Hobby Master HA8811 1/48 Air Power Series

Hobby Master 1/48 Air Power Series HA8811 replicates in 1/72 scale diecast the A6M2 Type 0 Model 11 “Rei-sen”, #BII-124. Pilot Ittō-hikō-heisō (Flight Petty Officer 1st Class) Tsugio Matsuyama, Hiryū Hikōkita (Hiryū Air Group), Imperial Japanese Naval Air Service (IJNAS), attack of Pearl Harbour, December 7, 1941.

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.