Hi Everyone!

Two days ago I got delivered at my door step the new Profipack box of Eduard new mould A6M2 Zero. This kit is hot new since its release date will occur in most stores only after January 1st, including at Eduard’s own webshop.

The box comes with a very neat composition of the epic dogfight that took place in the skies above Guadalcanal opposing the Jap ace Saburo Sakai and the American ace “Pug” Southerland

I know this particular Saburo’s machine has been done to death by modelers ever since the dawn of plastic and I just might be the exception, but no decent display cabinet can skip this plane and Ace, right?
I know that our iModeler friend and prolific/talented modeler Spiros is also doing Saburo’s plane in this GB using the Hasegawa kit so it should be a good comparison between both kits regarding the same subject.

I started building him yesterday, and the first thing I jumped at was the engine cowling.
Thanks to a neat base provided in the box, it’s easy and fast to assemble the six piece cowling, although mine had some tiny gaps as you can tell by the Mr Surfacer putty lines. This was probably my own doing, but even if not it’s an easily solved issue.

Then I painted all Aotake areas indicated in the instruction booklet, using the same steps of the real plane- first aan aluminum layer the a very this spray with Mr Hobby Aotake, and it looks very convincing to my eye. Since this was painted yesterday it’s fully dried so I masked it over and will proceed by painting the interior cockpit colour over the already pre shades cockpit walls. For this I will use Real Colors “Mitsubishi green”.

Since I’m looking to achieve a used look over that cockpit floor, I also sprayed some aluminum around the areas where the pilot’s feet would step more often, and consequently create some chipping.

Now it’s time to brush one of those chipping solutions and 5 minutes later go for the some pre-shading followed by the Mitsubishi green overall.

The whell well and UC doors were also sprayed yesterday, using some black marbling for pre-shade. The colour is the elusive J3 amber grey that will also used in almost all fuselage and wings.

The prop is also aluminium painted, leaving only the back of the propeller blades to be painted in tea colour.

Finally, since my airbrush was full with aluminum paint I sprayed also the engine cilinders, leaving the remains of the painting and weathering to be made by brush

More soon, stay safe and a Happy New Year!

@fiveten
Spiros, I guess we cannot even compare the level of detail of today’s kits versus those aged 20 or more years old. I bet you will do a great model out of the Hasegawa as you would out of this one too, just one step above due to the benefits of being state of the art 😉

Pedro, @holzhamer
I like how Eduard has included a building jig to hold the cowling parts for assembly. The internal details, and particularly the surface are light years ahead of the other Zero kits. I have some of the Hasegawa A6M's on the work bench, but lately I have not had the opportunity to do any building. If these new tool Eduard kits build as nice as the Hasegawa kits do, then they will have a winner on their hands for sure. These kit will sell like hot cakes...

Thank you for starting this build journal, and count me in as watching it. I will definitely be looking forward to the next installment.

I also like your choices of paint colors. This is off to a great start !

Amazing progress, my friend @holzhamer! The Eduard kit looks so clearly being ahead of the Hasegawa and your excellent skills make the most of it.

@holzhamer Looking excellent! I am jealous of you guys with the new Eduard kit. I just wanted to mention, that to get a closer shade of the Mitsubishi Amber Grey, you need to add 10% white to AK RC 303, as per Nick Millman.

cheers

AK RC302 is the paint I use for control surfaces (trim tabs will be body colour though). I think it’s supposed to be just equal parts white and black (J3) as it is a neutral grey. I’m sure you probably have something close to it in your current paints.

@tcinla

Tom- AK is a very good supplier for several brands in their web shop, especially Eduard.

They always seem to have a small quantity of the brand’s new releases ahead of market. I got lucky grabbing the last box of this kit in Christmas Day!

Another perk of living side by side with Spain is that the express mail gets things here in 24 hrs, free of charge for purchases above 30€, not bad at all.

It’s the exact opposite experience for me to buy from Eduard directly.

Well, my Tora-Tora-tora release has arrived and all I can say is, in person it looks better than @holzhamer's photos. Eduard has topped themselves with this one. Wow!