It's time to build a collection of Pacific War aircraft. I'm pretty satisfied with my PTO stash except for the Zero. I've got a new Tamiya A6M3 which I've read good things about. (Except on one Japanese aviation site, where the reviewer insisted that the Hasegawa kits were superior.) Along the way, I bought an old Tamiya A6M2 and was given an old Tamiya A6M5. I think these kits date to the 70s. (They're still for sale and dirt cheap.) I've checked the boards and have found opinions ranging from "great classic" to "hopeless antique." If anyone has built one of the old Tamiya Zeros I'd appreciate an opinion on whether they're a worthwhile build.

Eric

I think that they are really great kits, and a steal these days. Not up to the very latest in technology like the new Tamiya releases, but still very nice kits and easy builds. And there are PE and resin upgrades if you really want to spend the time and money.
Norm Samuelson

They're still entirely adaquate, except for the cockpits. New resin cockpits such as these and whatever aftermarket decals you fancy will make them pretty much the equal of anything issued in the past 10 years.

The new Tamiya Zeroes (and 1999 1/32) are the only ones to ever offer accurate clear parts. Even the 1990s Hasegawa Zeroes have a very inaccurate clear part cross-section that looks absolutely terrible to my eyes...

The "Old" Tamiya 1/48th Zeroes of the 1970s have noticeably better clear parts than Hasegawa shape-wise, but much worse-looking than Hasegawa in distortions and clearness.

They are also inaccurate clear parts: All the differences you will see with the "New" Tamiya clear parts are inaccuracies: They are numerous: Windshield slope wrong, shape: wrongly tapered windshield shape, all the other clear panel size and shapes around the windshield area are all quite wrong.

Worse than that, all the "old" Tamiya Zero canopies have one big mould "hair line" running along the top or side that is absolutely impossible to remove because of the tight inner radius and severe depth of the defect (it is small enough to be hard to see in most photos, but quite long on the one piece canopy option, and present differently in the 3 piece canopy).

For the aircraft "body" there is little to choose: The old Tamiya Zeroes have inferior prop and cockpits but are simpler and easier to assemble.

It all boils down if you think clear parts are of no importance whatsoever to the finished model, then go with old ones...

I think a reasonnable choice is to go with the newer models considering the huge effort any model is...

Gaston

I have the Tamiya A6M2 it is still a very good kit. It holds up very well.

Gaston,

I've never tried a vacuform cockpit: maybe this would be a good time to do so. Suppose that means my masks won't work, but, what's more fun than masking a cockpit by hand.

With the Zero you can use strips of painted decal film. It's the ideal subject for them

That's a really interesting idea. I've heard of people doing it, but haven't even thought of trying it myself. And, wouldn't you know, I've got several pieces of decal paper. I've also got blank mask pieces in various widths from both Eduard and EZ - that might do the trick.