I’ve always liked aircraft with colourful paint schemes and this subject is no different. While at my local hobby shop one This was one of those quickly built models that I started in an attempt to keep my modeling going following one year’s contest. Well a few years later and this ‘quick build’ was finally finished.

Like the other 1/72nd scale releases from Academy in the past few years the Zero is a well engineered, tight fitting and affordable kit. Most of these kits I’ve seen are in the $10 to $15 range which puts them below their Hasegawa competition. So for that money what’s in the box?

The parts are molded in a light grey plastic that cuts, sands and glues well and all the parts feature nicely recessed panel lines. The canopy comes molded in three parts so the modeler can chose to have the canopy open if they desire. Because the interior wasn’t overly detailed I chose to not exercise this option.

As I built this model I noted that the part’s fit was nice and tight and I only needed a little bit of Gunze’s Mr. Surfacer liquid putty to seal the joints and seams. Be careful when installing the main landing gear as they are fragile and I accidentally ended up cutting off one of the axles that holds the wheel in place. With the landing gear I noted three shortcomings. The main wheels have two noticeable ejector pin marks in them and the tapered axle hole prevents you from simply turning the wheels around and amouflaging this behind the gear doors. I also noticed that the main gear doors didn’t seem to sit in line with the landing gear legs. I think I solved the problem by swapping the sides but this wasn’t the best solution.

The markings for this model were supplied in the kit and responded to Gunze’s Mr. Marksofter. The red circles seemed to cover the dark green Polly Scale paint but they trapped air along some of the panel lines they covered. The paint chipping was accomplished with some light dry-brushing of silver paint followed by some dry-brushed dark green to tone it down a little.

Overall this was an easy build and a model I’d recommend to a new builder; maybe not for their first kit because of the landing gear but certainly for a second or third. Unfortunately this quick build took a few years longer than I intended but in no way was it the fault of the kit.

After I finished this model I read that Academy’s Zero has some outline problems and that Hasegawa’s kits are more accurate. This might be so, but for me the Academy offering still looks like a Zero.