This is Airfix’s 1/72 A6M2b Zero; it went together very easy.  I have some future Japanese builds planned and I wanted a fairly cheap model to test out the paints and decals I plan to use on those builds.

The paint is AK Interactive, mostly from WW2 IJN AIRCRAFT COLOURS set.  I was worried because in the bottle, the grey looks very dark.  I over lightened the color on my initial use as you may be able to see beneath the canopy, primarily out of doubt of how much the color would lighten up on its own.  For the rest of the model I only added a couple drops of white to scale the color and I think it turned out well enough to continue its use on future builds.  All of the metal colors are from the AK Interactive metal paste line.  I think this is my new favorite way to do metal finishes.  I didn’t even use the airbrush, heck I didn’t even use a paint brush to apply the colors to the prop, prop hub and landing gear.  I used a cotton swab which makes clean up extremely easy.

I used the kit decals for the various stencils.  The Hinomarus are Techmod Decals.  I was initially concerned because although they went on easy they seemed to refuse to settle into the panel lines.  After a dozen or so coats of Micro Sol I gave up in frustration and decided to step away from the project for a while.  When I returned couple hours later they had settled into the panel lines beautifully.  Next was the unit/individual plane markings, for which I used Print Scale Decals.  They went down without issue, and settled in almost immediately with one or two brushings of Micro Sol.  The fuselage band however, is clearly not designed to be used on the Airfix kit.  It is shaped incorrectly to fit the model appropriately, it wanted to slant forward.  After much wrestling I finally gave up and settled with “good enough.”  You can see couple spots where the band is bunched up to make it sit the way it is supposed to on the fuselage.  Generous coatings of Micro Sol got it to settle enough that I could move on.

I used Ammo of Mig Panel Line Washes for Japanese Aircraft for the panel lines.  I think it is a bit too dark on the grey but I can live with it.  The washes are extremely easy to use too. 

Overall an easy build I think will sit nicely with my future Japanese aircraft projects.