Minicraft (Arii) 1/144 Mitsubishi A6M2b Zero

MINICRAFT/ARII 1:144 MITSUBISHI A6M2B ZERO

Reviewer: Jon Hudak (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted: 4 April 2008

Aircraft History:

Enough has been written here about some of the various Zeros so I'll skip the long history part. In short the A6M2b was the definitive Zero and the one that many of Japans top naval aces flew at one point or another like Saburo Sakai and Hiroyoshi Nishizawa. A perfect design and with its light weight the plane had excellent maneuverability and a tremendously long range of some 1,930 miles! Of course with that and the lack of armor plate came a price and they could easily explode under a well placed burst or two of say multiple .50 caliber machine guns as found in planes like the Grumman Wildcat and others. Until the Allies were able to come up with better fighting tactics and better aircraft the Zero enjoyed much success during the early part of WW2 and stayed a force to be reckoned with when flown by a competent pilot even in the closing stages of the war. The Zero still remains one of my favorite fighting aircraft of WW2 as well as one to model and for good reason.

The Kit:

Ariis kit represents an A6M2b model and features two sprues of light gray colored plastic and one canopy. If I had to guess I'd say this kit dates somewhere from the mid 1980s and is comparable with other kits in this scale from that era. It features mostly raised panel line detail and some deeply recessed areas like the cowling flaps and a vertical line that runs down the fuselage behind them as well as a small rectangular panel panel just below the canopy on the left side of the fuselage. Control surfaces are at least recessed and you are given the option of "flying version" landing gear or on the ground "stationary" ones.

The same goes for the prop and spinner, where you are given a regular "stationary" version or a flying version one. Funny, the flying version consists of a simple spinner and plug for it to fit into and no propeller with the idea being that you wouldn't see the prop on the in flight version! A drop tank is also provided which is nice yet its shape looks a little bulky and more like the front end of a big torpedo. The kit does show its age as some of the small parts are a little thick like the inner gear doors as well as the shape of some of the other pieces. There's also the lack of other key parts like the wing pitot tube and antenna mast.

Markings are provided for one plane "DI-108" as depicted on the box art. The painting scheme for the airframe is incorrect in that it features an overall light gray plane with light blue(?) anti glare panels fore and aft of the canopy. It should just be overall light gray/Ameiro with the blue black cowling. On the plus side the decals are from Cartograf and look to be of high quality. With only three construction steps building this kit shouldn't take long at all.

Construction:

Well, not really a whole lot I can say about this as it was given to me by a friend in a state of near completion. Still on a 1:144 kick I figured this would be a nice, simple quick build especialy since half the work was done anyway! The whole airframe had been assembled along with the cowling being attached and he'd even cut and repositioned the rudder and horizontal stabilizers! From what I could see it wasn't the greatest fitting kit in some spots which he also attested to. The kit needed a little finishing work to get it ready for painting and it wasn't long before I was able to do just that.

Painting:

To make painting easier I used a round toothpick with its end cut down to serve as a handle which fit perfectly in the hole of the cowling for the prop shaft. With things looking pretty good (or so I thought) the airframe was painted with Gunze acrylic H61 IJN Gray. It was after painting that I noticed a couple of spots I'd missed in my haste. Although filler had already been applied and sanded down in some places I had to add some more underneath where the wings join the fuselage as there was a bit of a gap. The second time around the trouble spots were touched up and I also painted the outsides of the landing gear unit doors and tail wheel unit. In hindsight I should have primed the model first with a medium or dark gray as painting a model like this molded in light gray plastic with a similar light gray color was a bit hard on the ole' eyes! Just when I thought things were looking pretty good, once again I discovered an area I'd missed while painting so out once more with the IJN Gray...rats!

Being a glossy color I let the model sit a day or two before proceeding to the next step which was to mask off and paint the cowling. For this Gunze H2 Black and H5 Blue were used...... 40% black with 60% blue for that notorious blue-black cowling color. Happy with the results of painting the cowl and ready to move on to the next step it was now time for the decals.

Decals:

The kits decals are printed by Cartograf of Italy and looked to be adequate for the job. I had never used Cartograf decals before this to my knowledge so I was eager to see how they'd work. With the Gunze colors being gloss acrylics I didn't need to apply a gloss clear coat before putting the decals on which also saved a step. (learned from the experience with the Tamiya Shiden and gloss colors) Since there were only nine in total it didn't take long to get them all applied. They took a little prodding to slide off the backing sheet (maybe a little more time in the water would help?) and at first I thought they weren't going to bed down too well. In the end they settled down perfectly with Micro Set. Interesting that the two hinomarus used for the bottom of the wings seemed to cooperate better than the ones used for the upper surfaces and only needed a couple of coats of Micro Set to settle down over the raised panel lines.

Afterwards the model was wiped down with a damp cloth to remove any excess setting solutions etc and then the landing gear were glued in place to give the model something to sit on when I would do the final clear flat coat. No drama here and they were an easy fit. A coat of Testors Dullcote laquer was sprayed on the next day to seal the decals in and tone down the gloss. Sadly the flat coat turned my blue black cowling color to flat black, oh well....sigh.

Final Touches:

With the Dullcote drying I proceeded to tackle some of the other small chores that needed doing such as the canopy framing. For the framing I used a piece of clear double sided Scotch tape painted with the IJN Gray and hit with some Testors Dullcote. It was cut into thin strips and applied directly onto the canopy. I figured this would certainly be easier than trying to mask the canopy off in the traditional way. If you think 1:72 scale canopies are small try some in 1:144! Holding the canopy in place on top of the airframe by hand I used a pencil and lightly traced around its parameters. This was to serve as a guide so that I could paint the inside of this area with some flat black to give the impression of a cockpit since there is no recessed area, no hole, nothing.

Now this area along with the backsides of the prop blades, landing gear struts and wheel rims were painted with Floquil Engine Black and the front of the prop blades and spinner were painted with Humbrol 27002 Polished Aluminum Metalcote paint. The canopy which was now finished was glued in place using Elmers white glue, it wasn't the greatest fit either and had a few small gaps here and there. The tires were painted with Testors Rubber color from the little square bottle. The wheel wells and insides of the landing gear doors (where possible) were also painted with the same aluminum color in preparation for the Aotake color which would come next. In the meantime a micro-pen was used to highlight the recessed areas of the control surfaces and the "troughs" for the machine guns on the forward end of the fuselage just aft of the cowling.

A mix of Aotake was made from three drops Tamiya Clear Green and one drop Clear Blue. These clear colors can tend to be a little thick so I added a little bit of Tamiya thinner to make it flow better. The wheel wells were painted and the insides of the landing gear doors being careful not to get any where I didn't need it since the landing gear units and doors are all one piece. I'd forgotten to add the little scoop underneath and behind the cowling so I scraped the paint off approximately where I felt it should go (as the instructions aren't real clear) and attached it with a bit of superglue. It was then painted with some IJN Gray and given the hollowed out look with a micro-pen. I didn't bother adding the inner landing gear doors since they were so thick and the fact that they've been left off isn't so noticeable in this scale. The last thing that was done was to try and clean up the drop tank a bit. I didn't spend too much time with this and as mentioned before though it's a bit bulky looking in shape it's not as noticeable once it's slung under the fuselage. It was painted with some more of the said IJN Gray and glued in place and with that the model was finished.

Conclusions:

Completing this kit was worth it for me and at least its purpose was served which was after all to build and finish it. The Cartograf decals were a high point of the package and in the end looked like they were painted on and showed no traces of silvering or carrier film. Wonderful. Making the canopy into something better with the strips of tape was a good lesson too. This was my second kit in 1:144 scale and I look forward to doing more of them. The final outcome for me was I'd say just okay and I wasn't as excited about it as I would have been had this kit been a more modern, recent tooling. Also at some point there's only so much you can do with an older kit too. Plus I feel the color is too "light gray" and not like the Ameiro color it should be which seemed to have had a bit of a tan or caramel tint to it.

Looking at it now I feel the black ink of the micro-pen was a little too stark for outlining the control surfaces. In this scale I should have stuck with the Mk.1 pencil like I originally used. As far as accuracy goes while it does look like a Zero, something seems a bit off in the overall shape and the cowling isn't rounded enough. I've seen this kit recently listed for $7 US and that seems a bit high for what you get and considering its age. Even the Eduard 1:144 scale FW-190 and Bf-109s are cheaper than this and are nicer, more modern kits. Getting back to the Arii kit, this one is now quite a bit long in the tooth and has been superceded by the beautiful Sweet kit. Time to build that one and compare them I'd say. If you're looking for the ultimate Zero in 1:144 scale then that is the one to get and is what I'd recommend.

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