In-box review of the Academy 1/72 A6M5c "Zero" Fighter Type 52c

Unboxing and Review of:

- Academy 1/72 scale A6M5c Zero -

a peek inside the box

    Welcome to the very first unboxing and kit review on this blog.😁 Today I will be diving into the Academy A6M5c "Zero" Fighter Type 52c in 1/72 scale. Now that's a mouthful. So join me as we explore what's inside. But first let's take a quick look at the box.

Box art

box art of the A6M5c

    The front of the box features a really nice hand drawn depiction of the "Zero" just being started up, with some hangars in the background that look a little worse for wear. In the top left corner we have the name of the model inside this kit, along with some information about what to expect to see inside the box. In the top right we have the Academy logo. In the bottom left, in both English and Korean it says that the kit does not include glue and paints, and that the actual product inside, may be a bit different from the artwork on the box, which is a fair statement to mention. And in the bottom right we have the scale of the kit. In this case 1/72 scale.

first long edge

    On to the long edges then. In the far left side we have a side sketch of the "Zero", along with the name of the model and more or less the same info we can see on the front of the box underneath the name. Next to this we have 3 photos of a completed model, showing us what could be achieved with this kit.

the other long edge

    On the other long edge, we have another photo of a completed model, with a bit of information about what is inside the box and what may be required to build this kit written in several languages. We also have a copyright date of 2019, although, that may not necessarily be the tooling date. We can also see that the kit was made in Korea, that the kit does not contain glue or paints, the recommended age and some information written in Korean.

short edge

    On the short edge we have a smaller depiction of the artwork on the front of the box, the manufacturer's logo, the scale the product number is 12493 in case you want to buy this specific kit. All this is mirrored on the other short edge as well, so I'm not going to show it as it is a bit redundant. 

Contents of the box

inside the box

    Opening the box we are greeted by a warning label, a bag of sprues and some paperwork. So now let's take a closer look at what's inside.

box contents

    With everything out of the box, we can take a closer look at what the kit provides, going in a clockwise direction. On the left, we have our bag of sprues, next to that at the top we have our sheet of decals, followed by a building hints & tips guide and in the far right we have the warning label that greeted us when we opened the box. Then we have a health & safety pamphlet on a yellow piece of paper, and we finish with our building instructions. Let's now take a closer look each of these, starting with the paperwork.

Documentation

warning label

    We start off with the warning label that greeted us when we opened the box stating that we should check our parts list before unsealing the bag written in several languages. This is most likely here in case there are missing or damaged parts. I'm guessing, Academy, wants you to send back the kit before you can receive a replacement. It is nice of them to offer the possibility. However, this approach makes it kind of hard to see the state of the sprues inside the bag when you have more than one or two sprues. 

    Judging by this label, if you open up the bag and find missing or damaged parts that were not visible through the bag, you essentially waiver your right to trade in your kit for a replacement, which could be a problem in certain cases. 😒

health and safety warning

    Next we have the health and safety warning, printed on a yellow piece of paper, written in Korean and English, with a very concerned looking anime character in the top right. 😮

reverse side of the health and safety warning

    Turning the page around we can see the same information as on the front in several more languages. And for some reason, the page is white on this side. I'm guessing this was done to save on printing costs, which is fair.

beginner's guide front

    Next up is the beginner's guide written in both English and Korean. It contains basic information about the tools and techniques you need to build a scale model. This is a very welcome addition for any newcomer to the hobby, who might not know what is needed to build a model.

back of the beginner's guide

        Turning the page over reveals a few more general tips for building scale models, this time revolving around applying decals. Together, these can come in handy to first-timers. It always pleases me when I see stuff like this in kits because it tells me the manufacturers are thinking about people who might have never built a single kit in their lives. And that's a huge positive in my eyes. 👍😄

building instruction leaflet

    Next up, we have the building instructions, which comes in the form of a foldout sheet. Personally I am not a big fan of this style of instructions as they take up so much space when folded out, but they still serve their purpose. On the front here we can see another depiction of the box art, this time in black and white, with a little bit of history and operational usage off the real life aircraft.

    I always read through these whenever they are present. Not only do I sometimes learn something new I didn't know about the subject matter, but it can also give me some inspiration as to how I might want to build and paint a particular model 😎. And at the bottom there are some icons that you will encounter throughout this leaflet along with what they mean.

unfolded build instructions front-side

    With the leaflet folded out, you can kind of see what I mean by taking up a lot of space. But that's a future me problem.

    As you can see, building this aircraft is fairly easy, done in only a handful of steps, which makes it ideal for a beginner.

build instructions back-side

    Turning the instructions over, reveals the painting instructions printed in black and white which is not really ideal. Thankfully, the paint scheme is really simple so the black and white instructions shouldn't be too difficult to follow.

    Next to this is the markings and stencil placement instructions, followed by a sprue map which is always a nice thing to have as it makes checking your parts a bit easier. Now let's go over the build instructions in more detail.

step one of the building instructions

    At the very top we have some general guidelines telling us to study the instructions carefully. And this is something I highly recommend you do as it can help you identify areas that you can work on out of sequence. More often than not, doing so will make it easier to paint some parts before adding them to the model. Studying the instructions beforehand can also help identify areas that might need additional work. Like drilling holes or removing panels from the kit.

    On to the instructions proper, then. And we start by assembling the rotary engine and cowling. A slight deviation from how most aircraft kits start out. Then we move on to add the instrument panes, control column, seat and rear bulkhead to the cockpit floor.

second step

    We then move on to install the cockpit into one of the fuselage halves, after which we sandwich the two fuselage halves together. Then we need to install the horizontal stabilizer. Then we install the engine into the cowling which we glue to the nose of the aircraft. And we finish off this step with the cowling mounted guns.

wings and propeller assembly

    From here we move on and glue the upper and lower surfaces of the wings. And we also glue the propeller components together.

attaching the wings and propeller to the model

    Next we need to glue the wing assembly to the bottom of the fuselage, and install the propeller to the nose of the aircraft.

adding small details

    Then we install what looks like a gunsight to the instrument panel. We are also instructed to install the elevator counterweights and a small circular antenna behind the cockpit.

canopy installation

    Next we move on to installing the cockpit canopy, and we're given an option to this play this model with either an open or closed cockpit. We also need to ad an aerial mast to the rear of the canopy.

installing underside details

    We then move to the underside of the aircraft where we are told to install the main landing gear, gear bay doors, and the landing gear actuators. We also need to install the pitot tube, and wing-mounted guns, as well as the tail arrester-hook.

installing fuel tank and bombs

    We finish the build by attaching the external drop-tank mounts and drop-tank itself. We also need to glue on the wing mounted bombs. And with that, the aircraft is complete.

    As you can see, the instructions are fairly easy to follow, with not that many steps or parts. Like I said at the beginning of this section, some of these steps can be done in a different order. And I've already identified a few steps I will be doing in a different order whenever I get to build this kit for the blog. 😏 

    Just a few more things to look at in the instructions before we move onto the decals, then we'll move onto the main event; the plastic. 😁

painting instructions

    Flipping the leaflet to the other side reveals the painting instructions. This kit features two paint schemes, which is nice. Although the only real difference between the two are some stencils. Other than that, they use the same colors and markings.

    The first marking option belonged to Takeo Tanimizu of the 203rd Fighter Group, stationed in Kagoshima in June 1945. As mentioned earlier, I'm not a big fan of black and white painting instructions, but given the simplistic nature of this paint scheme, I can let that slide.

top and bottom paint instructions

    There are only 3 colors used for this model, light gray on the bottom green on the top and a bit of yellow along the leading edges of the main wings. But I can already tell you I will be doing a bit more than that when I get to paint this model. I already have some ideas swirling in my head, but you will have to wait until it's ready. 😉

second marking option

    The second marking option is part of the 302nd Fighter Group stationed at Atsugi in July 1945. I'm guessing that the pilot this aircraft belonged to is either unknown or uncertain, hence why it is missing.

top and bottom for second marking option

    Again, the overall paint scheme is identical, with the only difference being some small stencils. I wonder if you can spot them... 😉

sprue map - sprue A

    Closing off are the sprue maps which are always useful to make sure you have all the parts that any given kit. Not all manufacturers include these. Although, they are starting to be included in more kits these days. One slight adjustment I'd like to see is having the maps at the start of the instructions instead of at the end.

sprue maps continued

    And here are the rest of the sprue maps, along with a small text mentioning that the kit includes a few parts that are not used. These are most likely because, Academy make multiple variants of this aircraft, and it's easier and cheaper to include parts from another variant in the same box. Although having the unused parts written out like this makes the information a bit more easy to miss.

    Most other manufacturers will either color them differently on the instructions or just blank them out. Having it written, still serves it's purpose, but when the unused parts are visually different on the maps, it is a bit easier to notice them. Quick tip: I always hold on to any unused parts. I have a spare parts bin where I keep them in case I might need them in a future project.

Decal sheet

    

decal sheet

    The decal sheet comes in this plastic sleeve, this is nice as it helps protect the fragile decals from scratches and other damage. Overall the print quality is decent, although, I feel that they are a bit on the thicker side which might cause problems with conforming to details. But I guess we'll find out if that holds true after I finish building the model.

stencils and victory marks

    We have some placards and victory marks here, I'm Guessing these are for Takeo Tanimizu's aircraft. The placards aren't legible. But at this scale I'm not surprised given the complexity of kanji (Chinese characters used in Japanese writing) characters.

tail numbers and markings

    The tail numbers for both aircraft look nice, there's also some katakana characters that read Noruta (Norta), but I have no idea what it means or what it refers to.

markings

    Bellow that, we have some markings, I'm not entirely sure what these are, if you could tell me in the comments, that would be wonderful. And I can see a slight misalignment issue at number 9. The blue stripe is ever so slightly shifted to the right. Not by much, but it is noticeable. I'm not entirely sure, if this is a registration issue, or if it's supposed to look like that. Probably not, But if you are more knowledgeable in Japanese aircraft markings, please leave it in the comments.

white roundels

    Next we have a set of 4 white roundels. And looking at the instructions, you are supposed to place the red roundels further down on top of these, which leads me to believe that the misaligned blue stripe is indeed out of register.

more roundels

    Then we have a few more white roundels as well as the red roundels that go on top of them. And at the top and out of focus we have some white roundels with a green band. The Red roundels seem to be quite vibrant. Perhaps a little too vibrant for this scale. But given that at least some of them will go on top of a fairly dark green surface, they might become a bit duller once applied. If not a little bit of weathering should help solve this problem.

    

no walk markers

    Lastly we have the no walking area markers. Once again printed in bright red. But I'm quite certain, they'll become a bit duller once they're on top of the dark green paint scheme of the A6M5c.

bag of sprues

    We are finally at the main event of this unboxing review, the plastic. And even through the bag I can tell that the quality of the molding is to a decent quality.

sprues outside the packaging

    With the sprues taken out of the bag, we can see that there are 3 plastic sprues molded in light gray, and a small bag containing the transparencies. I'm really happy to see that the clear parts are packaged separately, as this helps protect them against scratches and other damage. And repairing damaged transparencies is a challenge even for seasoned modelers. Beginners would pretty much have to put up with the damage.

closer look at the transparencies

    Taking a closer look at the transparencies we can see that they are molded really well. They present no scratches which is really goon. There is a little bit of flash but it's nothing a bit of sanding can't handle. Masking however, will be quite a challenge given the "birdcage" style framing. At the far left, we can also see the gunsight for the "Zero". Overall, I'm really pleased about the quality of the transparencies.

sprue A

    Sprue A contains the fuselage halves, cockpit interior, engine cowlings, propeller components, horizontal stabilizers and a few small parts I'm not quite sure what they are.

horizontal stabilizer close-up

    Taking a closer look at the horizontal stabilizers, we can see that they are molded really nicely, even simulating signs of stressed-skin on the elevators.

propeller and small parts

    The propeller looks to be molded fairly accurately. And they seem to be in scale, we'll see if that holds true once it's installed on the model.

right-side fuselage

    The right-side fuselage also looks to be molded really nicely, with lots of recessed panel lines and rivet details, and nicely molded exhausts. We can see more simulated stressed-skin on the ruder as well.

left-side fuselage

    Moving on to the left fuselage half, the beautiful molded details continue. We can also see the tail-wheel molded directly onto the fuselage. That's something to take in mind when assembling this kit, as it could be quite easy to accidentally broken off.

propeller spinner and cockpit interior

    Next we have the propeller spinner and backing-plate. The instrument panel molding, whilst simplistic, it does have a good amount of detail, with the gauges being fairly deep. with a bit of weathering and a dark wash, it could be made to look really nice. Next to the instrument panel, is the control column. Above this we have the cockpit floor, with the rear bulk-head with some pre-drilled holes, which is nice to see as I won't have to drill them out myself. Then we have the seat which looks a bit basic, but I think it'll work just fine. At this scale almost none of the interior details will be seen. So I'm not too fussed about the simplistic molding.

engine cowling halves and cowling mounted guns

    The cowling halves are once again molded really nicely, although the panel lines seem a bit softer here than on the rest of the parts we've seen so far. But with careful painting, you should be able to bring all that detail out.

back-side of sprue A

Turning the sprue around we can see that there's not much detail here. There are however some ejector-pin marks, which might need a bit of cleaning in order to fit the engine in and to not see them from the outside.

back-side of the cockpit interior

    On the reverse side of the cockpit interior, we can see some basic details molded into the cockpit-floor. Nothing mind blowing, but just enough to give some interest to the interior. Less welcomed are some ejector-pin marks which will need to be addressed. They look like they will be quite visible so, you will need to sand them down. There's also an ejector-pin mark on the back-side of the instrument panel. It probably won't be visible, But I will most likely sand it down to have as clean a build as I can manage.

left-side fuselage interior

right-side fuselage interior

    The inside of the fuselage interior there is some detail represented. With the detail on the right side looking significantly better than the left side. There's also some ejector-pin marks but they seem to be in areas where they won't be visible once assembled. That's good, less sanding is always welcome.

main landing gear wheels

    Moving on to sprue B we have the two main wheels. The wheel on the left shows a pit of flash, and there is a rather nasty seam line where the two halves of the molds come together, this will need to be cleaned off. However, it doesn't look too bad.

radial engine, antennas and counterweights

    Up next is the rather simplistically molded radial engine. Probably the Sakae 31, although there no solid reports for what engine this particular version of  the "Zero" used. Here we can also see two radio antennas as well as the aileron counterweights. They are a bit crude, but should serve their purpose just well at this scale. Although, the counterweights do look a bit out of scale.

lower wing surface

    Moving on to the lower wing surface which is really nicely detailed. Looking at this makes me really excited to start working on this kit. 😁 We even have some decent detail inside the wheel-wells.

landing gear doors

    The outside of the landing gear doors are molded in two separate parts for either side and they do present some detail. But there's also a bit of flash. Some cleaning will be required here.

landing legs

    The landing gear legs look simple but functional. Nothing amazing here, but they are not bad. Next to the landing legs are two small parts, I'm not sure what they are. I guess I'll figure it out once I start building this model.

inside of the landing gear doors

    On the inside of the landing gear doors we see some nicely molded locating pins. Not so great are the ejector-pin marks which will need some sanding and perhaps, even a bit of putty.

the other side of the landing legs

    On the other side of the landing legs, there are two more ugly ejector pin marks. Again, these will need fixing too. 

the reverse side of the wheels

    The back side of the landing wheels, are probably the worst looking parts of this kit. They feature some really ugly ejector-pin marks. These will need sanding, putty, and more sanding to bring them to a presentable state. I don't understand why they couldn't just place the ejector-pins on the runners. The wheels are by far the most disappointing part of this kit.

antenna, pitot tube and cannons or machine guns

    On sprue C we have some really simply molded machine guns, or cannons, I can't tell what they are. We also have the pitot tube and the aerial mast. The molding here is really simplified, but I guess that doesn't matter much as you'd rarely look at the completed model from this close.

wing mounted bombs

    Next we have the four wooden bombs mounted underneath the wings. And they look quite nice. Although, I feel like the fins are a bit too thick. I might try to sand them down to make them more scale accurate. Other than that, they look decent.

machine guns/cannons and drop-tank

    Moving on we have the drop-tank mounting brackets, either machine guns or cannons, as well as the drop-tank itself which comes in two parts. The tank looks quite good, and even features the fuel piping which is quite interesting at this scale. Normally, or at least with other manufacturers, you'd have to most likely scratch-build your own if you wanted them.

upper wing surfaces

    Last but not least are the upper wing surfaces, which once again are really nicely detailed, getting me pumped to bring it back to the workbench and start building this famous Japanese war-bird.

Final impressions

    On the whole, this kit looks to be made to a pretty high standard, especially for the price point. I paid 10.56 euro for this kit about a year before writing this review, and for that money I'm really pleased with the state of the kit. Yes there are some ejector-pin marks in areas where they really shouldn't be, with the biggest offenders being the wheels 😒. But that can easily be fixed with a bit of work. In terms of flash, it's almost non-existent which is really nice.

    The transparencies are once again molded really nicely, with some positive framework which should make masking fairly straightforward. But it will take a bit of your time given the birdcage style canopy. As far as I know, you can find pre-cut masks for this kit, so if you don't want to spend time making your own, you should consider buying a set as that will save you quite a bit of time. For me, I will make my own.

    The decals, look to be printed to a decent quality. However, they seem a bit thick which might prevent them from conforming nicely to the details. It remains to be seen if that holds true or not.

    The instructions are simple and straightforward with not too many steps.

    After looking at all this, I'm really looking forward to start this project once I finish my Spitfire project. And I have some ideas of what I want to do with it. I even bought some new supplies to hopefully help me achieve my vision for this kit. All in all, I think I can easily recommend this kit to beginners. It does need a bit of work, but it should be manageable by most. We also need to keep in mind that your particular copy of this kit, might not have such pronounced issues.

    Before I forget, The box claimed a copyright date of 2019 as mentioned at the very beginning of this article. However, the tooling was done back in 1998. So that 2019 date most likely refers to the year when this kit was re-boxed. Taking that into consideration, the quality of the molds is even more impressive. It shows that if the molds are maintained properly, manufacturers ca still out out great looking kits even decades later.

    With that, I hope you enjoyed reading through this review. Do let me know if I've been fair or too harsh on the kit in the comments.

    If you found the information in this piece, please consider clicking the follow button so you get notified of future posts. I'd also greatly appreciate it if you could share this with people in your circle you think could find this helpful. Until next time, I wish you all a fantastic day and happy modeling, everyone. Cheers! 😁