Berna Decals 4865: A6M3 model 32-22

This is a nice sheet for the 1/48 A6M3 model 32 and 22 aircraft. There are several 1/48 kits for these planes with most of them being for the clipped wing model 32 instead of the later standard wing model 22.

The sheet itself has a nice selection of options with four of them for the model 32 and five for the more numerous model 22. These options also cover the two major camouflage schemes. These are overall amerio and a dark green over ameriro. All of the options are from mid 1942 into 1943. While the instructions intimate that all planes had yellow wing leading edge markings, this may not be true for the early options. Note also that the width of these wing markings varied quite a bit with some of them being quite wide when they were field applied. The ones with an upper surface green may also be field applied and could be a bit patchy where the paint was not put on as solidly as it would have been at the factory.

The vast majority of these planes are from the Solomons campaign and based at Rabaul. One is from a unit in Japan. Another note is that the third full profile is in error when it comes to the fuselage band. This has since been proven to be in yellow so keep this in mind if choosing this particular option. Japanese markings are a still growing field of research and so fairly fluid. I can point you to the various recent Avonmore books on the subject as references for this.

The decals themselves are very nicely printed with unique markings for all the planes and insignia for one. You can use aftermarket roundels if you wish to do more. The Hasegawa kit insignia are too bright for most modelers and won't match these decals.

January 2022

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