Mitsubishi A6M3 Zero Type 0 Model "Hamp" OOB

Bill Lattimer
Overall, this was a great kit with no real issues. The engineering (fit and finish) was pretty much perfect, including planning the smaller parts for painting and final assembly. The Tamiya colors worked very well, although for the unique Japanese anti-corrosion paint I'd recommend putting down aluminum first and then overspraying with heavily thinned color as recommended. The recommended color was IMHO slightly too blue and a little more green would make it perfect. The Eduard masks were a disappointment and didn't fit as well as they usually do, especially on the aft canopy. The kit decals had a fairly large margin and should be trimmed; they're also pretty thick and will need to get multiple treatments from Solvaset to settle in. I plan to put this into a simple diorama.

Doug
Nice job, thanks for the info. I like the colour

Lee Fogel
Looks awfully nice, Bill. Do you think you got an old set of masks perhaps or did they just not want to conform?

Bill Lattimer
Thank you very much for the kind words! Just getting back into modeling and learning a lot from all the great people involved.

The Tamiya colors are great - part of what I wanted to do in this build was use all Tamiya paint including their mixed colors. Very happy with the "airbrusability" of Tamiya while still being able to brush paint with them...something I don't see with Model Master Acryls at my level of skill. I'm doing a 1/72 P-51D right now with the same approach.

I'd have to buy another set to be sure if it was the mask or me 🙂 The masks can certainly stretch during application and are finicky as you know - but it seemed to me that the pieces on the aft canopy just weren't the right size, specifically the biggest window on either side. In retrospect, I wish I had just trimmed them with a #11 instead of trying to massage them into position.

Lee Fogel
Thanks for that insight, Bill. A shame that they were not sized correctly but that's a sweet build regardless. Looks great!