Hobby Master HA8810 1/48 Air Power Series

Hobby Master 1/48 Air Power Series HA8810 replicates in 1/72 scale diecast the A6M2 Type 0 Model 21 “Rei-sen”, #EII-102. Pilot Ittō-hikō-heisō (Flight Petty Officer 1st Class) Testsuzo Iwamoto, Zuikaku Hikōkita (Zuikaku Air Group), Imperial Japanese Naval Air Service (IJNAS), during the attack on Pearl Harbour, December 7, 1941.

 Tetsuzo Iwamoto

Tetsuzo Iwamoto (1916 – 1955) was the WWII top-scoring ace of the Imperial Japanese Naval Air Service.

He scored 14 aerial victories in the Second Sino-Japanese War and flew air cover over the carrier group during the attack on Pearl Harbour. Partook in the Battle of the Coral Sea, served on Rabaul, Truk Atoll, the Philippines and the defence of Japan.

Iwamoto finished the war with the rank of Sub Lieutenant, awarded the Order of the Golden Kite – 5th class and Order of the Rising Sun, Green Paulownia Leaves Medal – 7th Class.

The number of aerial victories is subject to deliberation for various reasons. Most sources credit Iwamoto with 80 kills; his war diary claims 202 individual victories, 26 shared, and 22 unconfirmed.

Mitsubishi A6M Rei-sen

The Mitsubishi A6M Navy Type 0 carrier fighter Rei-sen (Allied reporting name: Zeke, later Zero) is a Japanese single-engine, single-seat, long-range, carrier-capable monoplane fighter. The maiden flight occurred on April 1, 1930, entering service on July 1, 1940.

The Reisen had exceptional maneuverability and the most extended range of any single-engine fighter of WWII. Production ended in 1945 with some 10,900 airframes built and remained in service until 1945.

It uses a single Nakajima Sakae (NK-1), two-row, 14-cylinder air-cooled radial engine driving a three-blade variable-pitch Hamilton Standard propeller.

The armament consisted of two dorsal nose-mount machine guns, one cannon in each wing, and external stores of 60 kg (132 lb) under each wing and 250 kg (550 lb) under the fuselage centerline.