1/48 A7M2
Finemolds 1/48 A7M2 Reppu

And finished! Finemolds 1/48 A7M2 Reppu

The Mitsubishi A7M was a Japanese carrier based fighter prototype of WW2. Designed to replace the previous A6M Reisen, which was rapidly becoming obsolete due to its low speed and lack of protection, the A7M project aimed to create a new aircraft to replace the A6M, which would match its maneuverability, whilst increasing speed and armour.

This was naturally a daunting task, but Mitsubishi gave it a lot of hard work, and came up with the A7M. The aircraft was significantly larger than its predecessor, to allow for a larger engine whilst keeping large wings to retain maneuverability. The initial version was the A7M1, powered by the Nakajima Homare 22 engine, generating 2000 hp.

Initial tests of the A7M1 proved the aircraft to have fantastic agility and it was very popular with the test pilots, but the speed increase over the A6M was considered to be insufficient, and so the project was put on hold. In an attempt to remedy this problem, Mitsubishi redesigned the aircraft to mount the Mitsubishi Ha-43 engine, in a new nose, becoming the A7M2. This more powerful engine generated 2,200hp, and allowed the aircraft to reach speeds of up to 630 km/h, a large improvement over the fastest model of the A6M, the A6M5 Ko's top speed of 565 km/h. Whilst the additional weight of the new larger engine decreased the aircraft's maneuverability in comparison, the gains in speed and climb rate were considered to be an acceptable trade, the aircraft once again proved popular with test pilots, and was intended to enter mass production in late 1944-1945. However US bombing raids, in combination of a shortage of material lead to the program being stalled, and eventually the war ended before the aircraft could enter mass production, With only 10 A7M aircraft being built in total (2 A7M1 prototypes, 7 A7M2 prototypes, and a single finalized A7M2 production aircraft).

The A7M was armed with 2x 13.2mm HMGs, and 2x 20mm Type 99 Mod. 2 cannon, all mounted in the wings. Various other armament plans were also intended such as 4x 20mm, or even 30mm cannons.


This kit was manufactured by Finemolds, an offshoot of Hasegawa. You can definitely see the Hasegawa lineage in the engineering of this kit and the type of plastic used, however the fit is somewhat worse than Hasegawa. Nonetheless this is a very well engineered kit, and went together relatively easily, just requiring some filler in places. The kit includes a very well detailed cockpit interior, and a reasonably detailed representation of the Ha-43 engine.

Beyond the few fit issues (such as a slight gap between the wing assembly and the fuselage), the kit came together quite well. As mentioned the cockpit had some excellent detail, and i'm rather pleased with how it went together. I did manage to mess up the bulletproof glass plate a bit, but it's not very noticible through the canopy.

I used dead design canopy masks bought separately, and I highly recommend them to anyone building this kit, they save a LOT of effort and make for a lovely clean canopy.

I painted the kit using Vallejo Model Air paints, using IJN Deep Dark Green for the upper surfaces, and Metallic Silver for the underside. The cockpit was painted mostly in interior green, whilst the wheel wells were painted with faded emerald green to represent the Aotake colour used in real life by the Japanese. I used metallic black for the engine, exhausts, and cannon barrels, whilst black primer was used as a primer, for the wheels, and various other areas.

The decals for the kit sadly were not the best, being rather thick. This meant that even using microset and microsol I was still left with some silvering, and the roundels just refused to properly conform to the surface, however they look ok from a distance. The red line decals that were supposed to go around the upper surface of the flaps came apart when I was trying to apply them, due to how thin they were. I ended up painting the lines in instead.

In conclusion, this was a pretty decent kit, and definitely worth it if you want to build this beautiful aircraft. Finemolds also do a kit of the earlier A7M1, which I might consider building in the future (perhaps in a prototype orange livery).

Happy Building!