Razmo

My Feedback: (2)

Hey John, can you post a few pics of the area you're referring to. Would be helpful...

Thanks,
Raz

n8622t

My Feedback: (8)

looks like a museum piece! Great job

PSJDBF

With some help from Patti on painting the face I have finally finished my pilot & with her tips I think he is passable as a Japanese Pilot considering he was a Caucasian male to start with.
Thanks Patti.
Cheers Steff.

dmyers0403

My Feedback: (48)

Hope this helps someone I had problem with Machine gun retaining rod vibration loose. SolutionI taped bottom of rear nylon locating pin that hold rod for a 6-32 set screw then made small hole in bottom of outer wing panel to access set screw. I now can insert machine gun rodtighten set screw to clamp rod and everything is very secure-no more loose guns.

PSJDBF

Have had to take a few weeks off the Zero to get the rest of my planes up to scratch again, so now back onto the Zero.
Did the functioning throttle group, the radio ( the gauge face is wrong but will be replaced soon with correct one )and floor valve group.
also the interior cockpit bracing.
Still a lot to do but plooding along.
Steff.

pilotorc4

Steff,
If the head of your pilot is 1/6 scale from an action figure you can find them easily on E bay, also the japanese parachute harneses were green in color. I have used watercolors in the past to paint textiles with good results. I think I have an extra one laying around if you are interested.
keep up the good work, it's going to be a nice aircraft

PSJDBF

Hey Pilotorc4, the pilot head is 1/5th scale so theres quite a noticable difference in size.
Thanks for the tip on the parachute harness I actually have a green one I will have to work out how to replace the belt locking mech & fit it up.
My GeeBee Z flipped on landing this morning so another plane to repair but I think she can sit for a while while I spend some time on the Zero, i'm over repairs at the moment !![:@].

pilotorc4

Steff,
I used the same parachute but came without the latch mechanism, I sawed the four harnes buckles togheter then made me small styrene disks in diferent sizes and pinted them silver and glued them on.
sorry to hear about your GeeBee, i tryed posting a picture of how I did it but for some reason It wont upload.

Tom in Cincy

My Feedback: (16)

Hi everybody. I just picked one of these up as salvage here on RCU http://www.rcuniverse.com/market/item.cfm?itemId=782840 I purchased a replacement cowl for a ESM Corsair and the fit is not too bad. I have a 86cc twin cylinder Fuji BT86 to fit in the nose. I would like to get a new canopy for it but I understand TBM is out of them. Has anyone bought the Zero canopy from Ziroli yet to see if if will work?? Currently the retract blocks are ripped out of the center section and that is where the rebuild starts. I will post pics as everyone enjoys lots of pictures!
tp

Tom in Cincy

My Feedback: (16)

I started tearing into my center section wing to begin to get a grasp of how to repair the landing gear mounts. I cannot believe how poorly constructed the center section is. The main spar is a single piece of 2mm lite ply. The load bearing ribs are are made of 2.5mm lite ply laminated with 2.5mm balsa. It appears the 2.5mm wing sheeting is a major contributor to the integrity of the wing. There is no fiberglassing cloth anywhere as I believe was reported. The covering material may appear as glass cloth to some but it melts like a polyester and is easily peeled from the sheeting. I can now understand why guys whose center wing panel came apart saw replacement vs repair as the only viable option.
So far I have installed 2 10mm carbon fiber spares that run the length of the section. One near the top of the existing spar and the other on the bottom. Next will be to add several 3mm 5ply plywood ribs laminated to the existing load bearing ribs.

John Baligrodzki

Tom,
If you are going to go through the center section and strengthen it and I will also assume the gear rails please show us some pictures of how you do this. I would appreciate it greatly. I have done everything to strenghten my gear mounts as factory made. Last week after a couple flights one of the front rails was starting to loosen. No where to add any more wood. All I could so was pull out the gear and use thin CA and that seems to be working.

I am dreading pulling the bottom of the wing apart as I hate rebuilding things that should have been done properly when the pane was built.

When flying I work very hard to make a soft of touchdowns as I can as I know the rails are not support nearly as well as they should be! The good news is this bird flares and lands nicely.

Regards,

John

Tisoy909

My Feedback: (21)

wow thats pretty Cheapo as i suspected. I recall when troybuiltmodels were advertisting this plane, strength of the fuselage was one of the keypoints they were giving. I saw a youtube video of one going in with a deadstick that pretty much belly flopped on grass, which actually shattered the wing. On Grass! Not to mention didnt get it, but hey for a good cheap project id jump on it.

wingspar

My Feedback: (3)

After having ripped the gear out of my wing twice I did this.

Removed the sheeting around the gear. Fiberglassed the upper sheeting with 6 oz cloth around the thew gear. Installed plywood webing between the hardwood gear mount, ribs and top sheeting. Reinforce that with triangular stock. Reinstall bottom sheeting.

So far gear has stayed put. :-)

Tom in Cincy

My Feedback: (16)

This is how I will rebuild the gear mount. The new gear rails are made from 1/2"x3/4" poplar (Home Depot). There are 3 rib doublers made from 1/4" 5ply plywood (Tower Hobby). The rails are keyed into the ribs. The rectangular piece is 1/8' ply and is glued to the inside of the leading edge and ties the very front of the 3 ribs together. The two large 1/4" ribs are laminated to the existing ribs. The rear of the new ribs tie into the new carbon fiber spar tubes. Kind of hard to explain. But Its got to be stronger than the factory and uses lots of new wood. It will add about 5oz of weight per side(wood & glue).

PSJDBF

I have finally sorted out how to get my throttle working which has been holding me up with the rest of the build, so hopefully things will kick on a bit quicker now.
Some pictures & a small vid of the cockpit working, also got my dry transfers from Aeroloft, thanks guys they look great.
steff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ga3jQX0sJkU

77chickenhawk

THAT IS SUPER DUPER COOL !!!!

PSJDBF

Cheers 77chickenhawk, I'm quite pleased with the results.
Tonight I finished off the last moving piece for the cockpit, the Pilots head, I also finally got the correct harness fitted up to him.
Will have the head connected to the rudder servo for now I think.
Steff.

PSJDBF

Some more done today, firstly some more detail for the cockpit mainly the right hand side.
Second, because I am only having the wing cannons I firstly had to come up with a way of using the pins with out the guns, second was to be able to lock them in due to others having issues with them vibrating out, & lastly being able to pull them out easily with out the guns being attached.
What I did was use the crimp section of an aircon fitting cut to size ( mild steel ) made sure it was the perfect shape for the leading edge then had my mate at work tig weld it together, it's very strong & once painted will not be that noticable.
I will use a small self taping screw going into a plastic tube glued into the wing to retain it & stop it from vibrating out.
Pics again.

Cheers

Steff

PSJDBF

more progress with parts fitted up to RH side of cockpit

Steff.

PSJDBF

Some real progress made today !!, I glued the wiper rubber onto the canopy sections & has come out well, or though the rear section has made it a little harder to slide open...will lube the rails to help this out.
Then it was out with the air brush & got stuck into painting the fuse...Really happy with the way it has come out.
Then the elation turned to anger & frustration when I tried to apply my dry transfers [:@], they would not go on.
My wife took me for a walk to calm me down, & suggested a few ideas of her own (bless her ) ..had to eat humble pie at the end though because she seems to have been correct, as with the air conditioning unit off for about 40 mins the transfers started to stick in place.
What a relief.
Pictures as normal !.
Steff.

PSJDBF

Some more pics .

77chickenhawk

nice camo job!

PSJDBF

Cheers.[sm=thumbs_up.gif], Starting to get there, I'm now waiting on a Book for reference for the dry transfers etc.
But starting to get excited about this one.
Steff.

77chickenhawk

no one that i know of makes nomenclatures (or how ever you spell it) for the zero. so maybe you would consider making them for the 1/5 scal like mine . that is if your planning on making your own?

PSJDBF

I got Aeroloft designs to do a custom set of transfers for the scheme I was after, I sent them a picture of the aircraft, they wanted the wingspan & fuse length, made them up & shipped out within about three weeks.
Quite a lot of Nomenclature included which is why I have purchased a book(There wasn't alot on the Zero though), If you'd like I can post a pic of the transfers so you get an idea.
Once I figured out how to apply them, the've been great, they allow the panel line & rivet details to show.. Perfect I will certainly be using them on my FW190 ( next build.).
Cheers Steff.

http://www.aeroloft.com/precision%20...0transfers.htm