Mitsubishi A6M2 Type 0 Model 11 in 1/72 by Scott Jamieson

A second, beautifully finished Zero model in 1/72 scale by Scott Jamieson, this time built from the 2012 Tamiya kit, No.80 in their 'Warbird' series, and backdated to Model 11 configuration to represent an aircraft of 12 Ku in China as flown by Naval Aviation Pilot 3/c Kunimori Nakakariya as wingman to Lt Minoru Suzuki on the 26 May 1941 sorties against Nanning. During this mission Nakakariya claimed two I-15s over Tiansu and those victories were marked on the tail fin of 3-138.  He survived the war, claiming 16 victories in total. Fuselage band colours on 12 Ku aircraft have been variously depicted as blue or red without definitive conclusion and are discussed here.

Scott filled in the arrestor hook slot and wingtip hinge folds, using the markings from the Fine Molds kit. The red fuselage band is from the Tamiya kit as the Fine Molds decal did not fit the Tamiya fuselage. Scott found it a bit large and felt he should have trimmed it.

Being a Tamiya kit there were no issues in construction but Scott added his usual details to the cockpit with seatbelts, drilled out seat, bungee cord for the seat adjustor, handle for the hydraulic back-up pump and landing gear and flap handles.

Scott again finished the model in Tamiya XF-76 Gray Green (IJN), as a Mitsubishi aircraft including the wheel bays, but painted the fabric covered flight surfaces in XF-21 Sky.  Scott's 1/72 A6M2b model also built from the Tamiya kit featured here in June 2020. Scott has now completed six Zero models since 2019 and looking at his impressive collection (shown below) hopefully he will share images of the others here too. 

With special thanks to Scott for images and details of another very fine Zero model.

Image credit: All model photos © 2024 Scott Jamieson; Box art © 2012 Tamiya