Tamiya 1/72 A6M5 Type 52

 An aircraft that needs no real introduction, having dozens of books and articles written about it, never the less the Zero was the backbone of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Flown by nearly every top Japanese fighter driver from China, to Pearl Harbor, Rabaul and beyond. In kit form it has been well represented by almost every manufacturer you can think of!  In 1/72 scale Hasegawa introduced a series of Zeros from Type 21 to 52. Decent, yet reasonably accurate ,they lacked main gear bays, and had a tub for the cockpit. Hasegawa then tooled up a whole new set of kits in the Nineties that were crisper, but now had very shallow gear bays, but a more detailed cockpit. Not bad, but not quite on target. Tamiya set a new standard for Zero kits with the introduction of a new 1/32 scale Type 52 , then a Type 21. They then came out with a 1/48^th Type 52, setting a new standard in Zeros in that scale. Now, you guessed it, they have a new Type 52 in 1/72^nd ! And is it a beauty!

 Upon opening the box you are greeted with two sprues of parts molded in gray plastic, a clear sprue, and a sheet of decals. Also included is a fold out history sheet on the various types of Zero's in both English and Japanese. All sprues are bagged individually plus the decal have a tissue to protect them. The clear sprue includes a gunsight and one windscreen, plus two main canopies, one with a separate sliding section the other being closed. The cockpit comprises of a separate floor, seat, stick and  throttle, control panel, rear bulkhead, seat frame, receivers for the cowl guns plus other controls which are to be glued to the sides which have crisp, accurate detail molded to them. The gear bays are deep and detailed . The engine is made up of four parts and the prop is one piece with a two piece hub. Cowling is molded in one piece and even comes in its own bag! Total piece count: 69.

The decal sheet has markings for three aircraft plus various stencils, no step and fuel caps. Two aircraft are of Nakajima manufacture and one from Mitsubishi, and they reflect the different ways these factories painted the camouflage.

  I have already started working on this model ( you will see parts already removed from the trees ) and so far dry fitting has shown this goes together like a dream...... All we can hope for is Tamiya does other variants...... Tamiya, are you listening?

   Model purchased at my LHS !

Scott Jamieson

April 2012