Hasegawa

1/48 A6M2a Zero Fighter Type 11 "China Theatre"

Kit Number: 9763

Reviewed by  Keith Pruitt, IPMS# 44770

MSRP: $38.75 Kit Supplied by Dragon Models USA: www.dragonmodelsusa.com First Look The A6M Zero was Japan's most-produced fighter aircraft during World War II. It was utilized in all theaters from the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War, which is the aircraft version depicted by this kit, all the way through to August 1945. Inside the box are three sprues of injected molded light gray plastic including 82 parts, and one sprue of clear plastic including 9 parts, for a total of 76 plastic parts (10 parts are indicated as "not used"). The parts have fine, crisp recessed panel lines and rivet details, with no flash on any of the parts. The clear canopy parts are extremely thin and crystal clear, with faint raised framing. There are two different rear canopy sections, early and late versions, but the late canopy style is used on only one version in the markings. Also, there is a really nice rendition of the Type 98 Gunsight on the clear sprue.

The instructions include 11 steps, and include the history of the aircraft and a paint chart that lists colors by Gunze-Sangyo and Mr. Color paint numbers and by color name. There is a large section that indicates painting and decal placement instructions for four different aircraft.

The decals appear to be quite thin and printed in register, and include markings for 4 IJN aircraft: two with the 14th Naval Flying Group, October 1940; one with the 12th Naval Flying Group, September 1940; and one with the 12th Naval Flying Group, 1941. The instruments are included on the decal sheet, with most of the gauges as individual decals. Construction The build starts with the cockpit, composed of a total of 13 parts. Detail is quite good, with the only feature missing to be seatbelts of some sort. Although, the instructions call for the cockpit to be attached to the starboard fuselage, I glued the fuselage halves together and inserted it from below, guaranteeing the alignment to be centered. While the engine is nicely done, with both rows of cylinders, I later found an issue with it. When it comes time to add the propeller, the small rim of plastic around the opening in the gearcase is all that holds it. With nothing else, this causes the prop to droop as the weight of the propeller pulls downward on the shaft. It would have been easy to add a small styrene disc between the cylinder banks and drill a hole for the prop shaft during assembly, but I did not notice the situation until the engine had already been finished. However, I drilled out a piece of kit sprue, inserted it from the rear of the engine, and glued it in place. This seemed to stabilize the prop shaft just fine. Superdetailers may want to add wiring, but there is not much room to see anything once the cowling is in place. If you choose version #3 of the marking choices, you will have to fill and sand the attachment points on the cowling for the exhaust, as they will be attached more laterally. For all of the versions, the instructions also indicate that you need to remove the aileron trim tab actuator, and fill and sand the engraved trim tab panel lines. Apparently, these are molded there for a later variant. The lower air intake is molded to include part of the landing gear bay. Unfortunately, this leaves a hint of a seam in the floor/ceiling of the landing gear bays. On the air intake, the ceiling is a separate piece. After attaching it, be sure that you sand the sides of that part flush with the sides of the intake. When it comes time to attach the one-piece cowling, this will help the fit and make alignment much easier. The remaining construction seemed to go quite nicely. Most of the parts fit very well, and no modification was necessary in any areas other than those I mentioned. I did use Mr. Surfacer 1000, but it was not really necessary on most of the seams. Painting There is an issue on the paint chart. It lists the overall color as "Mitsubishi Green". I think this is incorrect. According to all of my references, it should be "IJN Gray". The two-tone version lists 128 Gray Green and 35 Mitsubishi Green as the colors. According to Squadrons "A6M Zero in Action", the correct colors should be "Light Gray" and a special "White Gray" for this particular version. What's the bottom line here? Check your references! Decals After a gloss coat, I applied the decals. They were thin and printed well, and went on quite easily. They released from the backing within a few seconds after dipping in lukewarm water. I used both Microset and Microsol, with no problems whatsoever. The instrument decals are really nice, and there is even a neat little "crosshairs" decal for the gun sight. Final Assembly I added the engine, cowling, landing gear and doors, antennae. Then, I attached the canopy, in the open position, with Testors Clear Parts Cement. The fit of the canopy was excellent.

Overall Impression This is just a nice kit for a fun build. The kit is very easily built straight out of the box, but could be improved tremendously with any amount of extra detail that you would want. I think any modeler with average skills would have great time building this kit. For those Zero fans out there, this is a great "must-have" addition to your collection. I would rate this kit as Highly Recommended. I would like to express my gratitude to Dragon Models USA and IPMS for this review sample.

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