1/32 Tamiya Mitsubishi A6M-5 "Zero"

Gallery Article by Olivier Barles on July 23 2012

 

 

It completes my series of the WWII 1/32 scale Mitsubishi fighters I have started a few months ago with the J2M-3 "Raiden" and continued with the A5M-2 "Claude" before I eventually ended with this beauty.

For sure, this kit is "close to perfection" and it surely is as for its global engineering and the level of details it offers.

But, expecting a "100% no problemo" I was surprised to have to use a bit of putty followed by a moderate use of sandpaper "deci-dela" and more particularly at the inferior fuselage joint after having glued their 2 half sides.

Then, the 2 main parts of the cowling have also to be glued. If they are not because you want to play "open & close" to get the engine exposed on demand to a bunch of admiring friends of yours, it unfortunately leaves a very ungracious gap line between the 2 cowling parts (that also looks very unrealistic).

 

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Otherwise, assembling this kit is globally a very pleasant work and step after step, it shows all the intelligence of the kit designers that reveals itself for your highest satisfaction...

Then, again came the choice of the deco.  
Compare to Models 21, 22 or 32, the 52 more or less and always worn the same boring "green / grey pattern".

So, the objective was to try declining this "dull scheme" into something more "exciting".

This is when I remember the pictures of a Navy carrier sailing through the Pacific in Summer 1944: a few Zeros of the 261st Naval Aircraft Group were stocked on her deck and their decos looked very special.
It seems it was made of the usual IJN Mitsubishi Green but also stained with large surfaces of a lighter green. 
It gives a sort of bi-colored camo scheme that is still not explained yet despite a lot of debates among experts:

  • Was it an attempt of creating a real camo pattern, knowing that contrary to the IJA, the IJN deciders were not really known for their originality in that matter?

  • Was it a kind of camo applied locally in Saipan where the 261st NAG was based?

  • or was it the result of a partial weathering process that wiped out and / or turned on some areas of the aircraft surfaces, the original dark green into a lighter green?
    It could explain the "stained and dirty look" of those planes as they had been snapped on this Flat Deck...

In the end and after I looked at the interpretation of some of those 261st NAG machines done by my colleagues modelers on the Web (actually, there are not so many 261st NAG decos - is it because the lack of certainty about how those planes were painted does not offer enough guarantee on a realistic ground?), I decided to go for the third option:  
that is that the sandy wind blowing on the Saipan airstrips might have partially erased this IJN Mitsubishi Green - that was of a very poor quality at the end of the war - giving this very original pattern, a delight for a guy like me who loves planes "with an operational look"...

Finally, having in one of my drawer a resin IJN pilot in 1/32 scale for ages, finding also that the pilot offered in the box had too short legs (!), I decided to have it assembled and painted and to expose it with my Zero.

It certainly add a class of touch when presenting the plane...

Hope you'll enjoy.

Merci,

Olivier Barles

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Photos and text © by Olivier Barles