Deep into the dust, 1/72 Mitsubishi A5M4

 

I miss the old cover-art

       Nearly four decades ago, just after the birth of my first son, I bought this kit. The group I was gaming with wanted to do WW2 early aerial combat (using a long-forgotten set of rules). I started it right away,  but a combination of two very young children and holding two jobs placed it on the back burner. It sat in the Vault until yesterday. I had begun looking for another ship model (I'm sure there is a copy of the Airfix Mayflower somewhere in the dusty aisles of the Vault)  when I stumbled across this in a box marked "old kits". My love of fighter planes with fixed and spatted undercarriages took hold of me and I resolved to finish the model instantly.

 

my how things have changed, 

try to find a brand new 1/72 scale model for $2.50 these days! 

 

by some miracle I hadn't lost any parts in the thirty

 years this has been knocking around in my basement(s)

 

this kit is a strange combination of crude overall workmanship and fine detail effects,

 the kit is poorly cast with flash on most parts but also has inscribed panel and rivet detail

 

the instructions are primitive in extreme!

 

the mold risers left horns on the wheels

 

and meet our highly detail pilot, the poor guy doesn't even have a face

 

strangely the kit has separate flaps

 

the kit is molded in a hard, almost brittle, plastic and was very badly warped

 

check out the gap at the wing root!

the fit on the rest of the model is nearly as bad

 

an extensive bout of putty and sanding got 

the model into an almost-presentable condition

an initial coat of white paint

 

followed by a couple of thin coats of pale gray

 

some Future floor wax for gloss and then the decals, 

which were of very good quality

 

starting to look the part

 

time for a matte coat

 

after the matte had dried I added the windscreen

 and glossed the engine cowling and props

 

it certainly captures the look of a Claude

 

I would have to guess that there is a much better kit out there somewhere these days!

       Now back to the boats!