This is Hasegawa kit 09813, Mitsubishi A6M7 Fighter Type 62. In detailing the model I’ve used MASTER AM-48-020 A6M5 Zero Armament & Pitot Tube, Aber A48 013 13.3mm Japanese Type 3 MG, Quickboost 48 451 A6M5 Undercarriage Covers and 48 379 A6M5 Zero Exhaust, and Fine Molds NC 2 IJN Seat Belts. The specific aircraft markings come from Berna Decals 48-66 Mitsubishi Zero A6M5 Model 52 (it has 2 Type 62 markings).
Except for wing and tailplane alignment, this was a fun kit to build. I started it nearly a decade ago and got as far as major parts assembly and painting the cockpit, engine, and two camouflage colors, my still good Aeromaster stock, before sitting it aside for other projects. I returned to it this spring (2021), inspired by The Empire of Japan group, working mostly on the landing gear and adding the hand-holds, foot rests, and canopy to the fuselage and gear down indicators to the wings.
I made several poor choices in the course of the build, such as painting the camouflage colors without considering the wear and tear we assume for late-war Japanese aircraft, so this wear, right or wrong as I’ll discuss below, had to go atop the camouflage instead of underneath, and I didn’t notice that Hasegawa had missed the cowl lower intake’s splitter plate until I had glued it on and painted, so had to live with it’s lack rather than redo that area. I also didn’t mark the landing gear struts and got them confused and didn’t realize my mistake until after the Quickboost covers and the brake lines were in place - fixable, but frustratingly careless. Also, Hasegawa, unlike Tamiya, doesn’t show that the gear legs angle inwards so that the wheels, which do not mount parallel to the struts, end up in a true vertical alignment.
The decals were also problematic. The kit’s decals are by Cartograph, and they are excellently printed and in register. I used them for the hinomaru and all basic markings so the reds would be consistent. The problem is that the blank areas inside the don't walk markings were so thin that MicroSet (NOT sol) mushed them into lumps, and when I tried to use plain water under other the printed areas, they would hardly budge once put in place. Incredibly, once in place those inked areas hardly reacted to the MicroScale liquids or Gunze liquids or even Solvaset, as shows where the hinomaru go over the wing aileron action mechanisms. All had to be forced into the panel lines as I used a silver water-color pencil to do weathering (the pencil very seldom would mark the decals).
On the other hand, Hasegawa/Cartograph supply a very nice “cross-hairs” decal for the gun sight - a real challenge to use, as its location has a mold mark down the middle that you can’t scrape off without polishing the remaining disk. I floated it on with some Kleer and left the mold mark be.
The Berna Decals set was used for the specific tail, cowl, and landing gear cover markings. Both sides of the tail markings tore while being positioned, again very hard to slide once on the surface, all were only partially responsive to solvents, and most had some silvering around the image edges. The small numbers for the landing gear covers were just enough too large to be aggravating.
Concerning accuracy, the Berna Decals look great on the sheet, but not so great after application. The unit letter and numbers seem to be based on artwork discussed below from Source 2. The stroke is thicker than any photo of Reisen or Raiden from Morioka’s unit that I know of shows. The style of letters and numbers on the Hasegawa sheet are more nearly correct except for the inevitable problem of cutting out, aligning, and blending in individual letters and numbers.
Some history:
Lt Yutaka Morioka led the last official combat sortie of the Imperial Japanese Naval Air Force, and he was its last pilot to officially attain ace status. He had earlier lost his left hand during combat against a B-29, so he was flying with an artificial “claw” during this sortie and at least two previous sorties over Tokyo Bay.
The details of this last official combat are strangely confused in the three accounts I’ve read.
Source 1, Japanese Naval Aces and Fighter Units in World War II by Ikuhiko Hata and Yasuho Izawa (translated by Don Cyril Gorham) gives Lt Morioka’s personal name as Hiroshi and says he led 7 other A6M Reisen and 4 J2M Raiden. Source 2, Imperial Japanese Navy Aces 1937-45 by Henry Sakaida gives his personal name as Yutaka and says he was leading seven other unspecified aircraft. Source 3, Last Air Battles of World War II by Barrett Tillman on HistoryNet.com, first says that 17 IJN and IJA aircraft were involved, then later says that Morioka was leading seven other Reisen and four Raiden. The 5 other Japanese aircraft are not mentioned again.
The respective aerial victories claimed and awarded are also interesting. Four of six F6F pilots failed to return from the mission. The two F6F survivors claimed a total of five victories and attributed others to the fallen pilots, each of whom was awarded a victory by their unit’s intelligence officer, for a total of nine Japanese planes shot down. Morioka’s flight lost 2 Raiden and 1 Reisen. Japanese officials granted Lt Morioka one victory, making him a 5-victory ace, and approved no other claims.
As interesting as this combat was, the Reisen Berna gives markings for was one used by Morioka on a previous combat mission.
I have two photos of Morioka. One from the web shows him in a slat-type chair with his left hand bandaged. Another in Source 2 shows him in a Reisen cockpit with his artificial claw on the throttle, but only the cockpit sills and some of the interior show.
This becomes relevant when considering how to weather Morioka’s Reisen. Tom Tullis, who did the profiles in Source 2, depicts the Reisen with heavy chipping/wear around the cockpit, between the left-side hinomaru and rudder, on the front edge of the rudder, and under the fuselage between the hinomaru and the tail wheel.
One build review on-line says that there is a photo of Morioka with his plane (this plane?), and it is heavily worn. I cannot find this photo, and where Tullis draws wear on the rear fuselage and rudder is not where wear shows on the few Reisen I can find photos of that do show wear.
As a counterpoint, I did find photos of two late-war Reisen from Morioka’s unit. The plane he flew was number 106. The two photos show 109 and 131. Neither of these Reisen have any worn areas except around the clasps and panel lines on the cowling and little to no boot scraping at the wing roots.
I am a minimalist in my approach to weathering Japanese aircraft unless there is a photo to go on that doesn’t show a long abandoned, derelict plane. Here I make only a few concessions to Tullis in the hope that he has seen the photo I can’t find. I have added some wear where I could find it on other Reisen, even though I cannot justify it from photos of Morioka’s unit.
Personal matters:
My wife and I have hosted several delightful Japanese students over the years. Back in 1987 we visited Japan and met with some of these students as we traveled. One family invited us to stay a few days in their home.
The father, a professional photographer, and I were talking, and he mentioned that as a child during the war, he dreamed of crashing a Reisen into an American carrier. We were both glad his dream didn’t come true, but I’ve always felt I owed him a Reisen momento. That’s why I’ve photographed Morioka’s plane with bomb and long-range fuel tanks, a load he surely never flew with. I’ve also dropped the flaps, even though I’ve never seen a Reisen on the ground in this configuration, as it just makes the plane look more raptor-like.
14 attached images. Click to enlarge.
