Back to the wing and some progress. Lighting is installed, tested and lenses/covers molded and formed. Left side now done and ready for joining and glassing. How did I ever get anything done without a vacforming set-up?[&:]

The lites are actually pretty bright and readily visible in the sunlight, camera doesn't pick it up so well though. All seven (7) lights can be lit with a single pair of AA batteries (3v); 5 xenon bulbs-2 in each wing top and 1 in the tail, plus 2 led bulb assy's (1 in each wing tip). Each of the lights are individually servicable without cutting or rewiring; basically PNP. They will be switchable by a micro-servo actuating a micro-switch.

frets, good to see you're having fun! really nice

cheers Vasek

Thanks!....Maybe too much fun Going to be hard pressed to get this one top-coated/fuelproofed before the cold hits. I need to stop with the details and get finished.

cant speak for anyone else but all the fun is in the details , if it wasnt for details wed be done with an arf in the loted time the box says LOL Looking good buddy Ive been on the side lines quitely following progress id be back at it myself if it wasnt for living in a 1 bedroom apt , just no room to do anything, I stalled out at completing the scale exhaust on mine and need to finish the details on the gear and get panel lines rivets and paint on mine but doesnt seem likely ill get to mine anytime soon, I am very jelous of all of you right now LOL LOL

Move here and you can share my shop!! Couple of nice well kept 1700sq/ft 3b houses for rent @$850 in the neighborhood and the economy is cooking right along down here.

I have my wings epoxy/glassed over past two weekends and am going to join them over the coming weekend. Glassing and blending the exposed joint along with panel lines are next after that for the weekend agenda. Looks like my true-to-scale panels for flap and aileron servo access are going to work out just fine too.

Not too much progress on this end over the last several months. Business has been just ridiculously busy, which is good for the finances but hard on family life and leaves precious little time for any meaningful progress on the build.

Anyway I have finished the glassing, joining of the wing halves and all of the chart-tape panel lines. All of the ink reference lines are done on the wing top and bottom for the foil panels and now I'm getting some of the foil tape panels done. About 80% done on one half of the wing underside and 15% of the other underside.

I am quite pleased with finishing my "definitive" IJN/IJA A6M Zero nomenclature package. Finally able to work the bugs out of my graphics program and maintain the clarity editing through several cyles of opening and saving edit sessions. It seemed I was chasing my tail for a long time with having to re-do things that had been finished in previous sessions that got corrupted or blurred in subsequent sessions.

I'm doing 61-108 so the ryanmark/ID stencil reflects that specific plane as well. I was able to produce a nice clear set of waterslide decals from the raw files and am sending a graphics package to Vicki at Getstencils.com for a price quote. Whether I end up using the waterslides of having her make me some dry transfers, get stencils will have the stuff in their inventory for future wants, needs and desires.

Still have to erase the dk green from the tail numbers, clean up the outline and monochome it. I may just make a mask and paint this one...It's plenty big to work with.

Nice work Frets!

I picked up two of the 50cc versions at Thanksgiving when the price dropped to $254.00. Got both shipped for $600! One I will fly as is, the other I will bash, so these will come in handy! Vickie is great to work with at Getstecils.com, only place I go now for masks and such.
Good to see ya back!

Casey

Thanks,

Happy New Year, Casey

She had these before(attachment) and admitted that they were just "something we came up with that 'kind of looked the part' "

At some point soon I'll put up a placement guide for my set. The red page is almost self-explanatory but the black page is a bit of a wonder. There's two sets of three strut tags, two tail gear tags, arrows for the pull down step, arrows for the tail lifting/jacking point, a CG datum and all of the little tags for top and bottoms of the ailerons, elev's, flaps and rudder.

That's really great that you were able to get some authentic nomenclature for the zero. I was wondering do you have a chart so we know where to put them all correctly on the plane?

Per your request 77CH, and as promised above.

I made up the proofs to cover just about everything as there were some minor differences between Imperial Japanese Army and Navy as well as early or late models. I like the research and figure if I'm going to do it, I might as well do it as well as I can

The little 3 character "no step here" figures were usually always along the back of the wing over the flaps and had, more often than not, been walked on so much that they were well worn...is that irony?

The same figure some times appeared on gun and ammo access covers in both the vertical and horizontal orientation so I included a selection of sizes and orientations to fit all needs.

As far as the covers there seems to be no rhyme or reason to what's marked and what isn't...the same cover between right and left may only be marked on one side and a different cover on the other. In other words there are four panels on each wing for a total of 8...there may be 7 of them marked on one plane, three on another, and only two(both on the same wing) on another. Some had none. There's enough figures to do all 8...your choice whether to make it random.


Circles and dashes I plan to paint and if anyone decides to get dry transfers I'm sure they can do a page of circles and dashes and send off the proof/draft or copy them on to waterslide paper themselves They're on the placement chart, just not on the proof sheets.

The proof sheets are 8.5x11 and should download in 1:6 scale. The placement charts will expand in the quickview online and download to accomodate a 14x20" fullsize print

This is not the crap that I wanted on my bench for the past few weeks!! []

I guess shipping the boys off to school doesn't really change much...I still get all of their repair and maintenance jobs. This is the transmission from one of the boys' Chevy SUV. They thought it would be great fun to drag BIG rocks around a field with a cable/tow-strap. There went the first gear package and the sun-gear shell assy......I think sometimes my kids could screw-up an anvil with a feather.

It's done now and I can get back to more pressing issues....finish the Zero

frets you're good! can i come and play @ your house?!

cheers,v.

It would be my pleasure and joy to have you visit us in the States and stay in our home. You would have to endure a marathon question and answer session with the boys about your home and country though!

Weather has been bitingly cold so I took advantage of the kitchen table again for a full weekend of finalizing panels and getting ready for the silver base coat on the wing.....now that the kids' and wife's projects for me are done for now

1. There's somekind of oil on the tape and paint doesn't stick to the ink that it's labeled with so I clean it up with acetone or fingernail polish remover and a cotton ball. A light sanding helps too.
2, 3, 4. First down are the spar cap strips. The wing was lined with pen and ink prior to glassing and chart taped for panel lines not taken care of by the foil tape. The chart tape is still on and it's the black lines in the primer areas.
5. Some of the pen lines used as reference in cutting and applying foil panels.
6, 7. left and right wing bottoms done
8, 9. fuel cap and fuel cap detail.
10. wing top nearly done
11, 12. The panels outlined in red are the servo access panels installed making use of existing panel lines. The dotted outlines are where the vaccu-formed blisters will go.


Finally feel like I'm making progress again.


What's on everyone else's bench this winter? Hopefully those of you down-under are flying, not building



Cheers!!

And some more.....

1. My wife is great 'cause she lets me do this to her table as long as I take care to protect the table and clean it up when I'm done or dinner comes.
2. Some sort of air inlet detail
3,4,5,6. Blisters and hatch finishing over flap servo bay
7. Just happened on the perfect plug mould....The mold, plug and blister
8,9. last vaccu-formed details
10,11. Just the position light cover relief holes to open up where I glassed over them and it's finally ready for silver basecoat.

I filled the pocket with plumber's putty so there shouldn't be any epoxy down in there....fingers crossed[&:]

Finally! Some paint. Silver base coat done and good weather forcast for the weekend so maybe the primary colour and the camo coat then.....

Looking great Frets...love the flap bay.<div>
</div><div>Casey</div>

Sweet work frets, looks great.

Fantastic job frets, you're making me look lazy...

BTW, you and all your friends are WELCOME @ my place any day, just give me a few days notice so I can clean the house LOL

Thanks Fritz he did a really great job on the nomenclatures I will definitely be using this for my CMP 80

Carefull what you offer up....We go to the UK to visit the wife's family and it's not a long way to the Czech Rep from London via ferry or chunnel. Might take you up on it over a weekend this summer

....not a good place to take your wife.....<div></div><div>Damn girls over there are crazy hot! </div><div></div><div>Well, most anyways....lol


if I was single, we'd be having a beer Vas!</div><div></div><div>Casey</div>

Who said anything about the wife going to Czech....she'll be happy to have me out of the way about for a couple days so she can get into the "gritty conversations" with her sisters in Wiltshire...meanwhile I'm motoring through Brussels and jetting down the Autobahn through Frankfurt, Nuremburg and beyond

Even better; Mid week round trip airfare late June/early July is only@ $120 from Gatwick to Prague vs 700mi/1125km and $175 or more in fuel each way[X(]

NO PROBLEMO! let's have some gulash together... I might be away early August so pls confirm the date beforehand. V.

eeew, is that what you kids call it today??? get a room