Airfix 1/72 Mitsubishi Zero A6M2b-21 (Dogfight Doubles gift set)

[AlasdairGF]

So it's done - Lt Saburo Shindo's "Zeke", half way to Pearl Harbour... see construction thread, too.

View attachment 69383

View attachment 69384

View attachment 69385

View attachment 69386

View attachment 69387


Some stretched sprue as an antenna wire was a last-minute idea: had never tried this before and it took quite a few goes before I had a piece I was happy with that wasn't too fine to work with or far too thick for the scale. Unfortunately, it then just looked like stretched sprue, so I hurled some thinned grey/aluminium mix at it which doesn't seem too bad though I've no idea how authentic that could be.

As mentioned in the title, this is part of the "Dogfight Doubles" set, so here's one of the two together:

View attachment 69388


And here's an intimation of their undoubted doom:

View attachment 69389


And The Boy's idea which he wanted me to make & share - the two planes superimposed on a shot of Pearl Harbour, circa 1940 (as close as I could find on short notice!):

View attachment 69390

 

[stona]

Good stuff and a great result.

Who hasn't flown a model around the room making machine gun noises?

I know b*gger all about Japanese aircraft but I know that antenna wires on German and British aircraft were made from a stainless steel so a silver/grey finish would be spot on.

Cheers

Steve

 

[colin m]

Nice one Alasdair. I've never built anything Japanese, but I do like the clean lines of this aircraft.

 

[flyjoe180]

Great build Alasdair, a great come back to the hobby. Your Zero looks brilliant, well done on the wash and weathering, it looks just right.

 

[AlasdairGF]

Thanks all.

I would genuinely love some pointers one what could be improved in future models (though not sure if the pics are really good enough for that). E.g. I'm pretty sure the painted 'metal bits' (technical term there, let me know if I'm leaving you behind...o_O) on the cockpit canopy are way too thick. Perhaps I should have bought the mask for this or perhaps it's just a matter of practice.

But anyway, would love some critique too. Ta!