1/32 Mitsubishi A6M2b Zero Tamiya 60317
I love this kit, although I would have preferred a more accurate landing gear instead of the movable items. The surface detail is stunning. It is built OOB but I added a lot of plumbing in the cockpit and to the engine, along with scratchbuilt extra details. The seat belts are made of painted masking tape, enhanced with the provided PE buckles. The specific IJN colour is Tamiya's XF76 enlightened with white. I tried to achieve a used but well maintained look. The markings are painted on as much as possible.
The fit and finish of your Zero is truly stunning!
Nice looking build , the finish is really nice.
Exquisite.
Excellent Zero
Great build of a great kit. Thanks for including the cockpit in-process photos. It is hard to appreciate the detail and effort expended after buttoning up the fuselage even in 1/32 scale.
Excellent build!
Beautifully done!
Awesome build. Your paint work is really nice, and your detail work is beautiful.
A superb looking Zero, Erik @erikvkok
Surface details are indeed fantastic, even all the grips to get inside the cockpit are nicely detailed.
Well done.
Nice work and a good result.
FWIW - it may seem counterintuitive, but recent research in the past few years has shown that the A6M2 Zeros had a gloss finish (you have that). As a result, the Zeros on the Kido Butai carriers showed almost no weathering over the year or so they were aboard. Even less weathering occurred on the Zeros aboard the carriers sunk at Midway. The weathering of Zeros that has been claimed for those operating ashore came from photos taken of shot-up wrecks left on the South Pacific airfields, that had been in the sun for several years before being photographed. (not a complaint about your nice work, just info for future projects.
Thanks for the extra information, interesting!
Lovely work on this kit.
Amazing and accurate work!
Excellent detailing and finish. I love the subtly highlighted riveting. Did you do any pre-shading to achieve that? The weathering looks exactly right to me - heavier on the cowling, of course, which is subject to chipping from the heat of the engine and removal of access panels for maintenance. I also like your choice for exterior color. With such endless debate about early war Japanese colors, I think Tamiya got it right.
Hi Colin, I just used a grey primer and no pre-shading. Just a diluted brown wash to highlight the rivets a bit. Tamiya got it right (I think) but still I added a fair amout of white to lighten their XF76. A test shot of pure XF76 looked way to dark to me.