Completed Review - Airfix's A6M2b Zero (A01005) - Part 2

Scale: 1:72, RRP - £5.99

It's been more than a month since I last wrote about Airfix's A6M2b Zero and as it's approaching completion I thought it's about time I wrote a bit more about it.

Apart from the issue mentioned previously with fitting the machine guns and cowl the kit pretty much fell together, I didn't actually feel the need to do any filling, which is always a bonus. The clear parts fitted well and aren't too thick, meaning some of the details inside can still been seen.

To paint the model I used Tamiya acrylics. I'm becoming more confident using an airbrush and so this time I attempted to pre-shade the panel lines with Tamiya's XF-1, Flat Black, although this worked better on the base of the aircraft.

The base was then sprayed with XF-12, JN Grey, while the rest of the aircraft was sprayed with JN Green (XF-70). Finally in order to highlight the model the green was highlighted with lighter mixes of JN Green and Interior Green (XF-71, the colour I'd used for the interior).

Spraying went well and it's really good for the confidence to have a successful spell with the airbrush. There was a slight issue with a dog hair getting stuck in the freshly sprayed paint but I was fortunately able to rescue it...

Next, I moved onto the decals.

I have to say I found them a little thick and a bit more work than they should have been, especially as Airfix claim this is a level 1 difficultly kit.

The yellow bands along the front of the wing took some bending before they settled and the red outlines to the rear of the wings seem poorly thought out. The decal was a thin rectangle with a hollow centre (rather than being a solid rectangle decal) and as you can imagine was somewhat awkward to slide into place. With hindsight I should have cut it into more manageable pieces, but I got it settled eventually.

So for now that's it. I'm intending to display this model in flight, weather it a bit and attach the spinner. I've not attached the landing gear yet until I've found a suitable base to for it (otherwise the gear will be down).

Looking back to when I wrote my in-box review of this kit I scored it 4 out of 5. So the question is, now that I've built it, do I stand by that original score? There were a few issues in the build, but once it's built it's a really good looking kit. For the money you pay it's absolutely worth it, so I wouldn't hesitate to recommend that you have a go at building one.

Overall Build Score: 4 out of 5, as I wrote before, Airfix can be really proud of this release. Easily the best budget Zero kit out there and one that can also hold it's own with the high end kits.