Kartonowa Kolekcja #2 - Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero

[GreMir]

After finishing the P-40 I felt strong urge to restore balance to the Universe so I decided to build something Japanese

This model was designed by Pawel Mistewicz and it is basically the same kit as was published by Maly Modelarz in 2000. The difference being different camo, separate control surfaces and weathering. Model depicts plane flown by Lt Yukio Seki during his attack on Taffy 3 when he led unit of five bomb-armed Zeros with the goal of performing kamikaze attack.

I decided to build the plane exactly as designed, keeping any changes to the minimum.
First of them was the result of placing of the pilot in the cockpit. I had to remove the black area on the forward frame to allow pilot's legsto fit and also mount the seat directly on the aft former insted of the flimsy supports provided by the designer. This is actually the only weak spot of this model (few years ago I built the MM version...).
Second change is the cutout in the former to accept the radio direction finder antenna.

Now to the photos....

[Don Boose]

Mike --

Needless to say, I am delighted to see you building a Japanese airplane, and with such historic associations. Although I have read a lot about the Battle of Leyte Gulf in general, and the engagement off Samar between Kurita's battle force and Sprague's Taffy 3 force of CVEs, DDs, and DEs, I had only vaguely been aware that it was a kamikaze attack that had destroyed the St Lo. So I have already learned something from this.

Will Seki's airplane be a future GreMir offering?

Don

[GreMir]

Hi Don,
Sadly, Pawel Mistewicz is not interested in cooperation but we are working hard to make him change his mind. Maybee one day......

There is a huge discussion which pilot actually sunk the St Lo, but according to US Navy records and Nishizawa's description of the event (he was escorting the kamikaze planes) the attack itself was performed almost exactly as Seki was describing earlier to the reporter as a method to sink the carrier and get away with it.
Intention of the pilot who planted the bomb on the deck was not to crash into it - all sides are clear on that...

[GreMir]

Slowly chugging along....
The bump over the fuselage guns is really tricky to form so it covers the are that it supposed to cover...

[shrike]

Very nicely done tho'
It's the tricky bits like that that are so satisfying

[dansls1]

Looks excellent - very nice and symmetrical shaping of the bumps

[Don Boose]

Outstanding, so far, Mike. You seem to have executed the distinctive machine gun breech cover bump (for want of the actual nomenclature) perfectly.

Don

[GreMir]

A bit of progress...
There are two options for the tail - it can be build as a one piece or with separate control surfaces. If building the upgraded version, control surfaces will need to be cut out from the tail but additional parts to rebuild them are included. This option also requires some modification to former E for which the top part has to be removed.
White string visible (or not) on top pf the tail will be used to pull the antenna wire to tighten it. Other end is stored inside the wheel well so I don't pull it out ahead of time...

[Don Boose]

A flawless build, Mike. Could we have a close up of the string antenna-installation apparatus?

Don

[GreMir]

Thank you.

It's nothing fancy - simple string looped on top and threaded through the stabilizer, exiting through the wheel well. I will secure wire at the antenna and use the string to pull it through and secure it with CA glue on top of the stablizier.
I tried threading wire through the stab in P-40 but it was to difficult. This methoud should be much more effective.