Mitsubishi A6M5a Rei-sen by ccoyle - FINISHED - Halinski/Kartonowy Arsenal - 1/33 - CARD - Allied code name "Zeke"

ccoyle · June 12

Got the frames cut out and glued to the vacuformed canopy. Afterwards I noticed that there is a slight defect on the aft starboard side that didn't allow the lowest frame on that side to sit level. It remains to be seen how that will affect fitting the canopy to the fuselage later. I will let the glue fully cure before cutting the canopy free from its blank.

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Since I invested in an upgraded cockpit interior, I'm leaning toward displaying this model with the canopy open.

ccoyle · June 13

Canopy is on.

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AJohnson · June 14

That looks very neat Chris. :imNotWorthy:

ccoyle · June 14

5 hours ago, AJohnson said:

That looks very neat Chris.

Thank you! Pre-molded canopies are certainly convenient, but I don't think I've ever had one yet that didn't pose its own unique challenges, and this one was no different, so I'm happy with this result.

Next it was on to the ailerons, and naturally with this being a Halinski kit, each one had to consist of no less than thirteen separate parts. 😑

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In the end, though, I was completely dissatisfied with how the control horns turned out, so I ended up replacing them with much simplified scratch components, which knocked the parts count down to only twelve per side. As seems to be my habit, I also ended up with the gap between the wing and aileron being much more noticeable on one side than the other, which you can't really see from this angle. What can I say? And lastly for this session, I also added the brass 20 mm cannon barrels and their shrouds.

I believe the landing gear are next if I follow the numbered sequence.

mikegr · June 15

What a remarkable job

Javlin · June 15

That looks really good Chris! :imNotWorthy:

James H · June 15

That looks insanely good!

ccoyle · June 15

21 minutes ago, James H said:

That looks insanely good!

Well, good! Because these Halinski kits can make a modeler go insane!

ccoyle · Tuesday at 11:37 AM

Started working on the struts -- fourteen pieces each so far.

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ccoyle · Saturday at 07:19 PM

After a break of a few days, it was back to work on the main gear. Here's a shot to give you an idea of just how much work that entailed:

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Not surprisingly, the work required several sessions, but it's now done.

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ccoyle · 2025-06-22T20:00:03Z

The Big Reveal!

Well, just like that, she's done. A bunch of little details rounded out the construction: tail wheel (complex and over-engineered), arresting hook (which I chose to display stowed, since the plane is not landing on a carrier, obviously, but which makes the hook pretty much invisible on the finished model), propeller, radio mast and aerial, and pitot tube. The kit includes parts for a drop tank, but I prefer to display my models configured 'clean', and the tank includes two petal structures (yuck!). The propeller was a bit of a headache, consisting of a separate hub and three blades. The hub, which is actually an A6M2 hub and not an A6M5 version (hopefully no one will notice the slight difference in shape), was not drilled for a shaft. I did not have any wire or rod that fit snugly in the pre-drilled engine, so I had to glue a piece of wire rod into the hub and then wrap it with some paper and CA to get the proper diameter. The three holes in the hub for the blades were also not all the same depth, so I had to cut down the shafts on two of the blades.

Here are the completed pics -- hope you enjoy!

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