Tamiya 1/48th Mitsubishi A6M3 Model 22
Tamiya 1/48th Mitsubishi A6M3 Model 22 of the 582nd Naval Air Group, Buin, Bouganville, flown by Major Saburo Shindo in June of 1943. The kit is box stock except for Eduard Photoetch seat belts and Modelkasten filament for the antenna wire. Paint is Mr. Color and decals are from the kit.
19 additional images. Click to enlarge.
Greg Kittinger said on September 14, 2016
Great job Frank! Like the weathering and chipping, and nice paint job as well.
P.k said on September 14, 2016
Nice work i like weathering.
P.k
Simon Whitney said on September 14, 2016
Nice build Frank, as Greg said, great weathering and chipping.
Craig Abrahamson said on September 14, 2016
Stunning workmanship and equally stunning photography…great job!
John Clark said on September 14, 2016
That’s a nice Zero.
Rob Pollock said on September 15, 2016
Nice work, Frank. What’s going on with the dorsal wing hinamaru? Never seen a ‘bleed’ before of the red on white border?
Frank Steffens said on September 15, 2016
That was the second set of Hinomaru decals placed on the top of the wing and they ripped like the first two. I painted over the cracks, and naturally there was overspray. I decided to leave it as the hasty field repair that it looked like, rather than drive myself nuts trying to fix it.
Frank Steffens said on September 15, 2016
Thanks all for the kind words!
Gábor Szabó said on September 15, 2016
Beautiful work! I’ve recently wached “The wind rises” a japan film about Jiro Horikoshi’s life so I immediately bought two zeros: a Tamiya and a Hasegawa one. As I see how beautiful can be this old Tamiya kit I think I will give it a go soon. Did You painted the hinomarus and the fuselage stripes?
Frank Steffens said on September 15, 2016
The Hinomarus and fuselage stripes are kit decals. I was going to paint the Hinomarus, but I chickened out at the last minute. This kit is actually a newer tooling from about 2010. I highly recommend it. The fit is great and it’s nicely detailed straight from the box.
Gábor Szabó said on September 18, 2016
Anyhow they turned out excellent. On the hinomarus I see the red overspraing – if that’s decal that’s just brilliant 🙂
Robert Royes said on September 15, 2016
Great build.
P.k said on September 22, 2016
Like to be nice build