Airfix Mitsubishi A6M2b Zero - Part II

Alright, let's get on with the build then. First stage, is as always with airplane kits, the cockpit. In this respect, the Zero is a very nice surprise - while sparse in detail, it still manages to provide a very nice rendition of pilot's 'home away from home'.
I had a bit of a problem with selection of paint for the cockpit. Quick research session on the net told me that different paints were used by Mitsubishi and Nakajima, but the best info I could find about the color of the paint used by Mitsubishi was that it was almost identical with american Olive Drab. Considering the variety of 'Olive Drab', this tidbit of info was less than useful. In the end, I decided to use artistic license and loaded the airbrush with Vallejo Air Interior Green slightly lightened by Dark Yellow. Once the paint was dry, I applied a light oil wash to the recesses to bring out the detail.

Instrument panel is re-created with help of three decals. All of them fit pretty well. The main panel decal is slightly oversized, but nothing a dab of DecalSet can't fix.

Pretty decent detail of cockpit walls.

Cockpit itself after assembly and painting

Cockpit fits snugly into the fuselage, so putting it in and closing the fuselage was done without any problems. Fit between the fuselage and the wing section isn't as precise and one needs to be rather careful when putting those two sub-assemblies together. I didn't pay sufficient attention and had to do some filing and filling with putty to correct a rather visible misalignment between right wing and its wing root. I do however believe that this problem can be avoided with some dry-fitting and filing before the glue is brought into play.

All major components minus the engine section are in place.
Considerable amount of work went into fixing misalignment between
the fuselage and right wing.