Hasegawa 1/72 Mitsubishi A6M3 Zero Type 32

HASEGAWA 1:72 A6M3 ZERO TYPE 32

Reviewer: Jon Hudak (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted: 16 November 2003

Kit Details:

Hasegawa 1/72 Mitsubishi A6M3 Zero Fighter Type 32

Aircraft History:

The Japanese Zero holds the distinction of being active throughout the entire course of WW2.If asked to identify at least one WW2 Japanese aircraft, even someone with the faintest knowledge of this subject matter would most likely be able to pick the name Zero, or at least recognize it. From its pre-war days over the skies of China til 1945 it was there til the very end. Numerous model changes and improvements were applied. Lack of quantity of better replacement fighter types made it soldier on til the last months of the war. There's lots that can be said about it but I don't intend to encompass the whole history and development. It did have excellent range and manoeuvrability and the Allies had to develop tactics to combat it. They were told to never engage it in a dogfight and these factors show that despite its handicaps what a remarkable airplane it still was.

Code named Hamp by the Allies, the model A6M3 Type 32 or "three two" was to be an improvement over the current model 21 or "two one". The need to improve high altitude and climb performance as well as increase the speed resulted in a new Sakae 21 engine replacing the Sakae 12.This led to some redesigning in the forward fuselage structure to make the larger engine fit which pushed the firewall back some and resulted in a new more rounded cowling with repositioned machine-gun openings and the air intake being moved from the bottom to the top. Pilots flying the test models recommended doing away with the folding wingtips altogether and that is the most distinguishing feature of the Type 32 over any other Zero. The folding wingtips were removed and faired over resulting in a square or "clipped" wingtip thus shortening the wingspan. With these changes only a small increase in speed was gained and the roll rate was improved. The results of the changes brought about an increase in weight of some 280 lbs and the range was also reduced not making it an overwhelming success. Only around 343 were made and the model 22 which followed it had the folding wingtips added back on and had the longest range out of any of Zero.

The Kit:

Kit no.003 This is the early original release that probably dates back to at least the 1970s when raised panel lines and lots of rivets were the norm. The kit consists of three sprues molded in Hasegawa's typical grey plastic as well as a single clear canopy. The moldings overall were pretty crisp with nice raised detail and the fabric surfaces were decent also. Still, there were some parts and areas that were pretty void of detail and rather basic. Some sinkholes were present on various areas of the wings and a few other parts. For a kit of this vintage I was impressed to find almost zero flash (no pun intended!). As is the norm the nice sprue maps show the parts not used. In this kit you were given extra cowlings, bombs etc, for the other versions. It seemed that in the old days you used to get more free stuff!

Instructions:

The instruction sheet is the familiar A4 style sheet folded in four like the one for the J2M3 Raiden and N1K2-J SHIDENKAI (George) and probably countless others. Construction should be relatively simple and there are only three steps! But a lot goes on in those three steps. Paint colors are given in Gunze Sangyo color codes and there are no less than six languages for all the color names.

Construction:

Due to the low number of parts and few assembly steps, construction was relatively simple aside from some fit problems and gaps that needed mending.

I started with the interior by brush painting the interior with Tamiya's XF-71 IJN cockpit green. This consists of a "bathtub" style cockpit tub that's it! I decided to brush paint it rather than dirty the airbrush for something so small. Ah the beauty of 1:72 scale! If you take your time you can get a nice result. When that was dry I trapped it between the two fuselage halves and glued those together and then glued the three piece wing assembly together.

There are no boxed in wheel wells on this kit and if left as is, you'll be able to see the bottom of the cockpit tub and everything else! This was going to be an OOB build but I just couldn't leave it this way and so boxed it in with some thin card stock. (See photo) I was satisfied with the results even if the wells weren't totally boxed in all the way around, it was better than it was. So far no problems. I then glued the wing assembly to the fuselage and after it was dry I noticed how the right wing was sort of "cocked". It was at a slight angle and it also looked like the fuselage had a torque in it as the fin and antenna mast were clearly out of line with each other. To remedy this as best as I could I dipped the tail end of the plane in a heated pot of water on the stove and tried bending the one wing back with the steam. Well, it came out a lot better than it was even if alignment wasn't totally perfect.

With that done I then glued on the tailplanes and started working on the seams and joins. There were large noticeable gaps at the wing roots and on one side I managed to insert a thin sliver of evergreen sheet plastic. There was also a nasty gap/step where the lower wing assembly. joined the fuselage. Another gripe was that the upper wing halves wrap around underneath to complete the lower wing section so you have to blend in where the two ends come together. Also there were some "troughs" or low spots on the bottoms of the wings just forward of the ailerons and one on the upper right in about the same spot that I thought would never go away! I'd say these couple of things were one of the worst parts of the kit and it took multiple sessions of filling and sanding with putty.

On a lot of the pictures I've seen of the type 32 Zero, the antenna masts were missing. This was not an uncommon practice as the Japanese would commonly remove things like this and radio equipment to save weight. Observing these pictures I cut mine off. I used silver paint applied with a brush over any seam areas to spot any defects and when all the seams were done I painted the decking behind the cockpit. Again this was done by hand and I then made up a control stick from stretched sprue and an instrument panel cut from card stock. I made little various size depressions with a pin-vice and painted the "dials" and buttons with black and other color paints. Too bad I'd forgotten about the instrument panel decal...d'oh! All this extra work and I'd forgotten to put in seatbelts! Oh well, you don't see much of it anyway.

Around this time I'd also airbrushed the wheel wells and insides of the gear doors with Tamiya's flat aluminium followed by a brush painted coat of ModelMaster Japanese interior blue-green. An undercoat of aluminium helps with this color as by itself it is rather thin and doesn't cover well. I then took my time masking the canopy with masking tape and glued it on with some non-fogging super glue. A little white glue was used to fill in some of the gaps around the canopy, and with the wheel wells masked, and drop tank installed it was now ready for paint!

Painting & Markings:

For this project I wanted to use some acrylic paints that were already on hand. This would be my first time as a whole with acrylic paints used for the majority of the work. Decals are given for three different aircraft: an overall IJN grey one,"V-190" (which is what I chose) and a JN green over grey as depicted on the boxart which are both from the Tainan Flying Group and thirdly, a 204th Flying Group with the field applied "patchy" green over the factory overall grey scheme. The airframe was airbrushed with Tamiya's XF-12 J.N.Gray. The Tamiya paint went on rather well for the most part. I'd taken the completed airframe to one of my model club get togethers and ended up damaging it in transit. D'oh! I should have left it at home! The one cracked wing root join and lower wing/fuselage join were then fixed and any areas needing touch up were resprayed. Around this time I spayed the cowling with a mix of Gunze black and blue acrylic paints as per the instructions for that "blue-black" cowling color. The Gunze paint airbrushed very nicely. Around this time I also painted the other small parts like the landing gear, tires, spinner and prop blades....the fronts & spinner with Testor's silver and back with Gunze Black, also airbrushed. I then airbrushed the whole airframe with Tamiya clear gloss and the next day I would put the decals on.

Decals:

Decals went on for the most part with no troubles using Micro sol. I was a little worried at first when the Hinomarus appeared wrinkled but they settled down nicely with no wrinkling. With the Hinomarus applied I started working on the tailcodes.I slipped one into the water and after a few seconds I watched it crack into about three or four pieces! The same with the fuselage band and codes too. Since aftermarket decals for 1:72 Zeros aren't common and the fact that I didn't have any, what was I to do now? At this point I should mention that out of curiosity a few months prior I had purchased another Has. A6M3 Type 32 kit also in 1:72 scale. It was the newer, larger boxing but the artwork was basically the same. Upon opening it I was relieved to find out that it was the newer, retooled, updated kit. At the time I was disappointed because it had exactly the same markings as my old one! Little did I realize that this would later prove to be my saving grace! I used the necessary "extras" from the newer kit and I was done. The next day after some time had been allowed from wiping the decaled (is this a real word?) areas with a damp cloth, I gave the model a flat-cote with some Testors dullcote.

Final Assembly:

With this all done I removed the masking tape from the canopy and was relieved to see that my masking job had held up. A sharpened toothpick was used to clean up any areas around the frames and some Bare-Metal plastic polish applied with one of those handy micro-brush thing-a ma-jiggers on the panes helped spruce up the glass more. This kit was originally going to be strictly an OOB build but at some point along the way I decided to replace the kit's "doughnut" tires with some aftermarket resin ones from True Details. They add a nice touch. I then attached the landing gear and gear doors and then painted the navigation/formation lights in my favoured method of Model Master chrome silver as an undercoat followed by the appropriate clear colors from Tamiya.

I pushed the spinner/prop assembly onto place and that was it, the model was now done after about two months of dilly-dallying. As I sat there and looked at it, the model didn't quite look "right", you'd think I'd be happy at just having completed another one, so I set about on how I would weather it. Some pastel chalks were scraped and applied with a flat tipped brush to the tail area and at once I couldn't believe how much better it looked, plus the raised rivets attracted the stuff! I then set about doing other areas picking panel lines at random and being careful to not overdo it and not do every panel line. A silver pencil was used lightly around some of the Hinomarus and other areas for some scuffing as well. When I felt I had "just enough" I felt the model was now finished.

Final Comments:

I'd originally bought this kit back around 1996 for $7.50 after seeing some really nice models on display at a model/related show up at the local mall. Now 7 years later and finally back into the hobby, I feel like I really accomplished something by building it. At some point during and before construction some of my peers were like "why bother? or "throw that sucker out and get the new one" etc, but I'm glad I stuck to it. Just because a kit doesn't have recessed lines or all the latest new fangled stuff doesn't mean its not worth building. Seeing this model all the way through was a rewarding and satisfying experience. This was the third model I've built too by the way. While not a difficult kit to build it wasn't a shake n' bake kit either and I learned a few things which is always good. I tried a few things on this model that I hadn't done with any of my others like using acrylic paints, aftermarket accessories, some minor scratch building and attaching the canopy before painting. I did with it what was supposed to be done to it and that is build it, and it was a fun experience with the decals and all! I'm not one to compare dimensions and all that, but it looks like a Zero to me and can be built into a nice little representation of the real thing. For its age this particular kit isn't bad at all, while not as nice as its modern updated incarnation, it can be found at shows for usually a lot less. It's still better than the Matchbox and Airfix ones too. Its up to you whether or not to fork over the extra cash for the current one. Either way you wont be disappointed. It also looks nice in my display cabinet.

References:

Zero in Action....Squadron Signal Publications

Warbird History...Zero....Motorbooks International

Mitsubishi A6M Zero........Mushroom Model Publications

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