Tamiya 1/32 A6M5 Zero in progress

I started building this exelllent kit since January but occasionally. Works have been done

for the engine and cockpit. Here are some pics.

I need advises to continue with the build.

thanks for looking

Uh-oh

Looks pretty darn nice to me. I like the office. What advice did you need?

I’ve seen many great built zeros with quite heavily chipped paint. But I read an article on the

net that says it’s quite wrong to rip paint off these birds as in reality japanese planes were

not that badly chipped look. I can’t find a good photo reference of a zero that is not either

taken from the graveyard or newly restored. I plan to build mine as somewhat neat. However,

I’d find it could be so boring with its paint scheme.

Beautifull engine and cockpit work. Did you do any scratch building on either or is that “out of the box”. The reason I ask is I have this kit in my stash and if that is out of the box that is one sweet kit as far as detail goes. I might just make this my next build.

Soulcrusher

Wow, your engine and cockpit are fantastic! [8D] [tup] [tup]

Both look very well done. The detail and execution are top notch.

You could always do the dark green over gray scheme instead of the overall gray. The dark green paint had a habit of fading and chipping. I’ve seen plenty of actual pics showing a well chipped appearance. I’ll see if I can find that site again.

Andy

Wonderfull work so far. I too would like to know if that is OOB or if you added some aftermarket stuff. If that’s OOB, I’ll make it my next buy. Thanks for sharing.

The office looks great, and the engine, while I have a few doubts about some of the colors you used, is nicely weathered and well-detailed…looks like the Eduard set (that’s what I used).

[bow][bow][bow][tup][bow]

Looks awesome from here. I hear that’s a very nice kit, and from what I see on your pictures, it must be true.

Thats an exelent start on a GREAT Tamiya kit! I have built three of the Tamiya 1/32 Zero’s, two A6M5’s and one A6M2. I highly recommend these kits to everyone. I wish they would produce a P-47 Thunderbolt at this level of detail.

emo07

Thank you all for your kind words. I built the cockpit OOB. The only things I added are the bungee cord and 3 pipes connecting the throttle to the front as seen in real pictures. The engine was built with Eduard engine set added but I’m quite disappointed with the set since the ignition cords are flat, not round. However, you can use it for other parts.

Uh-oh.

Wow- that is amazing looking. Beautiful work. The cockpit/engine are practically models unto themselves.

I was be able to paint the model with Tamiya XF-70 (dark green 2) and XF-12 (J.N Grey) and put on decals after coated the whole aircraft with future. Here are 2 pics:

Some paint chippings were done but not much as I want the model look clean.The next step is to apply a wash with artist oil color raw umber thinned with mineral spirits.

WOW! You are really moving along with that kit! Looks great, keep the pics coming!

[bow]

Fear not, Hasegawa is releasing a completely re-tooled 1/32 P-47 at the end of April that looks very promising[angel]

Really beautful work on the Zero so far. Looking forward the the finished build.

Early war, chipped paint was rare on Japanese aircraft. By 1945, they were cutting corners everywhere and the paint was very poor and did not stick to the airframe very well. I haven’t seen many late war Zero pictures with chipped paint, but I have seen lots of other late war fighters with badly chipped paint.

Bill

Bill, according to my references, this was due more to a lack of a primer coat and not the quality of the paint itself…corners cut in the manufacturing rather than the actual materials.