Hello, I thought I would share my latest project. Here is the first of my Pearl Harbor builds I decided to take on at the same time (the other being George Welch's P-40 with the Airfix kit). I enjoyed the Tamiya A6M3 Zero so much, I needed an A6M2 Type 21 as well. Unfortunately, the best in this scale is still the Hasegawa kit.
Unlike the beat up A6M3 experiment, the A6M2 will be somewhat pristine as they were fairly new at Pearl Harbor. Don't mistake pristine with not used. It will not get heavy chipping, but it will not look like it was waxed either. It still has to look like a real plane. I decided on one of the kit options, Saburo Shindo's AI-102 from the second wave of the attack at Pearl Harbor. My research revealed he was the leader of 9 Akagi zeros and was tasked with dive bomber escort (Vals). After the escort, they attacked airfields which included two planes destroyed on the ground at Hickam Field. There is little information on Shindo but he apparently survived the war.
All Pearl Harbor Zeros were made by Mitsubishi and Nakajima didn't start helping out with them until early 1942. Both manufactures differed in painting technique. I sought to do this correctly with the help of the J-aircraft site. I started with AK Real Colors Mitsubishi Interior Green. It's quite similar to US interior green to my eye. The Hasegawa pit is average but acceptable. It doesn't hold a candle toTamiya's though. I did add an Ultracast seat I had in the stash to spruce it up.
The airframe went together fine. I did add brass tubing for the guns, including the wing cannons.
Typical Hasegawa wing fuselage joint issues. This area needed some work.
I normally use Tamiya XF-76 for the grey green early zero color, but this time I wanted to try the AK Real Colors offering of this elusive color. They call it IJN J3 SP Amber Grey. I faded it a bit but nothing crazy. I used some spare Montex masks for the meatballs. I also painted on the stripes and wing warnings. I'm pretty happy with the AK color.
I did rig up the engine with fine solder.
Thats about it. I used a grey green Mig wash which served a filter which gave it a slightly used look. I'm pretty happy with the results. Maybe Tamiya will eventually give us a new Model 21, it shouldn't be difficult from their A6M3 kit. My Pearl P-40 should be finished soon and I wll post that one as well.
From my research, this is the correct way to paint the gear bays on a Mitsubishi built zero.
