Part 1: First Look

MSRP: $130.00 The Surprise My awareness of this kit began with an email from Bill Weckel who was basically wild over this new 1/32 scale aircraft offering from Tamiya. Now, Bill is pretty much into Pacific Air War modeling and knows a bunch about this historical period and most of the models offered that represent it. I don't recall exactly what Bill said that really sparked my interest in this kit, but it must have made an impression because I spent a considerable amount of time on the web looking at information and pictures of the kit and the finished plane. I quickly learned that this could be the best ever 1/32 scale aircraft kit ever made. Yes, I know that there are a number of highly-regarded 1/32 scale jet kits out there, but I never was fond of jets made after 1945 anyway, so they don't count. Of course, I had to have one. Fortunately for me, my usual sources were out of stock or they hadn't gotten their allotment yet, and then John sent his list of review items out. There it was. Tamiya 1/32 A6M2b Zero up for review. I won't say I whined piteously, but I did grovel a bit and then, after a few weeks had passed, figuring there was no way I was going to get this for review, I began considering how much more I had to sell on eBay to buy this thing when I returned home from a trip and there it was. The Airplane Mitsubishi Zero. Fast. Heavily armed. Long range. Flown by tough, highly-trained pilots. Killed or scared the hell out of almost every enemy pilot who encountered one for the first couple of years of the war. The Samurai Sword of Japan's expansion throughout the Pacific. There is a lot more, but you'll have to buy the books or do the internet searches for the historical deep-dives. The Review I have opened the box and looked at all the parts and baggies and PE and rubber wheels and the nifty conversion steps that makes the original box into a storage and transportation module. That all by itself is just way beyond the cool threshold. I've read through the instructions and have made a copy of all the pages so I can scribble on them, color code stuff and make notes to myself, which, in my orbital environment is absolutely necessary to keep me in sequence, on track and out of real trouble. I won't be including any over-exposed and off-color shots of the sprues and other parts in the kit. See instead Mr. Tamiya's site for 'official' pictures of what is in the box, and the box itself. (Ed.Note, 22 Aug; the Tamiya site appears to have a glitch opening their thumbnails into full pictures.) My review will be that of your ordinary modeler, somewhat experienced in building WWI and WWII airplane kits with an acceptable level of quality and detail. No novice, but no master either, usually floating somewhere in between. I plan to do a series of reviews focused on the basic subassemblies - engine, cockpit, etc -- these are almost complete kits in their own right. This will permit sufficient detail to discuss a large and extensive, if not complicated, kit. Since I am now traveling on business every week I will be doing some building at home on the weekends and I may take my basic "road tool kit" and relevant kit parts for some building time in the hotel at night. First Impressions The Box - Yes, the box. It's not just your ordinary box. Very nice artwork on the front, but on the inside when opened there is another blue box fitted over the parts bags and over a smaller box of parts. This blue box has cutouts which, when bent the right way, serve as a cradle for the completed aircraft, holding it snugly. The smaller box contains additional, but special, parts - rubber wheels, springs, formed wire parts… which are used in construction, but this box also serves as support columns that, when cut as per the instructions, hold the top of the main box above the airplane nestled in its storage bin. A very neat and ingenious design. The box also does a fine job of holding all the myriad parts and pieces of the unassembled model. What's in that box, generally speaking: Slide molding technology produced parts with fine detail. Lots and lots of parts with fine detail. Sakae type 12 engine - detailed subassembly and cowling that require build steps 40 through 48 to complete. (And even then, you aren't done…) The kit contains parts for both folded and extended wing tips which can be interchanged after the kit is built. Detailed metal parts make up part of the landing gear system and pitot tube. The landing gear assembly takes up build steps 35 - 39, which is to my mind, indicative of the detail and engineering that went into this kit. And, the gear is retractable (easily done with the included tool) and, from the looks of the instruction sequence, incorporates some bounce on springs. And, the flaps and rudder are moveable as well. There are also nice decals, masks, PE and two pilot figures - one standing and one seated. You don't really want to do the seated one because you'd lose all that lovely seatbelt detail in the cockpit. "Seat belt incorporates photo-etched parts for extra realism." Yeah, and so does my 1/72 Eduard Albatros kit, but here, the seat belts and seat take on the depth of another subassembly which, because of the level of detail, could be a little modeling gem alone. And, it's got a display stand when you want to pose it with the gear up and the canopy closed, or, chocks for when it's on the runway. The Parts All of the sprues and associated parts are protected within their own plastic bags. The appearance, quality and detail of the parts is as you would expect from Tamiya - flawless. We'll all have to deal with the sprue attachment points, but that's normal. Detail is excellent and, while I'm no Zero expert, I'm very comfortable with the notion that the detail Tamiya has included is correct. Maybe they missed a rivet or two, but that's a discussion I just don't bother with anyway. This is my hobby and I am fine with a close approximation of reality, which is all that scale modeling can offer anyway. This thing has rubber tires. So what?, you may say, but for me, this is great. No smoothing, no scribing, no painting. Black rubber. Looks like tires. Must be tires. Move on. There are also some bits and pieces that I've undoubtedly missed, but, after all , it's a big box and I was kind of overwhelmed with the thoroughness and quality of the kit, not to mention all those parts. The Instructions Omitting the first three or four pages - cover shot, brief historical write up, modeling tips, and the final three or four pages of drawings of the completed plane with color indicators and decal placements, and the large color sheet with all the versions depicted, I have twenty-three 8-1/2 x 11 single-sided copied pages of actual construction sequences. The instructions are very complete, calling out the actual names and functions of various components such as the loop antenna control, prop pitch control and throttle, etc. You usually don't get this kind of detail nowadays. You have to do your own research, which isn't a bad idea in itself, but a modeler shouldn't have to break out the reference materials if all he or she wants to do is just build an airplane and get a little knowledge of what the main parts and pieces are. I applaud Tamiya for so doing, and hope they continue and delve a little deeper here. Maybe it's just me, but I strongly advise reading through the instructions closely a few times before jumping in with the knife, glue and sandpaper. Especially with a kit this extensive, developing a good build plan is a good idea. The instructions, of course, serve as the backbone for such a plan, but as Moltke said, "No plan survives contact with the enemy." My project manager experience bears this out. This could be especially relevant here. Tamiya's instructions are very clear, thorough and detailed, but there is always potential for confusion or misinterpretation. For example, I spent a good few minutes puzzling over step 35, wondering why the directions say to glue J3 to H17 (and J4 to H16) when these are inner and outer landing gear leg parts that are internally separated with a coil spring. Wouldn't gluing them cancel any effect the spring was supposed to provide for 'shock absorber' action? But, clearly, there is this little glue-tube icon just below a shaded area on J3 and J4. Didn't make sense. Then, somewhat later that 20W bulb came on in my frontal lobe, illuminating the fact that, having read the 'modeling tips' section at the beginning of the instructions, this little tube represents not glue but grease. Duh. The Plan Now, the plan is to spend a few motre hours with the instructions before I get back on the plane later this week, and develop a build plan that will lead us to the next segment of this review wherein your intrepid reviewer takes nippers, scalpel, sanding devices and glue to the various bits and pieces. PS. If you hadn't figured it out by now, in my opinion, this is one really great kit.

Information, images, and all other items placed electronically on this site are the intellectual property of IPMS/USA ®.