Airfix 1:72 Mitsubishi A6M2b Zero

One of the things people who recently subscribe to my Youtube channel will quickly learn is my enthusiasm for the Zero fighter. Though I really do love building and exploring WWII Japanese aircraft I've really got a soft spot for this bird. A few years ago I was greatly inspired by 2 modelers on the web here, "MakingModelsAgain" took Airfix's old tooled nightmare of a Zero and  Turned it into an award winning masterpiece. It blew my mind to think of what he had started with and the finished result. The second was Rob at "basicmodeling" He built Hasegawa's Zero and with a little added parts turned it into a little gem of a fighter. After these videos I was set and ready to build a Zero for myself. Around this time Airfix was releasing a completely new tooled kit. And it was fantastic. I'm pretty sure I Bought the first kit that came into my hobby store, and I couldn't wait to star building. However I ran into a few problems, I tried to make a wash but I hadn't learned how to do it properly. I used Acrylic paints and made the wash from Acrylics, it ruined my previous paint scheme. So I scrapped the paint off a month later and finished it up as best I could. I've built several other Zero's since then another being the other New tooled Airfix Zero, in a starter kit with Pearl Harbour decals. But I was still bothered by the fact that I couldn't get the Zero to look right the first time. At the time I thought I was only building one Zero, I hadn't planned to build a whole wing of them so I ignored certain colors, and painted a curved line instead of a wavy line on the fuselage.

Last Summer (2013) I had a friend of mine buy me a Zero from Amazon.com, It was the old tooled Zero Starter kit, and I desperately wanted the Saburo Sakai decals. I couldn't get it to Canada since it was a U.S. only thing so he ordered it, drove down to his U.S. post box and brought the kit back. What I got was the same Zero :(

Still it's a terrific kit, and I was happy to get it, but not as happy as I would have been with those "Sakai" decals I would be saving for a future project. So instead I kept it on the shelf , and in recent readings and new techniques I wanted to built this kit, Straight out of the box and more or less inspired by the boxart weathering, But I had way too much fun building this kit again! It was a blast to go back and build it the way I wanted it the first time.  Here is Part 1 of the build:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYJxWAv4BTQ&list=UU2cpe3DtJgg98EsJkTe2rJA