Zero-one

Following another ill-judged exchange of comments over on Plastic Warriors, I rashly agreed to build the Airfix Zero I have had in stock for the past couple of years.

But first - some history.  Predictably, I built an Airfix Zero on a previous occasion.  Around 1975 I think. During a school trip to Perth (the real one - in Scotland), we were allowed some time to freely graze in the shops.  While the other kids were squandering their pennies on sweets my friend George and I hot-footed it to Woolworths and emerged each clutching a Series 1 kit.  I forget what George bought, but I got the Mitsubishi Zero - the first Japanese (or indeed non-British, US or German) aircraft I had bought!

Pic from the Airfix Tribute Forum.  This kit was originally issued in 1959 but my 1970s version came in the card-backed bubble packaging as shown.  It contained a mere 27 parts!  Despite it's simplicity I don't remember this as being a great kit.  To be fair, what I mean is that I, with my limited skills found it more of a challenge than other small kits I had tackled.

It was with a degree of trepidation then, that I opened the box of the current Zero.  I knew there was a new tooling but would this be the old or new?

Even before I had taken in the quality of the parts, it was evident from their number (47) that this was the new 2011 tooling!  All parts appear to be very crisp, with nicely recessed panel lines.  While this is welcome news, it does mean that if the built kit is a duffer, it's all down to me.  No pressure then.

To manage you expectations, I should point out that the Zero will be built as a wargames model, not a display diva.  So it'll be as rough as the other stuff you see on this blog!