A6m5(ish) Zero sort of Japanese ww2 fighter plane.

[Chris Hastings]

Hello all, here is my second 'MOC' post and the only other one that I currently have built.

I made it approximately 5 years ago and has been in storage for most of that hence why it is quite grimy. I will preface this by saying that yes, I will be tearing it apart to clean it but first I need to take really detailed pics of it so I remember how it goes together! I would also like to revisit this to make it more accurate in places given that I am now older and have more pieces that might be suitable to use.

https://imgur.com/gallery/mlBvk

There are about 20 pictures here so I thought I would cheat slightly and post the link to the imgur album so that you can scroll down them at your own leisure instead of making this post excessively lengthy.



It is based on an A6m Zero type of aircraft but shares traits with a lot of other Japanese aircraft of the period, the landing gear and thin fuselage make it look more like a Ki-43 (below) and the wings are like a mix of another few planes.



Overall I am pleased with the design given the limits of the scale I went for, there are plenty of models out there by people that are fantastically accurate replica's of the real aircraft, but I wanted to strictly limit myself to 'minifig scale' and similar to my TIE fighter, I wanted to make it sturdy as well as pretty so that it can be 'swooshed' around the place without crumbling into a million pieces as all of my previous efforts did before I settled on this form.

The wing shape annoys me the most if I am honest, the real Zero and indeed most Japanese aircraft of the time had very rounded wingtips, the ones on mine are very sharp and that is because at the time I had no angled plates in a smaller size that I would use for it. If I were to rebuild it now I would try to use the newer smaller angled plates. I know that round ones exist that would indeed fit but I think that having an angle would fit the design of this model more as the other shapes of it are very angular especially in the fuselage as it is mostly made with plates.

You may notice from the pics that some of the parts switch around a bit underneath the plane, this is because I gave it some extra loadout options for playability sake even though I don't think the real Zero had swappable loadouts like some of its contemporary craft like the Fw190.



A pic of the real deal but now for the heathen bit...

That canopy is... a mega bloks part... as are the bombs... but they fit so well! the canopy is perfect for the shape of this type of craft it would be very difficult to make it with lego parts without doing the brick/tile method and loosing the ability to use the cockpit.

Another heathen thing I must admit.. the wheel at the front that is used for the engine cowling is... painted. I was young and didn't have a wheel like that in black! Don't blame me! :)

Comments and criticisms welcome, if you can all forgive me for the heresy of using mega bloks and painting :P

[John]

As long as you make a pure Lego one and shoot it out of existence, really well done job ,making a creation isnt easy and sometimes you need to diversify/improvise like the war MOCs the non-Lego guns make the scene better

[Spudh]

Chris,

I think that Zero is awesome and I really get trying to scale to minifig size. You did a reallygood job on tapering the tail in twoplanes, that is challenging at this scale.

If it was me I would have used the megablocks canopy too, it suits really well.

Cormac

[David]

This is really excellent Chris. Agree that those Megabloks bombs look perfect.

I suspect you had none, but a 4x4 round plate in red would work well for the wing circles.

[David]

Actually these in red would be better..

[Chris Hastings]

Actually these in red would be better..

Thank you David! Yes those would be perfect for it. They are going to be on my bricklink list of parts to get as well as some new wing plate pieces and other bits and bobs

[Chris Hastings]

I just realised that there were no minifigs to be seen with my original post so here are a few more pics, this time with my custom TIE pilot just to show scaling.





I am very happy overall with the scale of this craft, it is perhaps slightly small but considering the limitations of 'minifig physics' and lego block dimensions I thought it worked out pretty well. Most of my other stuff tends to be way too large or way too small so for something to only be slightly out I was quite happy haha.



Dramatic shot to show the rear hatch opened and the 'suvival kit' in use, a set of binoculars and a pistol. Probably not issued on actual Japanese planes but I like my minifigs to come back from their missions.



Finally this shot to show exactly why I chose this canopy piece. Since its a flat slope on the front instead of curved like many of the official lego canopy pieces you can see the pilot through it with no distortion and it looks great. I will soon make an actual IJN pilot to go with it.

[David]

Super pictures again Chris.

The last one is real action. Did you use long exposure or some trick, it really looks great.

I note no parachute. Intentional?

[Chris Hastings]

Super pictures again Chris.

The last one is real action. Did you use long exposure or some trick, it really looks great.

I note no parachute. Intentional?

No parachute because although I probably could fit one, I can't find one at the moment as they are all on Star Wars figs haha.

No tricks that I was doing, I just hit the propeller then by the time my phone takes the photo it has the same effect as long exposure!