Tamiya (front) and Airfix (back) are both glossed and ready for decals.
Postshaded the lighter areas with a mix of Tamiya XF-11 JN Green and XF-55 Deck Tan, with a greater proportion of deck tan to try and get the faded, damaged paint effect that I wanted. It came out a little too light. I'd gone overboard on the chipping around the cockpit, so I repainted. I'll try once again, paying closer attention to my references this time.
I've postshaded the lighter areas with a mix of Tamiya XF-11 JN Green, XF-55 Deck Tan and XF-3 Yellow. Even though I liked the chalky effect, it still called for a little more green. I focused on the panel lines so that the centers of the panels would appear more sun-damaged. I used the same paint on a few of the darker sections to unify the look.
I went back to my references, and this is more in keeping with typical wear.
The wear pattern around the folding wingtips is less common but documented.
Decals started on Airfix. Some stubborn silvering on the flaps.
A quick comparison: I'm finding the Airfix decals a bit more prone to silvering than Tamiya. It could be due to differences in the finish, though I think the gloss on the Airfix kit (L) is fairly smooth. I'm using Microsol. I may mix it up and try Mark Fit Strong on some of them to see if they respond better to a different solution. The Hasegawa decals have gone on more smoothly as well. I've only done a few Airfix kits, so I don't know if this is the kit or something I'm doing wrong.
Tamiya prop gets its decals.
Top side gloss. This time I had better sense and used GX100, which didn't interact with the chipping agent.
Belly gloss. With the chipping I went for a sort of general ablation of the paint as opposed to targeted chipping. Funny thing... you don't see many photos of the underside of Zekes.
Unfortunately I made the mistake of spraying GX100 over Aqua Gloss. I might have gotten away with it if I'd done a light tack coat first. Live and learn!
Into a bath of 91% isopropyl alcohol it goes. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was able to salvage some of the decals. One was lost from the prop tip, but fortunately I can scavenge those from the Hasegawa sheet.
This does give me a chance to try out some different paints. This time I'm skipping the primer and using Mr. Color gloss black as a base.
And Mr. Metal Color Aluminum (MC218). I'm very pleased with this finish.
Airfix and Hasegawa props and the Tamiya and Airfix gear doors.
I could have tried to paint the hinomaru, but the markings for this livery have a black and white outline. I thought the decals would be slightly easier to manage.
The white stripes are painted. Decals for the hinomaru.
Airfix port side done.
The placement of the hinamaru is off by quite a bit. I really don't know what I was thinking at the time. This silvering was easy enough to fix. I realize that I hadn't been thorough in eliminating air bubbles and water as I thought I'd been.
After some corrections the remaining decals have all gone on without a fuss. This is the last one for Hasegawa. I'll be carrying over the paint chipping directly onto the decals befor sealing with gloss.
Airfix and Tamiya are ready for gloss coat and panel lining.
I carried over the chipping to the decals.
I applied just a hint of red paint over the remaining patches of green to recreate the red warning lines on the flap area as well as the fuel caps.
Final bits and bobs painted.
These little pistons on the ailerons went on backward! (Subsequently fixed.)
Airfix lacks this little probe (?) under the wing.
Protective gloss coat applied. Now ready for panel lining.
For all three I used a mix of Abteilung burnt sienna and black thinned with odorless mineral spirits. The simplified detail on this Airfix kit is really apparent with a panel line wash. I'd like to have reduced the gaps at the flaps and ailerons, but I didn't see how without using something like sprue goo and then rescribing.
I
Hasegawa looks pretty good after cleanup. The surface is rougher than I'd have liked because of my failed chipping attempts.
Against the darker green, I'm using a wash made with Abteilung neutral gray.
All three after cleaning up the panel lines.
The same mix of black and burnt sienna for the top side.
Winsor and Newton Galleria Matt is really beautiful stuff, and I can't believe how well it brings everything together. Thinned 1:1 with Vallejo airbrush thinner.
Couldn't be more pleased with this. The matt coat just hides all of those rough edges.
I used Winsor and Newton's Galleria Satin, and to be honest, I don't see much difference from the matt. I was hoping for a more semigloss look. It has a bit of shine, but not as much as I'd have liked. Nonetheless, it does give lovely results.
I used highly thinned Vallejo Model Color smoke for the exhaust stains. Having no photos of the underside of a Zeke, this is just my best guess. The wheel covers are held in place with a bit of putty. They don't fit too snugly, but I wanted to be reasonably accurate in locating the exhaust stains.
Tamiya.
I had a devil of a time getting this one done, where the others were a breeze. Tip dry, spidering, the whole thing. I've had good experiences with Vallejo, but for some reason it all went wrong. (I came back and tried again the next day, and everything was fine.)
Unmasking went pretty well and even resulted in some unplanned--but cool--chipping effects.
In photos, the cowlings on even the most beat up A6Ms still had a glossy shine, so I masked and glossed them again.
The color callout said black. I think I must have seen it, thought "That can't be right," and then never checked any other sources. Then I went ahead and painted them silver like you do on almost every other WW2 plane. So into the IPA bath they go.
I wouldn't necessarily call this Dspiae circle cutter indispensible, but it sure is handy!
Chipping on the Hasegawa struts.
A pin wash of neutral gray and buff.
Light weathering to represent the Tamiya kit as a nearly pristine early war bird.
And even though this is also meant to be an early war fighter, it will be a little more heavily weathered. Still not quite satisfied. I may try again.
I finally found a good reference photo of the belly of a Zero. I've done my best to recreate that look. I often rush through the weathering process, but I've really enjoyed it so far.
Nearly ready for the final assembly!
It has taken me days to get to this point, and I still need to work on the Tamiya landing gears! The fit of the struts on the Hasegawa kit was very loose, so I used 5-minute epoxy. The Airfix struts fit better, so I used regular cement. Even though the design of the inner doors is a little over-engineered, I appreciate how easy they were to align. By contrast, Hasegawa caused much frustration (and I'm still not confident about how they'll fit with the fuel tank).
The engineering of the Tamiya landing gears is just great. Of course the fit is great. The inner doors are designed in such a way that you don't need to guess at the proper angle, and they're shaped so that you can't mistakenly install them on the wrong side. The tiny outer doors were a little snug, and one of them did seem to nudge the strut a little out of alignment. Still, not much to complain about. Here I have to complain about the way Hasegawa handles the gear doors on nearly all of their kits. They expect you to balance the gear doors precariously on the edge of the gear bay, guessing at position and angle, hoping the glue or cement will set before it tips over, trying not to ruin your beautiful paint job with an errant drop of glue.
I pushed through all of the finishing touches, including antenna cables. I used the finest fishing line I had, 6-pound mono. It's a little thick, but it's all I had on hand. More photos later.
Comments
72 9 January, 00:44
Gary KitchenNice build comments. Following along. I have the Airfix and the Hasegawa for a dual build so nice to see where this goes.
9 January, 06:52
Ogre-TromboneThanks, Gary. I added some additional comments to the sprue photos. Somehow I managed to accumulate three kits of the same aircraft, and this seemed like a good opportunity to thin the stash.
9 January, 16:20
Ogre-TromboneProbably a safe bet, @Andy, but for twice the money will it be twice as good? None of these kits will break the bank of course, but I'm curious to see just how much better Tamiya will prove to be.
9 January, 23:01
Andy BallI did the Airfix-Tamiya side by side, I think you're right about the cost-to-build quality ratio…Airfix probably wins, but the Tamiya kit is worth the extra and it isn't tremendously more..IMHO…
9 January, 23:16
Ogre-TromboneIt's been slow going as I finish a couple of other projects. I think I'm procrastinating about masking the canopies by focusing on other parts of the build. I'll clean and assemble the propellers next, but I should be able to prime this weekend.
9 February, 17:18
AlbertoYou have great skills with airbrush control 👍. The painting of the dark green one is very interesting
25 February, 06:30
CarloI used the Tamiya XF-76 which I was really happy with, it's lighter than what you ended up with. I also used an Ultra Matt varnish from AK Interactive which gave it a really flat look.
25 February, 14:10
Ogre-TromboneThank you, @alberto, kits like this are a perfect opportunity to practice one's skills.
@carlo, I'm not enough of a Zeke aficionado to do anything other than trust the kit color recommendations. Next time I'll know. I am expecting that weathering and varnishing and especially adding decals will have the effect of toning down that color.
25 February, 15:51
Ogre-TrombonePainting has been a somewhat arduous process. I still need to touch up the belly of the Hasegawa kit before I can move on to gloss and decals. Masking and painting the markings has produced really nice results, but it's time consuming. Not pictured are the multiple touch-ups I've needed to do. The Vallejo chipping medium has not given me the kind of effect I wanted. It could be me, but I'm not convinced it's a great product. Maybe something else might work better.
16 March, 18:22
Gary KitchenI'm sure I read on someone else's zero project that IJN paint was notoriously poor quality and so fading and wear was generally quickly occurring and very apparent.
17 March, 08:19
John EComing along nicely. I read that A6Ms had a red oxide primer under the camo and on top of the bare metal. Might be of interest to your weathering. ipmsottawa.com/files..ide_Low_Tagaya_F.pdf
17 March, 19:54
Ogre-TromboneThanks for sharing, @John. That's a really cool doc! Tons of great info in there. I've seen some others apply a yellow-green wash to heavily weathered USN planes to hint at the primer layer; maybe I can do something similar with red.
17 March, 21:31
Ogre-TromboneThank you, @gasolier! I'm really trying to push myself with this project, both from the technique side and in my attention to detail when working from references. I still have a lot to learn.
6 May, 15:51
Thomas KolbThat's a super impressing trio. I like the oil and dirt stain effect on the undersides, you really made a fine job on the chipping and paint discoloring as well. The comments made it fun to follow the build.
7 May, 04:03
Ogre-TromboneI just realized that this "little" project took me almost 6 months! There were many gaps when I wasn't able to get to my bench, but I'm still surprised it took me this long. Anyway, I am happy to be finished and more or less pleased with the results. All three of them are very good kits, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend any of them. But having done my own side-by-side comparison, with Tamiya's kit standing out as the best of the three, why would you buy either of the others?
Some thoughts:
Airfix is an excellent kit for beginners. It's cheap! (I paid $10 USD for mine.) The instructions are clear and easy to follow, and the engineering and assembly are sensible. Even if the details are a little crude, it builds up well. There are times you wants something simple that can be built quickly without a lot of delicate work.
Hasegawa is also very reasonably priced. I found this kit for about $11 USD. Even though the cockpit is basic, with a closed canopy that doesn't matter so much. The surface detail is outstanding, making it a good platform for paint and weathering effects. (Not that the Tamiya kit is expensive, but you might be less inclined to experiment with it.) The decal options are compelling, particularly the one I chose, which inspired me to try out some new techniques.
Thanks to you all for following and indulging me in this exercise. More photos to follow!
13 May, 16:19
John EThanks for the notes on the different kits. I built the Tamiya and loved it. The three came out great!
14 May, 13:44
Jennifer FranklinExcellent results on the "experiment". Those are interesting notes on the different kits. Thank you for sharing them.
14 May, 19:10
Ogre-TromboneA few final photos to close the book on this project. This was a lot of fun. Thank you all for your kind words and attention!
19 May, 00:52
Łukasz GlińskiVery nice finish of this trio! Maybe the antennas are bit too thick for my taste, but the weathering is impressive 👍
19 May, 10:57
Ogre-TromboneNo doubt, @Łukasz Gliński. It was the best I could do at the time. I've ordered purpose-made rigging thread for future use. Thanks!
19 May, 16:39
Album info
Build log comparing the 1/72 Hasegawa, Airfix and Tamiya A6M2b kits
