AMT 1/48 A6M5 'Zero', previewed by Scott Van Aken

KIT #:	8872
PRICE:	Raffle win (about $2.00)
DECALS:	Three options
REVIEWER:	Scott Van Aken
NOTES:	1990 AMT release. Otaki tooling

Japan entered the Pacific war with the finest naval fighter in the world. This supremacy lasted until it foibles were discovered and better US aircraft, in the form of the F4U and F6F were available in numbers. Still, the airframe was continually upgraded, though it was never able to regain its former ascendency. Even in the last year of the war, it was still being produced, though by 1945 it was very much obsolete.

THE KIT

Back in the early 1990s, AMT/ERTL had decided they wanted to do airplane models. This was when they developed the A-20 series as well as their Tigercats in 1/48 and the kits were welcomed by modelers. This also included a series of P-40s that were later taken over by AMtech. In order to round out the offerings, they reboxed Otaki's line of WWII fighters, which, despite being tooling that was 20 years old, still met modern standards of engraved panel lines and nicely detailed interiors.

They still hold up fairly well some 35 years later, though they are simplistic by comparison with what has since been produced by Hasegawa, Tamiya, and others. This kit is the late war A6M5c. The kit provides a nicely appointed interior and there is detail on the fuselage sidewalls. The seat is somewhat generic, but a pilot is provided to cover up what's missing.

The kit provides a two row radial engine with a separate pushrod piece for the front. A single piece cowling is provided with the exhaust built into a cowl flap piece. The transparency is s single piece with the frame lines molded on the inside of the canopy. Who thought it was a good idea? The wing is a single lower section with molded in gear wells that are too shallow. The kit provides small bombs for the outer bomb racks and a centerline drop tank. Landing gear are OK as are the wheels, but nothing to write home about.

Instructions are quite large with generic color information. Ignore what it says about the interior colors as A6Ms were not dark grey on the inside nor were the gear wells in chromate green. Three markings options are provided, all in dark green over grey. The planes differ only by tail markings and while I'm thinking that the decals are probably still OK, there are a lot of aftermarket options out there for something different.

So what we have here is a kit from the early 1970s that is still quite buildable. It lacks the detail and therefore the fussiness of modern A6M kits. I'm not real jazzed about the way the canopy frames are done, as that will simply make masking it that more difficult. The builder will also have to deal with some flash, which is typical of older kits, but with some skill and perseverance, a nice model will result.

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