Tamiya 1/32 A6M5 Zero

[BattleTweety]

I've started work on the Tamiya 1/32 A6M5  Zero.

 

 

Heaps of stuff in the box, lots of little springs, screws, tyres and sprues.

 

 

The instructions call for the fuselage to be done first which was a fairly straight forward affair. I must say the seams are incredibly tight and don't seem to need much if any filler. Tamiya just keeps setting the benchmark for part fit.

 

 

The cockpit was the main event. Oh wow, this baby is the single most detailed cockpit I have ever built. More detail than the 1/32 Corsair by Tamiya. Getting a photo of all this was really challenging. Also a call out to other posters who have built this kit as their images have really helped. I can only hope mine adds to the library. Ryan Toews did an excellent step by step of corrections in https://www.largescaleplanes.com/articles/article.php?aid=3332 some of which I followed, some I didn't. I've not used any aftermarket parts, apart from some fuse wire for the bungee cord behind the pilots seat. The seat belts supplied by Tamiya are a glossy paper version and I'm not overjoyed with them. I'll hit them with some flat clear to see if that helps. The kit does supply brass buckles which are a nice touch. Otherwise, I'm really impressed with Tamiya's cockpit.

 

 

Closeups have shown me a few areas to touch up.
Engine next. Another piece of incredible detail.

 

cheers

 

BT

[BattleTweety]

The cockpit fitted into the fuselage very snugly and perfectly which is always appreciated when building these things.

The kit allows for moveable rudder and tail planes which is interesting. The mechanism seems robust enough if you use superglue.

Since the undercarriage will be foldable, it has folding wheel covers. Not sure I would ever display it with wheels up but it makes for an interesting build and its a novelty I guess.

cheers

BT

[BattleTweety]

I spent some time today trying to do my version of the Aotake corrosion paint. These areas were nominated by the instructions so I've stuck with it.
I've put down a layer of the excellent Mr Color Metalcolor aluminium and then overlaid with a thinned mix of Tamiya clear blue with a touch of clear green and then weathered it with more thinners.

The mechanism to raise and lower the wheels is in. 

 

cheers

 

BT

[Thom216]

So far, a great looking Zero!

[Biggles87]

I think that this was first released around 2000 as Tamiya’s first ‘ Super Kit’ and I still have one somewhere.

You’ve done a great job on the cockpit and I’m impressed with your interpretation of Aotake.

Looking forward to more.

 

John. 🇺🇦

[spitfire]

Looking good, very impressive, I have both of Tamiya's Zeros in the stash and all the builds that I have found online say that they really are good kits to build so I will be interested to see how you get on.

So far so good.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[BattleTweety]

Worked on the engine build today. I need to grubby it up a bit and thinking about adding the wires in that are always missed from these kits.
Very easy build this one. The challenge will be trying to make it real.

cheers

BT

[BattleTweety]

I've started to add the wires into the engine. Fairly slow plodding task and damn hard to get the little wires to attach but its coming along. Superglue is my friend at the moment.

I also tried my hand at some hairspray weathering on the engine cowling. I'm happy with the result and the weathering is consistent with how I plan to portray the aircraft.


Canopy is all masked up. One criticism of the Tamiya kits (its hard to find one) is their lack of pre-cut masking. You have to cut the little canopy pieces off the sticky sheet yourself which isn't ideal.

Anyway that's it for one day, next step will be start preparing for the fuselage painting.

cheers

BT

[BattleTweety]

I've progressed to the underside and did some pre-shading, then coated it with a light spray of Tamiya XF12. I did a bit of research on colours as I was originally going with Tamiya XF76 IJN Grey Green but found it wasn't quite the right shade for the version of aircraft I am portraying. XF 12 IJN Grey seems to be a better match. I'm happy with the effect. Just have to make sure the pending gloss coat doesn't eat it too much and make it darker. A day of curing should hopefully prevent that.

cheers

BT

[geoawelch]

On 6/15/2025 at 2:37 PM, spitfire said:

Looking good, very impressive, I have both of Tamiya's Zeros in the stash and all the builds that I have found online say that they really are good kits to build so I will be interested to see how you get on.

So far so good.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

I love that the kitty is on the “Hellcat” box. 😁

[spitfire]

4 hours ago, geoawelch said:

I love that the kitty is on the “Hellcat” box. 😁

Yes that is my very much missed assistant modeller, he was great, he did not attempt to "help" me he just watched. He did the same when I was working on my motorbikes in the garage.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[szeregowy]

Quite impressive results especially with the cockpit, which by the way looks like a hell of a job.