21st Century Toys 1/32 A6M2 Zero Type 21
By Rodney Williams
THE KIT
This 1/32 scale model kit was made by "21ST CENTURY TOYS" and cost a bit over an American ten dollar bill. However, I received the kit free from Brad Hegan a fellow modeler. Brad and I have been email friends for a long time. Brad use to be part of this web site called "Large Scale Planes".
In days gone by, I have built a few Zero models and have always painted them with the green colors. This time around, I want to paint my last Zero a different color if at all possible.
I surfed several model web sites and found a real photo of a Zero, which had no paint on it except for the national insignias and tail markings. I found a color art drawing of the same Zero. Then I found a model of the same Zero. That's it I'm done looking and made up my mind that my Zero would be "bare metal".
We start this building story by showing photos of the real Zero and the art drawing.
CONSTRUCTION
The kit instructions start with the engine, which has ten parts and are nicely molded. The cowling is made up of 3 parts. The three bladed prop is very nice. For some goof-ball reason, I do not have any "in-progress" photos of the engine.
The one piece lower wing section has some holes in the wheel well area. I did not do any research on this aircraft, so I just closed up these holes with some flat sheet styrene stock, as my other 1/48 scale Zero models did not have these holes.
I cleaned up the two main gear struts, then attached them to the lower wing section. I dry fit on the two top wing sections and taped them to the lower one piece wing. I made sure that the struts would move freely into and out of the wheel wells before I glue the wing sections together.
This application worked real good and let me fold the gears into the wheel wells, while I worked on the wing.
Some of the ten cockpit parts were not molded very nice. The instrument panel lacked a backing plate and the company did not supply any plastic and/or decal dials. I made a backing plate and added some decal dials.
I painted the entire cockpit area with Tamiya Chrome Silver then over coated the silver with Tamiya Clear Green.
This photo shows my orange tape on the leading edge of the wing. I am ready to re-scribe in some missing panel lines.
The model is nearing completion so I dusted on some thinned down silver paint so I can find and fix any flaws in the finish. As you know sanding flaws show up really bad when you paint your model with any aluminum base paint. I sanded the model starting out with 400, 600, 800, 1,000 and 1,200 grit 3M wet/dry sandpaper.
A couple of years ago (2007), I read a model story where the modeler applies a few thin coats of Future Floor Wax to the bare plastic on his model. After it dries for a few days, he applies the bare metal paint. The "wax" fills in the tiny sanding marks and it really...WORKS !
My base coat was Tamiya Chrome Silver, including their Titanium silver and a light grey color. I used my XF-1 Flat Black paint for the anti-glare panel.
I cut out some rudder/fin stencils, including the stencils for the "meat-balls", from my frisket film paper. I sprayed on Tamiya X-7 Gloss Red paint. I found the tail number of 17 in my spare decal box.
I have been using long black human hair for my antenna wires. It ties real easy and glues A-OK with super glue.
SUMMARY
This kit was a joy to build and I'll give it an "8" on a scale of "1 to 10."
I have learned from a very reliable source that "21st Century Toys" has quit making plastic model kits like this Zero. So, if you can find one of their kits like this Zero...just grab it. It's a fun building project.
© Rodney J. Williams
This article was published on Wednesday, July 20 2011; Last modified on Saturday, May 14 2016