The fifth leading Imperial Japanese Navy ace was Takeo Okumura with 54 victories. The model represents WI-108, an A6M3 Type 22 assigned to the 201 Kokutai at Buin in September 1943. The only profile I was able to locate of this aircraft was in Osprey Aces 22, IJN Aces 1937-45, which was depicted in a badly chipped paint job. Most photographs of operational Zeros show little or no chipping, so mine is rendered similarly. Okumura was credited with four Chinese aircraft prior to the start of the Pacific War. He was assigned to the aircraft carrier Ryujo during the Guadalcanal Campaign and was transferred to the Tainan Air Group at Rabaul. When operating from Buin in September 1943, he was credited with nine victories and one shared over five sorties, a record for the Pacific War. He was lost at the end of the month attacking a convoy off Cape Cretin, New Guinea.
More Zero aces completed models here: https://inchhighguy.wordpress.com/2021/04/15/tamiya-mitsubishi-a6m2-zero-of-saburo-sakai-in-1-72-scale/
Inch High Guy 
For some it’s their morning cup of coffee, for me it’s your morning post Jeff with my second cup.
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Thanks Pierre, blogging goes well with coffee!
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Beautiful as always Jeff. I love this rendition, and I love Model 22’s and 32’s as they seem to get little love compared to the Model 21’s and 52’s.
Is this the FM or Tamiya kit?
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Thanks Warren, it’s the Hasegawa kit. They need a bit of TLC in the cockpits and wheelwells but still build up nice. The vertical tail is a little too broad and the cowling is a tad small but they’re still decent kits.
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I forgot that this batch build included the modified Hasegawa kits. Makes sense now.
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I like that Jeff- some subtle colour variations going on that I like.
Cheers,
Pete.
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Thanks Pete!
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Beautiful build. I completely agree with your interpretation of a tidy appearance. Japanese aircraft finishes are funny, but I think they generally looked pretty good in the earlier part of the War. It was later (mid-44?) when they got cheap (errr, economical!) and things degraded quickly.
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Thanks Dave! I think the chipping on IJA aircraft is a result of field applied schemes over natural metal. On IJN aircraft it is related to primer, on primed aircraft the paint adhered well. Once the IJN lost their carriers and there was little chance of exposure to salt corrosion the use of primer dropped off and there was more chipping.
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Egg-zactly Jeff.
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IJN a/c *generally* had paint that wore well throughout most of the war. Where you seem to get a lot of those ratty looking, crazy chipping are on field applied green finishes on IJAAF a/c that were applied over a/c with NMF, etc.
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Agree, Warren. Unfortunately most of the surviving photographs were of wrecks or abandoned aircraft after the war, shipped paint was the least of their problems!
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