One
of Hasegawa’s March 2010 releases was the Limited reboxing of the 1/48 A6M2b
Type 21 Zero. This A6M2b “Super Ace” boxing includes 3 aircraft markings for
an resin figure of Tetsuzio Iwamoto. He was one of the top scoring aces among
Imperial Japanese Navy Air Force (IJNAF) fighter pilots during World War 2.
Tetsuzio
Iwamoto was born 15th June 1916 and entered into the Imperial Navy
during 1934 and he completed his flight training in 1936. His first combat
experience occurred in the early months of 1938
in China. Tetsuzio became the top scoring Naval Ace during the Chinese Campaign
with 14 aerial kills. Then he was posted to the aircraft carrier Zuikaku in late
1941 to May 1942. During this time on the Zuikaku he flew in the Pearl Harbor
Attack and the Battle of the Coral Sea.
In
1943, Iwamoto’s Air Group was sent to Rabaul, New Britain and experienced the
hardest air combat for the Imperial Japanese Air Force against the advancing
Allied air units. Other assignments during his career were Truk Atoll and the
Philippines. After the Japanese evacuation of the Philippines, Iwamoto
served in home defense and trained kamikaze pilots.
After
the war, Iwamoto was reported to have fallen into depression after the war. He
was summoned twice to MacArthur's Allied GHQ office in Tokyo. Though he avoided
being declared a war criminal, he was blacklisted for public sector employment.
Summer 1953, he got a stomachache. A surgeon examined him and diagnosed him with
an inflamed small intestine. It was found later to be Appendicitis. After a
series of operations, he complained of a backache. They decided to operate on
him again. With cause unknown, they removed three or four ribs without
anesthesia. This led to blood poisoning, Iwamoto died on 20 May 1955. His
wartime diary was found after his death, with claims of 202 Allied aircraft
destroyed.
Click on
images below to see larger images
The
A6M2b kit has been released a few times already from by Hasegawa over the last
couple of years. It’s a fairly typical Hasegawa kit that most of us have come
to known with fine recessed panel and crisp rivet detail. The kit is molded in
69 medium gray and clear parts and bagged in a single bag.
The
13 piece cockpit has been nicely tooled with some excellent detail in this
scale. The seat will require the lighten holes drilled out and an aftermarket
seat harness of your choose will be require to make that cockpit to pop!
Also
included is an excellent 5 piece 940hp Nakajima Sakae 12 engine. The cooling
fin’s are crisply molded along with the spark plugs. There are two different
crank casings offered on the sprues but only one is required for this boxing
version of the A6M2b
The
dry fit of the parts shows an excellent fit and hopefully the modeler will not
require any filler during the build. A couple of the parts have a very small
amount of flash. This is mainly on the trailing edges of the elevators.
There
is a nicely cast resin figure of Tetsuzio Iwamoto. It comes with two optional
heads, one wearing a flying cap and the other without. The sculpting of the
figure is outstanding and the facial features resemble Iwamoto. The figure is a
nice addition to the kit and will look excellent painted.
The
kit Markings and decals are for 3 of Iwamoto’s aircraft during 1941-1943.
1-
I-102, 201st Naval Flying Group, November 1943 Rabaul, New Britain.
2-
EII-102, Aircraft Carrier Zuikaku, 2nd Section 1st Aircraft, 7th
December 1941, Pearl Harbor.
3-
OHI-101, Oppama Naval Flying Group, February 1943.
The
print and colour registry on the decal sheet is very crisp. The printed white
has been an issue on past Hasegawa releases as being to dark and appearing as a
cream colour. This sheet is better, and appears to be an off white or weathered
white instead of the cream colour.
Overall,
the simple construction process and offers plenty of detail even for the most
experienced modeler. This offering of the A6M2b Zero from Hasegawa is worth
having for any WW2 or Japanese collection.
I would like to
thank the team at HobbyLink Japan (www.hlj.com)
for provide this review sample.Dave
Johnson
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