Thats a classic.  Amazing how far ahead of the times Tamiya was - scalemates says the original release was 1973!

Off to a good start

Thats a nice old kit. I built one 20+ years ago, as an Akagi Pearl Harbor Zero. Unfortunately it did not age well due to interaction between Testors rattle can Dull & Gloss coats and the Micro Set/Micro Sol that appeared as the years went on. As well as a general discoloration that the Testors clear coats took on. Last year I gave it to my plane living great nephew as a ceiling hanger. He loves it. I need to get another. 

Nice start in this project and great idea to go with the more “enlightened” current research colors. 

Some competition for all those P-40’s, eh?

Looks good so far. An oldie, but a goodie. I’ve got one in my stash, as well. 

I did one as a comission not long ago and it's a nice kit, great fit and value. The gear wells are a bit shallow but otherwise the detail is decent for an older mold.

I read somewhere  Saburo's mount had the radio mast cut off and radio removed to save weight since the radio transmissions were very poor out in that area. I used Tamiya XF76 as the lt. grey green color used on the early Zeroes. I also read the color eventually faded to a lighter shade looking like white in B&W period pictures but did have a light green tint to it. 

As a mater of fact, I have one right in front of me that I will build for a friend that wants an early Zero built.

I built this kit about a decade ago. I don't recall any real issues with it. Mine is a ceiling hanger painted in the box art scheme. Looking forward to seeing what you do with your A6M2.

Pretty much out of the box, a nice but older Tamiya kit.  Masks for the canopy were made on my Silhouette Cameo cutter, starting with a scan of an Eduard set that did not fit well at all as they were for a Hasegawa kit.  Masks were also made for the meat balls and the blue trim and they were all painted.  The only hassle was getting the landing gear to firm up, the sockets in the wing seemed pretty loose on the gear.  White Ensign Mitsubishi Navy Gray Green, Gunze Mr Color Mitsubishi interior color and Gunze Metallic Blue for the wheel wells.  Gunze for the cowling.  Real nice paint.

She’s a great looking build, John! 

Gorgeous as usual, John!

She really photographs well against that sky-blue background.

I'll have to dig mine out and 'have a go'....

Beautiful and quick! What is there not to like?

She looks great!!! The new Tamiya kit may be state of the art but you can still build a respectable model out of the older one as you've just proved!

stikpusher

Beautiful and quick! What is there not to like?

 

 

Thanks, everyone.  Starting to get a shelf full of Zero's here, the A6M1, two A6M2's, and an A6M5 (which I helped one of my granddaughters build, the Monogram kit).

Beautiful build of one of my favorite planes.  Always happy to see Zeros done so well.

Great job, John!!

Gary Mason