History

There is so much out there on the Zero that I will not take up too much time with the history of it. The A6M2 Model 11 went into operation in 1940. After a short production run it was modified in November, 1940, to have folding wings (Model 21).

The Kit

This kit is made up of 2 sprues of grey injected plastic and 1 clear. The parts are flash free and have very fine detail and I did not notice any sink marks. The decal sheet gives you markings for 3 different aircraft of the 2nd strike unit and was flawless.

Scale Aircraft Conversions comes to the rescue again with another of their white metal landing gear upgrades. One of their latest upgrades is for the Czech Model F2A-3, Special Hobby F2A-2, and the Model 239 & 339 Buffalo kits.

The replacement parts included are the main landing gear (MLG), retraction struts for the MLG, uplock roller brackets (not in the kit), barrier guards for MLG, and three different tail wheel assemblies. There is one tail wheel assembly for the F2A-2 and -3 and the Model 239 & 339.

I will say that the MLG that SAC provided is a step above the kits’. Yes, there is a small seam that you will have to clean up, but it would be not even be close to the work that is involved in the two kit pieces that make up the kit MLG.

The fit of the MLG also seems a lot nicer than the kit part in gear well.

I would recommend this to anyone that has these kits as an upgrade to the kit parts.

This kit is everything one expects from the Special Hobby label – an interesting subject not often kitted, superb casting with no flash, excellent detail, PE and resin parts, fine decals, and a bit of work to get it all together. Those with patience will be rewarded with a fine kit of a subject not easily available elsewhere.

Five sprues with 74 light gray and 30 transparent (yes, this plane has LOTS of windows!) greet one upon opening the box. There is a photo etched fret with 36 larger brass parts and at least that many smaller parts representing the levers. There are a number of extra levers for the control panel, and it’s a good thing. I have big thumbs.

6 casting plugs with 31 resin parts make up the bulk of the cockpit and the machine guns. These are very well cast and come off the plugs easily and with no breakage.

There are 2 pieces of film for the instrument panel, which work well also.

Several months ago, Cyber-Hobby came out with a kit of the Northrop YB-49 in 1/200 scale. They have now followed up on that with a new kit of the Northrop XB-35, again in 1/200 scale. With a wing span of 172 feet, this would be a very large model in 1/72 scale and still a good-sized one in 1/144 scale. With 1/200 scale, the XB-35's wing span is a manageable 10.32 inches in width. There are 70 parts with no flash in their usual light grey styrene and another 8 parts in clear. A few of these parts may or may not be used, depending on which propellers you use, or if you build a flying version or one on the ground. The two largest parts are the upper and lower wing halves, followed by the four propeller nacelles, but you are given a complete interior even if 90% of it will never be seen.

Major Alexander de Seversky, a Russian ace with 13 kills during WWI, defected to the U.S. in 1918, founding the Seversky Aviation Corp. in 1931 on Long Island, NY. Alexander Kartveli emigrated in 1928, joining Seversky as his Chief Engineer. The Seversky/Kartveli team would become the Republic Aviation Corp. which would gain fame with the P-47 Thunderbolt whose lineage was directly traced back to the P-35 as both a combat pursuit fighter and a racer, setting speed records and participating in the Bendix and Thompson Trophy races. If your model collection strives to include landmark or significant historical aircraft, then I would state that it is incomplete without a P-35. Without the powerful P-35 impressing the military and sustaining the Seversky Aviation Corp. through the turbulent 1930s, there never would have been the P-43, P-47, and subsequent series of jets that served lengthy careers destroying our enemies and saving our pilots’ lives.