Manufacturer: Tamiya, distributed by Tamiya America, 2 Orion, Aliso Viejo, CA 92656-4200, 800-826-4922 www.tamiyausa.com
Kit: No.60309
Scale: 1/32
Price: $99
Comments: Injection molded, 319 parts – 35 photoetched metal, 34 hardware (screws and wires), vinyl tires and brake lines, decals
Pros: Loads of features, excellent interior and external detail, excellent fit, working control surfaces, retractable landing gear, sliding canopy, sitting and standing pilot figures
Cons: Thick decals are tricky to apply, some decal solvents produce permanent wrinkles
It’s been more than a year since Tamiya announced its large-scale Zero. The promise of top-notch detail and working features has kept many modelers drooling. Now that the kit is here, get out the mop!
The big box is packed to the gills. Parts trees, decals, and the photoetched-metal parts are individually bagged. Hardware comes in vacuum-formed plastic bubbles mounted on a card.
One of the kit’s stunning features is the realistically sprung landing gear struts. All of the control surfaces are hinged and fit tight. The instructions include three-view drawings of paint schemes and markings for three aircraft, a Zero history, building instructions, a Tamiya paint list, and detail photos of preserved aircraft. Drawings of all the parts trees and hardware are included.
Construction begins with the interior. Everything in the assembly is straightforward with no real glitches. However, it is important to proceed slowly and carefully. There is so much to do in each assembly step that it is easy to miss things.
In assembly step 2, it might be easy to misinterpret the drawing of the mounting place for the hydraulic pressure tank (part No. E77). Both mounting surfaces are on the inside of the fuselage; not on the inside of the headrest as shown. The correct mounting surfaces are easily identified by looking at the fuselage half (A3).
Don’t expect rapid construction. Painting small parts – some with as many as four different colors – takes time.
There are four fuselage joints. I recommend gluing them one at a time and allowing each a while for the glue to set. Alignment and fit are excellent, but that’s a lot of area to get perfect all at one time.
Tamiya has provided printed, peel-off, self-adhesive seat belts and a shoulder harness to which photoetched-metal buckles are attached. An innovative idea, but it was difficult to form them into a natural-looking posture and keep them in place.
The instrument panel decals are printed on the adhesive side so they can be applied to the backs of the clear plastic instrument bezels.
Hinges for all the flying surfaces are hung on photoetched hangers. I encountered no problems working with the photoetched metal parts and super glue. Some parts require grease (provided in the kit). Use it sparingly.
Some holes need to be opened up in the bottom wing surface in step 19 so that bombs can be installed in step 31.
Probably the most difficult assembly sequence in the kit occurs in steps 20 and 21. This is where the landing-gear covers and their double-action hinges go together. They are to be mounted inside of the wing’s bottom surface. Getting one of the wire hinges in backwards is likely, and, since the hinges must move freely, close attention is needed to the amount of glue used and where the glue goes.
Correct assembly of the landing gear cover arms (E15 and E84) is critical. The parts are small, work properly mounted only one way, and are pressure fitted together. Any excess glue here will ruin the operation of the covers. After assembly, see that the covers properly pivot out of the gear well and that they swing back out of the way of the retractable gear legs.
The red, yellow, and blue markings applied to the main landing gear covers in step 34 are there to show the extent to which the gear legs have been compressed. After application of these decals, don’t compress the gear legs until the decals have had time to dry thoroughly.
The landing gear is retractable, but you don’t want to be cavalier or playful with it. A plastic wrench is provided to pivot the struts. You have to remove the leading-edge gun cover to expose a square nut. In addition to this, you have to open the small wheel covers properly and slightly compress the main struts to get them to fit into the wells.
Parts are provided to show the cowl flaps open or closed. Panels (C8 and C9) that cover the engine mounts are removable, so don’t glue them in place in step 43. Once the cowl halves are assembled in step 44 and 45, they can be placed around the engine without gluing. Fit is superb; the cowl will stay in place even while being handled.
Masking seals are provided for the canopy parts. These masks are not die-cut, so use a new blade to cut them out. They fit well and came off after painting with no trouble.
In step 51, I had to use my motor tool with a cutting disc to remove about 1/8″ from the end of machine screw BB1. When turned into the bottom of the fuselage through the stand assembly (S4 and S1), the end of the screw interfered with part E27, the battery mount that was installed in step 27.
I used discontinued Floquil Military and AeroMaster enamels to paint my model. Tamiya’s decals are thicker than aftermarket decals, but they stick well to gloss surfaces without silvering. However, if decal solvents are left to evaporate in their own time, the decal will permanently wrinkle. If you leave the solvent on the decals for a minute or so, that’s enough to soften them. You can blot the excess solvent with a paper towel and press the decals into the scribed details on the model.
The wingspan measures about 5 scale inches short and the fuselage is about 3 scale inches short. The weight of the model does not compress the sprung landing gear. Despite these minor discrepancies, the model sure looks like a Zero.
I was thoroughly impressed. I will be at the head of the line to buy them if Tamiya issues more kits in this series. Any modeler used to working with small parts and painting will enjoy building this kit. I sure did.