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Combo A6M Zero build ( Spiros' build of Saburo Sakai and John's build of HIYO fighter group)

Started by John vd Biggelaar · 211 ≡ · ↻ 2 years ago

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John vd Biggelaar said 2 years, 6 months ago:

What can be better than having a build of an A6M Zero, yes indeed two builds of A6M Zero’s
When our friend Spiros @fiveten started his build of Saburo Sakai’s 1/48 Hasegawa A6M2a Zero in the great Empire of Japan group build, I remembered to have a Hasegawa Zero in stash as well.
After mentioning this in Spiros' thread, he had a great proposal to have a combo build and ofcourse I was enthusiastic right away.

We decided to start a new topic for a combo build of this awesome aircraft.
Spiros will continue posting his already great looking Saburo Sakai’s Zero in this post and I will start posting my Hiyo fighter group Zero as well.

Ofcourse all remarks and suggestions are more than welcome.
John vd Biggelaar said 2 years, 6 months ago:

The one I will be building is the 1/48 Hasegawa kit (no. 07333) and I want to try the scheme of Carrier Hiyo Fighter Squadron April 1943.
Pedro L. Rocha said 2 years, 6 months ago:

Good idea mates! Looking forward to see what comes ahead, and John… that’s a splendid option you elected there
Spiros Pendedekas said 2 years, 6 months ago:

A splendid option indeed, my friend @johnb! Wow, what an amazing camo! It is yet another wonderful entry to our friend's @lgardner so successful and inspirative Empire of Japan GB!

Thanks for writing such a nice intro for our combo build! I feel honored to build with you.

My so far progress can be found at my now previous thread:

https://imodeler.com/groups/the-empire-of-japan-1919-1946/forum/topic/saburo-sakais-1-48-hasegawa-a6m2a-zero/?topic_page=1&num=15

Next posting will be from here, and I am already excited!
capt. R said 2 years, 6 months ago:

It will be great zero's combo!
Spiros Pendedekas said 2 years, 6 months ago:

This is Saburo Sakai's Zero current situation:

-Cockpit painted and installed,seat holes drilled out as per reality

-Fuselage assembled, wings and tail planes added

-Elevators separated from the horizontal stabilizers, "to breathe some more life..."

-Engine assembled, cowling innards painted aotake.

-Drop tank assembled

-Some panel lines at upper/lower wings and the cowling are filled per Hasegawa instructions (probably they are not correct for my version).

Here she is:

Some friends here have already offered a lot of invaluable advice with great links: big thanks and for sure their advice will be put to good use in rendering my Sakai replica. I just love to learn all these little details and embody them in to my build.

Thanks for stopping by!
John vd Biggelaar said 2 years, 6 months ago:

@holzhamer, @lis, thanks, for sure an interesting combo.

@fiveten, your Zero is looking great already. Your thread till now will be very useful for my Zero as well. Will try to catch up and do some research in a faster than usual pace. I agree that learning about the aircraft during the build is fantastic. So much 'features' during development of the aircraft.
John vd Biggelaar said 2 years, 6 months ago:

Unboxing a kit is always a great moment, and for this kit is not different.
Ofcourse this box is the same as the one from Spiros, except for a different decal sheet.
Three grey colored sprues,

and one transparant sprue,

Nice detailed decals and stencils.
I also ordered masks for the canopy which will be very handy.

To pick up the pace I started by seperating the required parts for the cockpit
Every part is very nicely detailed so it should turn into a nice interior.

The detailed instrument panel will be decorated with various decals.
Never saw this amount of decals used for a single IP but they look great.

After cleaning up the parts I put them all together for the first paint session.

And this is how the cockpit parts look after applying Mitsubishi cockpit green.

Thanks for watching,
2 additional images. Click to enlarge.
Woody Kubacki said 2 years, 6 months ago:

@fiveten @johnb Put these ancient Hasegawa kits away boys, Eduard just announced the A6M2 to be released this December, with the remaining line of Zeros (Rufe and trainer too) in development
Pedro L. Rocha said 2 years, 6 months ago:

Yes! Just saw the add at another forum, the timing for the launch couldn’t be more appropriate either. Perhaps an F4-F will eventually come along also.
Spiros Pendedekas said 2 years, 6 months ago:

Thanks for kind words for my Zero, my friend @johnb!

Your kit looks great and I like the masks a lot! You have already started it! Cockpit looks great! I too liked a lot the individual instrument decals. Your pace seems to.pile up, so, if I delay a tad, you might catch up and our builds can proceed more or less in parallel. Maybe a nice way to delay the Zero is to work at my Deserts F-16 and Tornado.
Or maybe, start my Hasegawa 1/48 Typhoon? 🙂

My friend @wkubacki, I was "afraid" Eduard would sooner or later produce a definitive quarter scale Zero... 🙂

Still the venerable Hasegawa has its own potential, being a pleasant build, producing a decent result.
Louis Gardner said 2 years, 6 months ago:

John, @johnb
Thank you for starting this journal. I have never seen an illustration of an A6M from the Hiyo, with the tail markings 2-1-128, dated April 1943. If you don't mind, I'm going to save the image for a future build.

Even though these Hasegawa Zero's are getting older, (like me 😉 ), they still build into a very nice looking model. However, I am very excited about hearing that Eduard is releasing an entirely new tool Zero, and how they will include many versions. This is fantastic news... I can see myself getting a few of them !

I have several of these Hasegawa Zero's under construction in my typical "Iron Werke" style, but they have been placed on hold until I finish up the F-84E Korean War tribute build. I have plans to build one of these Zero's up as one of Saburo Sakai's mounts, and another as AI-154 which crashed at Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941.

I am looking forward to seeing your next installment.

Thanks again for starting this build... 🙂
John vd Biggelaar said 2 years, 6 months ago:

@wkubacki, although the new Eduard is released soon, I will definitely finish this one first. Regardless of the outcome of this one, it is always nice to have a second Zero.
@lgardner, thanks Louis, I tried to find original pictures of the 2-1-128 on the internet but no luck. I assume Hasegawa did their homework and that this plane was indeed from the Hiyo

In the mean time I tried to catch up on Spiros (@fiveten) and started preperations on the cockpit.
Holes were drilled in the seat

Side panels and floor were weathered

Also the decals were applied on the IP and they do look pretty nice I have to say.
Spiros Pendedekas said 2 years, 6 months ago:

What a great, quality progress, my friend @johnb!
Cockpit elements look superb, utterly realistic!
The individual instrument decals are looking nice and cockpit weathering rocks!
Looking forward to your next steps!
Spiros Pendedekas said 2 years, 6 months ago:

Initial sanding done...

Thanks for stopping by!

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