Border 1/35 A6M2 Zero

Developed from a seemingly impossible requirement for a naval fighter that was heavily armed, had very good maneuverability, and very long range, the A6M dominated the first six months of the air war in the Pacific. The aircraft's performance came from a very light weight structure that sacrificed pilot and fuel tank protection. Once these weaknesses were discovered, Allied pilots were able to exploit them.

The A6M2 was the first series production variant with most of the airframes built by Nakajima. In fact, even considering later versions, more A6Ms were built by this company than by Mitsubishi, who designed the aircraft. Despite constant upgrades, the A6M fell further and further into obsolescence as the war progressed.

Border has decided to take the fairly unusual step of producing its large scale aircraft kits in 1/35 scale instead of the usual 1/32. This provides two positive aspects. One is that the models are more in line with the standard armor scale so are not oversize by comparison. Secondly, it opens up the possibility of doing a variety of new kits to this scale as it has so far been ignored by most major manufacturers.

First off, the overall detailing is generally very good, as you would expect from a modern kit. There is fuselage interior framework detailing. Overly done is the fabric presentation on the flight control surfaces. Most will want to sand that down. The kit also includes two small p.e. frets for seat belts, DF antenna, and aileron hinges. These hinges are tied together with a section of wire. If you have ever built a really early 1/32 or 1/24 Trumpeter kit you have experienced these. I'm not fond of them. Also included are springs for the landing gear, again, similar to the aforementioned Trumpeter kits. Frankly, they are gimmicks.

You are provided a full engine with exhaust and if you wish, you could easily pose it with one of the cowlings removed. Moving to the interior, you have full machine guns to fit atop the instrument panel. The main instrument panel is a bit odd. There are openings in the instrument faces for clear inserts. There are decals, but one has to go to the painting section to find what goes where. The small side console panel has just blank instrument faces. The interior builds up into a cage with various boxes and panels attached to framework that then gets attached to the floor along with the seat and fore/aft bulkheads.

The wing has multipiece gear wells and there are full canon. It initially appears that the separate wing tips can be modeled folded, but that is not the case. Undoubtedly designed this way for an A6M3. This is an early A6M2 as there aileron mass balances. The leading edge of the wings have inserts where the canon protrude. Holes for the wing bomb racks are already open and for the centerline you have a choice of a fuel tank or another bomb.

There is a separate windscreen and canopy if you wish to pose the canopy open. A nice touch is that the upper fuselage is a separate piece, which eliminates the usual seam. Landing gear have springs as mentioned earlier and the tail hook just snaps in place. If one wishes, the gear can be posed in flight. An interesting addition are a pair of wheel chocks.

Instructions are well done with detail drawings where needed. Mig colors are referenced and there are three markings options. The box art option is a kamikaze from April 1945 so the bomb would be appropriate for the centerline. A Pearl Harbor attacker from the Akagi is offered in the early scheme and also in the early scheme is Saburo Saki's plane from February 1942 when based on Bali. Decals look to be well done, are in register, and are quite matte. 

Not sure how this one will go over with those who like large planes. It certainly has sufficient detail to make most happy and a decent choice of schemes. Not a big fan of the metal aileron hinges or springs for the landing gear and the company certainly could have gone a LOT lighter on the framework/fabric control surfaces. Guess that building will be the true test.

February 2025 

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