1/72 A6M2 Zero, Saburo Shindo IJN, Pearl Harbor attack force.

[BradG]

This is the newer Airfix kit that mum actually bought for me when at Aldi. It's a pretty good model, but I find their blue plastic to be very soft, causing smaller parts to break when clipping from the sprue. I also had some issue with smaller parts being very poorly molded, the pitot and actuators for the control surfaces. I thus did not use them. Decals are excellent. I also refrained from weathering as these aircraft were probably very well looked after.

From the limited information about Saburo Shindo available, he fought the entire war, was reportedly the man to say "Tora Tora Tora" indicating surprise had been achieved on the morning of December 7th and would engage in several large battles through the Pacific War and surviving, hence why I was surprised there was so little around about the man. He worked for Mazda post war and passed away in 2000.

I decided to try the AK Interactive Gen 3 paints as I didn't have anything in the paint stash that looked close to the hemp colour of the aircraft. The paints spray a little spotty, they probably need a touch of flow enhancer, but I have to say they dry beautifully flat and the colour looks great. You can even brush paint them for touch ups which you will need to do because they are rather delicate and easy to rub off or scratch.