A6M5 Zero Type 52 by Bill Bunting (Tamiya 1/48)

Tamiya 1/48 scale
A6M5a Zero Type 52

by Bill Bunting

Mitsubishi A6M5a Zero Type 52

Tamiya's 1/48 scale A6M5a Zero is available online from Squadron.com

Description

This is the new Tamiya 1-48 A6M5/5a Zero Sen.

The kit went together beautifully with no assembly problems except those of my own making. The
parts are so precise that you need to ensure that they are all the way together before you bring glue to them. After assembly I noticed one of the front fuselage side panels was misplaced but it was too late to fix.

It really is an issue of placing many of the parts until they 'click' rather than a poor fit. The rear stabs were added after painting and the landing gear is a press fit without glue. It was completed using mostly Tamiya AS spray lacquer paints decanted and sprayed through a Tamiya Sprayworks HG airbrush.

The decals are from the kit and were superb over Future clear coat and Mr Mark Softer decal solution.

I spent a lot of time pre-shading, post shading and random patterns of lighter base colour and Tamiya "smoke" all over the model BUT after applying the final finish coat of Vallejo Air "satin" all shading on the topside disappeared. This was my experience with the Vallejo Air "satin" and it was not so good, it was very flat and even went chalky white in areas. Not so bad ove

r the grey underside but I had to buff the topside with a soft cloth to get rid of the unrealistic flatness. In addition it was very hard to clean out of my airbrush being unresponsive to water, alcohol thinner (Tamiya and Model Master), even lacquer (cellulose) thinner did not work that well. I threw the bottle away after this - any suggestions for a reliable true "satin" finish?

In the end it was a very enjoyable build and some new lessons were learned!

Hope you enjoy the pictures.