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Mitsubishi A6M2b of Tsukuba Naval Air Group, 11th Training Combined Air Group, Imperial Japanese Navy, based out of Tsukuba Air Base, Tsukuba, Japan in the summer of 1944.
The Mitsubishi A6M, commonly known as "Rei-Sen" or "Zero-Sen" for its "Type 0" designation (Type 0, meaning it entered service in Imperial Year 2600 - 1940 in the Gregorian Calendar), was a naval fighter type introduced to replace the earlier Mitsubishi A5M. As such, it became an emblematic fighter aircraft - as synonymous for the Japanese war effort as the Messerschmitt Bf 109 for the German, P-51 Mustang for the American, and Supermarine Spitfire for the British ones. The "Zero" represented both the best and worst traits of Japanese fighter design.
Coming at a time when fighter aircraft around the world were making the transition from biplanes to monoplane fighters, the "Zero" was the result of a demanding set of specifications laid out in a fighter design by the Imperial Japanese Navy for a replacement of the A5M - it was to be a naval fighter aircraft, with a wing span smaller than 12 meters, capable of a speed of 600 kmh, with an endurance of 2 hours at normal power and 6 hours at economical power, armed with two guns, and equiped with a full radio and radio direction finder set. This set of specifications was laid out in front of Nakajima and Mitsubishi; Nakajima soon pulled out of the contest, saying it could not be done, however, Mitsubishi said it could, but only if...
The main problem facing Mitsubishi was the lack of a powerful engine: the engine available to the designers was the Mitsubishi Zuisei 13, which turned out 780 hp - falling short of the 1000 and more hp commonly attained by British, American and German engines at the time. This meant that in order to get the kind of performance of Western types, the designers at Mitsubishi had to resort to... desperate measures. This began with the amuminium alloys with which the A6M was made: the Extra Super Duralumin alloy was lighter than more commonly used aviation alloys, but also more brittle and susceptible to corrosion. In order to lighten the aircraft even further, features common in contemporary fighter designs were omitted - the "Zero" carried little armour and was not fitted with self-sealing fuel tanks. This meant that the resulting design was light and manoeuverable, but also lacked in crash resistance, and easily caught fire or disintegrated when hit by enemy fire.
First flying on April 1st, 1939, the Mitsubishi A6M prototypes proved to be promising, however after the engine was changed from the 780 hp Mitsubishi Zuisei on the A6M1 to the 940 hp Nakajima Sakae on the A6M2, it surpassed most of the specifications demanded of it. It proved such a promising design, that 15 aircraft were ordered into service on July 1st 1940, before the type's operational trials had even been completed. The type drew first blood against the Chinese in August of 1940: during an encounter with Chinese-flown Polikarpov I-153s and I-16s, a force of 13 Zero's managed to shoot down 27 Chinese fighters in a matter of minutes. Reports of this and other encounters filtered through to the US military, where they were dismissed as "pure fantasy" - in their (racially motivated) views, the Japanese were simply "not capable" of producing a high-performance fighter type.
All of this meant, that the Zero's brutal reveal at Pearl Harbor, and its rout of Allied air forces throughout the Pacific and South-East Asia came as a bit of a shock to the Allies. Dispatching with ease with such advanced fighter types such as the Curtiss P-36 and P-40, the Seversky P-35, the Brewster F2A Buffalo, the Hawker Hurricane, and the Grumman F4F Wildcat, the fast and nimble "Zero" at times seemed invulnerable and untouchable. It was only when the wrecks of a number of aircraft were recovered - most prominantly an intact A6M2 which had force-landed on Akutan Island, that the Zero revealed its secrets. New tactics were devised, greatly levelling the playing field.
The loss of four aircraft carriers and most of their experienced pilots in the battles of the Coral Sea and Midway was a severe blow to the Imperial Japanese Navy - while aircraft could be replaced, the same could not be said for the experience which was lost with the hundreds of pilots lost in both battles, as the Japanese military aviation's training program lagged compared to those of its Allied counterparts. Despite upgrades to the Zero - first in the form of the A6M3 Model 32 with a supercharged engine, followed by the A6M3 Model 22 with increased fuel tankage, and ultimately resulting in the A6M5 Model 52 with increased armour, armament and other improvements - the Zero slowly lost its edge as new and better Allied types were introduced in the form of the P-51 Mustang, F4U Corsair and F6F Hellcat. Much like its German counterpart, the Bf 109, the Zero could still deliver a bite in the hands of an experienced veteran, but was otherwise outclassed in the hands of a novice. Despite this, and mostly due to the problems with its intended successor, the Mitsubishi A7M Reppu, the A6M remained in production until the end of the War.
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The model previously produced by Airfix as kit A01005 is incorrectly identified as an aircraft of the 201st Kokutai at Tobera Airfield, Keravat, East New Britain, Papua New Guinea in 1944. Instead, it is an aircraft used by the Tsukuba Naval Air Group, 11th Training Combined Air Group, Imperial Japanese Navy, based out of Tsukuba Air Base, Tsukuba, Japan in the summer of 1944. This was a naval fighter trainer unit, which had converted to a Zero trainer unit in March of 1944, and used obsolete A6M2 fighter airframes as well as A6M2-K two-seat trainers.
This model represents the same aircraft as the one I did last year, but this time sporting the correct trainer livery, with the distictive orange undersides of wartime Japanese trainer aircraft.
This kit has since been superceded by Airfix A01005A, which includes decals and livery for an aircraft of the 3rd Air Group, 202nd Kokutai of the Imperial Japanese Navy, based at Rabaul air base, East New Britain, Papua-New-Guinea in September of 1942.
----------
1/72 Airfix A01005
Inventory number 1133 - purchased March 9th 2017
First model completed in 2017
561 aircraft still on 'to do' list.
The Mitsubishi A6M, commonly known as "Rei-Sen" or "Zero-Sen" for its "Type 0" designation (Type 0, meaning it entered service in Imperial Year 2600 - 1940 in the Gregorian Calendar), was a naval fighter type introduced to replace the earlier Mitsubishi A5M. As such, it became an emblematic fighter aircraft - as synonymous for the Japanese war effort as the Messerschmitt Bf 109 for the German, P-51 Mustang for the American, and Supermarine Spitfire for the British ones. The "Zero" represented both the best and worst traits of Japanese fighter design.
Coming at a time when fighter aircraft around the world were making the transition from biplanes to monoplane fighters, the "Zero" was the result of a demanding set of specifications laid out in a fighter design by the Imperial Japanese Navy for a replacement of the A5M - it was to be a naval fighter aircraft, with a wing span smaller than 12 meters, capable of a speed of 600 kmh, with an endurance of 2 hours at normal power and 6 hours at economical power, armed with two guns, and equiped with a full radio and radio direction finder set. This set of specifications was laid out in front of Nakajima and Mitsubishi; Nakajima soon pulled out of the contest, saying it could not be done, however, Mitsubishi said it could, but only if...
The main problem facing Mitsubishi was the lack of a powerful engine: the engine available to the designers was the Mitsubishi Zuisei 13, which turned out 780 hp - falling short of the 1000 and more hp commonly attained by British, American and German engines at the time. This meant that in order to get the kind of performance of Western types, the designers at Mitsubishi had to resort to... desperate measures. This began with the amuminium alloys with which the A6M was made: the Extra Super Duralumin alloy was lighter than more commonly used aviation alloys, but also more brittle and susceptible to corrosion. In order to lighten the aircraft even further, features common in contemporary fighter designs were omitted - the "Zero" carried little armour and was not fitted with self-sealing fuel tanks. This meant that the resulting design was light and manoeuverable, but also lacked in crash resistance, and easily caught fire or disintegrated when hit by enemy fire.
First flying on April 1st, 1939, the Mitsubishi A6M prototypes proved to be promising, however after the engine was changed from the 780 hp Mitsubishi Zuisei on the A6M1 to the 940 hp Nakajima Sakae on the A6M2, it surpassed most of the specifications demanded of it. It proved such a promising design, that 15 aircraft were ordered into service on July 1st 1940, before the type's operational trials had even been completed. The type drew first blood against the Chinese in August of 1940: during an encounter with Chinese-flown Polikarpov I-153s and I-16s, a force of 13 Zero's managed to shoot down 27 Chinese fighters in a matter of minutes. Reports of this and other encounters filtered through to the US military, where they were dismissed as "pure fantasy" - in their (racially motivated) views, the Japanese were simply "not capable" of producing a high-performance fighter type.
All of this meant, that the Zero's brutal reveal at Pearl Harbor, and its rout of Allied air forces throughout the Pacific and South-East Asia came as a bit of a shock to the Allies. Dispatching with ease with such advanced fighter types such as the Curtiss P-36 and P-40, the Seversky P-35, the Brewster F2A Buffalo, the Hawker Hurricane, and the Grumman F4F Wildcat, the fast and nimble "Zero" at times seemed invulnerable and untouchable. It was only when the wrecks of a number of aircraft were recovered - most prominantly an intact A6M2 which had force-landed on Akutan Island, that the Zero revealed its secrets. New tactics were devised, greatly levelling the playing field.
The loss of four aircraft carriers and most of their experienced pilots in the battles of the Coral Sea and Midway was a severe blow to the Imperial Japanese Navy - while aircraft could be replaced, the same could not be said for the experience which was lost with the hundreds of pilots lost in both battles, as the Japanese military aviation's training program lagged compared to those of its Allied counterparts. Despite upgrades to the Zero - first in the form of the A6M3 Model 32 with a supercharged engine, followed by the A6M3 Model 22 with increased fuel tankage, and ultimately resulting in the A6M5 Model 52 with increased armour, armament and other improvements - the Zero slowly lost its edge as new and better Allied types were introduced in the form of the P-51 Mustang, F4U Corsair and F6F Hellcat. Much like its German counterpart, the Bf 109, the Zero could still deliver a bite in the hands of an experienced veteran, but was otherwise outclassed in the hands of a novice. Despite this, and mostly due to the problems with its intended successor, the Mitsubishi A7M Reppu, the A6M remained in production until the end of the War.
----------
The model previously produced by Airfix as kit A01005 is incorrectly identified as an aircraft of the 201st Kokutai at Tobera Airfield, Keravat, East New Britain, Papua New Guinea in 1944. Instead, it is an aircraft used by the Tsukuba Naval Air Group, 11th Training Combined Air Group, Imperial Japanese Navy, based out of Tsukuba Air Base, Tsukuba, Japan in the summer of 1944. This was a naval fighter trainer unit, which had converted to a Zero trainer unit in March of 1944, and used obsolete A6M2 fighter airframes as well as A6M2-K two-seat trainers.
This model represents the same aircraft as the one I did last year, but this time sporting the correct trainer livery, with the distictive orange undersides of wartime Japanese trainer aircraft.
This kit has since been superceded by Airfix A01005A, which includes decals and livery for an aircraft of the 3rd Air Group, 202nd Kokutai of the Imperial Japanese Navy, based at Rabaul air base, East New Britain, Papua-New-Guinea in September of 1942.
----------
1/72 Airfix A01005
Inventory number 1133 - purchased March 9th 2017
First model completed in 2017
561 aircraft still on 'to do' list.
Image size
4000x3000px 1.49 MB
Make
Canon
Model
Canon PowerShot G15
Shutter Speed
1/125 second
Aperture
F/2.8
Focal Length
31 mm
ISO Speed
80
Date Taken
Mar 19, 2017, 1:41:29 PM
© 2017 - 2024 kanyiko
Comments28
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You are a real genius. The picture reminds me of my plastic modeling hobby I used to have when I was a kid. I guess my models were not a good as yours.