the Mitsubishi zero struck fear into the hearts of Allied Pilots in the early days of the Pacific Theatre of World War two proving itself to be a deadly dog fighter join me in this video as I build and review the airfix plastic scale model kit of this famous aircraft hello and welcome to model minutes today's video is a beginner's guide to the airfix Mitsubishi a6m to be zero in 172nd scale which comes as part of the Pearl Harbor dogfight doubles gift set this video is the first part of three in this miniseries with the next episode featuring the build of his adversary the p40 be war hawk that is also included in the set and the third and final part will bring the two kits together on their display stand before we start the kit as always remember that adult supervision may be required due to the use of sharp tools toxic paints and chemicals Airfix recommends this kit for those aged 8 years and over normally in my videos I assume that people watching have a little understanding of model kit construction but for this one I'm going to break it down a bit more for those of you who've been out of the modeling hobby for a while or are thinking of getting started for the first time so let's take a look at the kit the gift set consists of two model aircraft kits unassembled display stand 8 acrylic paints to paint brushes a tube of poly cement a set of decals and an A for instruction booklet for the purpose of this video I'll only be focusing on the components required to build the 0 3 light grey plastic sprues contain the main components of the model and an additional clear sprue features the cockpit canopy the sprue is the extra part of the kit containing all the main components and these parts will need to be cut away from the sprue in order to assemble the model kit the sprue can then be recycled or reused depending on what you want to do with it the instructions consist of an a4 booklet which contain information about the actual Mitsubishi zero safety warnings and general information about how to read the instructions and prepare the parts for assembly make sure you spend a little time studying the instructions as the steps and diagrams for assembling the model can be confusing at times and patience will be key here make sure you put the sheets of waterslide decals to one side safely as we'll need them later these are the little sticker type things but we'll cross that bridge later from the included paints in this kit you'll need the humbrol 90 matte beige green 85 satin black and 11 silver for the final finish some of the other paints may be required for internal components but that will be clear in the instructions I do recommend some extra paints but we will get to that later it would also be worth getting a few extra tools – such as a scalpel or hobby knife some tweezers to hold fine parts some cloves pegs to hold parts whilst they glue together a nail file and some extra paint brushes of different sizes also the green mat you can see in my video is a self-healing cutting mat in a three size I use this to protect the table that I'm working on from damage from cutting tools and accidental spills of paints and glues which sometimes happen so with all of that out of the way and a better understanding of what's going on let's start building the kit the first step I chose to complete was to wash the plastic parts in warm soapy water the instructions recommend you do this in order to remove any oil or grease leftover from the molding process this will help give the cement and paints a better surface to stick to once clean leave them to air dry don't use any cloth as this can put dust or fibers on the model and spoil the finish when the parts were completely dry and then started assembling the internal components of the cockpit the individual part we'll cut from the sprue using a sharp scalpel and then any rough paths or unwanted plastic were filed using a nail file the parts were glued together using a small amount of poly cement following the instructions this can be a fiddly step due to the small size of the past so some tweezers might be a useful tool at this stage I repeated this process for other parts that need assembling such as the engine and propeller having completed these steps in the assembly the cockpit parts were then painted using humbrol 155 olive drab which was included in the kit I thin the acrylic paint with some water in order to allow it to flow better more on thinning paints later next I painted the engine with Humbrol 53 gunmetal gray which is a paint not included in the kit the instruction suggested humbrol 33 black and I decided that a metallic color would be more suitable instead moving on I then painted the main components of the kit humbrol 19 matte beige and at first I started using the included acrylic paint I found this to be incredibly grainy however even when thinned and was not happy at all with the finish so before the paint had dried I washed it all off and instead opted to use the enamel version of the same paint which is not included in the kit to get the best results of acrylic paints they can be thinned with water although specialist thinners are available i thin my in our paints with white spirit as it is cheap and easily available but once again specialist thinners can also be sourced for enamel paints I tend to do about a 1 to 2 ratio of thinner to paint but you may have to experiment with what works best for you the reason the paint can be thinned is in order to avoid leaving brushstrokes on the finished model keeping the paint more fluid until it dries will result in fewer visible lines my general rule of thumb is to start with the lightest color first then progress to the darker colors I find that it's always easiest to paint a dark color over a light one rather than the other way around having completed this step I then cut out the decals for the control panel inside the cockpit it was then soaked in warm water which enables it to slide off the backing paper and it can then be positioned in the correct place on the relevant plastic component I'm using humbrol decal fix here in order to help the decals to stick to the relevant plastic components I go into more detail about decal application later so stay tuned when the paint on the main part of the model had dried I moved on to the assembly of the fuselage the fuselage halves of the 0a cut from the sprue and I rubbed the rough areas with a nail file to remove excess plastic the cockpit components that were assembled earlier can then be installed take your time with this step as it can be a little difficult but Airfix have done a great job of designing this kit and the parts will fit together really well when the cockpit is finished the two fuselage halves can be cemented together and align really well thanks to the new design of this kit the parts will have to be held together until the cement has dried however some clothes pegs would be handy for this job next following the same process of cutting and sanding the wings and tail surfaces can be removed from the sprues they are then cemented together as per the instructions and installed onto the model you were given a choice in this model if you want to include the external drop tanks to the plane if you do then the relevant hole in the bottom wing will need to be opened with a knife in order to install it the display stand can work with or without this part in place the difference is that either the holes in the bottom of the wing or inside the drop tank half will have to be open to accommodate the displaced and I would like to point out that I'd already decided to model this aircraft with its landing gear raised to make it look as if it is flying the option to have the landing gear lowered is included however but will require a little more fine paintwork this is the option you choose also the option to depict the wingtips folded is also included but will require some extra cutting of the wings whilst you watch the final steps of this assembly I'll tell you a little bit more about the actual Mitsubishi a6m to be 0 designed as a long-range carrier-based fighter aircraft it saw service throughout the Second World War with Japanese forces at the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 the Allies had few rivals for the speed and maneuverability of this lightweight fighter its 2.303 inch nose mounted machine guns and two 20 millimeter cannons in the wings gave it an outstanding kill ratio of 12 to 1 it wasn't until 1943 with the introduction of newer aircraft and better tactics by the Allies that the zero losses started to outweigh their kills the downfalls in the design of this aircraft such as its lack of armor for both pilot and fuel tanks and its lightweight design meant that it couldn't survive much damage in a dogfight but despite these shortcomings at the hands of a skilled pilot it was still a deadly machine the aircraft of the airfix have decided to depict in this model kit is that of leftenant Saburo Shindo flying the lead aircraft of carry division 1 from the aircraft carrier ACOG II during the attack on Pearl Harbor on December the 7th 1941 with the majority of construction completed I then start painting the canopy by hand once again using humbrol 90 but opted for the acrylic version as it's easier to remove by scraping away if a mistake is made next I applied a varnish coat over the top of the model I used humbrol 135 which is a satin varnish a satin or gloss varnish should be used as the base for the application of decals as this prevents the decals from appearing silver and shiny on the model when the satin varnish was dry I then added the final components such as the pilot engine engine howling and propeller time must be taken at this stage so as not to get cement in the wrong place and spoil the paint finish where the cement is to be applied some paint should be scraped away to give a better bonding surface I think that if you're careful with the installation of the propeller it can be made to turn freely but I feel like I may have missed this in the instructions as I ended up gluing mine in place when those final components have been glued in place the next step was to apply the decals the decals were soaked in warm water and then gently applied to the kit which had already been given a coat of Humbert decal fix solution in the relevant position the decals are positioned and left to cure the solution allows for the decals to conform to the complicated contours and details of the model and look like they're painted on once applied to the model and you're happy with them don't be tempted to move them around again as the solution will make the decals very sticky and they could end up folded over or in the wrong place and if this happens it's quite difficult to fix the problem for more information on how to apply decals I made a video on this topic so I'll add the link below the next step would be to apply a further coat of matte varnish humbrol 49 to the model which ensures an even finish and helps blend the decals into the model the instructions imply that the aircraft should have a matte finish but I decided that a satin finish would look better in my opinion and as a result used humbrol 135 satin varnish instead I felt that I could do a little bit of extra detailing at this point so here are a few things you might like to try and do to your kit I applied a dark wash which I made from black pastel dust water and a drop of washing-up liquid this was then painted onto the model and then removed again using a damp towel the surface of the model is wiped clean but the panel lines and sunken details collect the wash and it highlights those details I didn't want too much of a wash left on this kit however due to light overall paint scheme so removed most of the black wash with a cloth extra improvements you could make but I chose not to but might go back over and do it at a later time include dry brushing silver over the model to give it a light metallic effect and highlight the details you can use humbrol 11 silver removing the majority of the paint off of the paint brush onto a paper towel then with the residual brush it over the model and only the raised details will collect the silver paint and make them look slightly chipped as if revealing the bare metal underneath also you could pick out the red navigation light on the left wing and the green one on the right using an appropriate color and a fine paint brush the final state as per the instructions was to install the cockpit canopy I used a clear all-purpose adhesive for the canopy and an attempt to prevent it from reacting with the glue and fogging up which Polly cement has a habit of doing I decided to add stains from the engine exhaust and gun ports to do this I again used a black pastel but instead this time I rubbed it into the relevant area of the kit then dragged a dry paint brush over the top in the direction of the airflow whilst it is in flight this drags the dust away leaving a realistic stain the final improvement was to install the radio wires I used my standard method of stretching the leftover sprue by heating it up over a candle then drawing the two ends away from each other to make a really fine wire be super careful with this step for more information on this method I've got a video featuring this technique on my channel so why not check it out these fine wires were then cut to length and a small dot of poly cement used to glue them in the correct place on the model they were then painted black to blend them into the model and that's as far as I went with the construction of this mitsubishi 0 model kit and here are the finished results I found it didn't take too long to complete and realistically the kit can be constructed in about 8 hours with a little patience it's quite easy to build but perhaps a little fiddly at times especially if it's your first kit but practice does make faith as this is a more recently designed model from Airfix it has a good mold quality fine detail and a good fit during construction I'm not entirely convinced that the choice Airfix has made to use humbrol 90 as the overall color for this kit is 100% right however as it seems a little too green and I feel that a zero would have been more white in its final finish perhaps this is a decision they made as it was the closest acrylic color they already had in production that was suitable for inclusion in a gift set if I were to build it again I'd complete the suggested improvements I'd not made to this one and also build it with the wheels down and wings folded perhaps as part of a diorama on the deck of an aircraft carrier what do you have planned with your kit this kit has been available in different versions either as part of this gift set a starter set or on its own which comes with different decal options Airfix have a habit of constantly releasing this kit in different paint schemes and this particular version does seem to be currently out of production but there is usually a zero in their range I'll add the link to the latest version at the time this video is made underneath the video if you want to see for yourself the gift set retails for about twenty pounds in the United Kingdom which is a reasonable price in my opinion but as always I do like to try and find a deal so managed to get it cheaper as previously stated Airfix don't seem to be currently producing this kit but stocks may exist in other retailers I'm impressed with the kit of this iconic aircraft from Airfix I'm more than happy with the finish results I've achieved through my Mitsubishi a6m to be zero don't forget that the next video in this mini series will feature a build and review of the p40 be Warhawk included in this set so make sure you check that one out too as always let me know what you think of my build techniques and finish model in the comments below and if you're just starting out in the hobby or returning after a break I'd be eager to hear what you've got planned for your first build I'm also keen to hear your suggestions as to other kits that you'd like to see me build on my channel so feel free to post that too all that's left to say is thanks for watching this video and don't forget to leave a like if you enjoyed it subscribe in order to see more content and help support the channel and feel free to share this video with your family and friends and connect with me on social media I'm on Twitter Instagram and Facebook see you all again next time
