Mighty Mini Mitsubishi A6M Zero Swappable - Build Thread

[localfiend]

After Flitetest released their Mighty Mini Corsair and Mustang, I decided that the other side of the warbird picture was sorely lacking and in need of some attention.

Decided to build a Zero that will be swappable with the mighty mini power pods. It was a close call between the Zero, Fw-190, and Ilyushin-2. Might build something German or Russian later.

****************************************************************************


Anyway, here's my rough prototype. Yes my desk is a huge mess. It started out clean today. :black_eyed:

Canopy still isn't quite right, and it's all made out of paper. Ran out of time tonight. I'll be tweaking stuff and using actual posterboard tomorrow. The cowl could also use some work. I'm considering beveling the front edge and adding the exhaust cutouts to the rear of the cowl.



Came up with a simple way to do a split elevator. All the other options just didn't look right. The Zero has a tail arrangement that's a bit different from most other FT builds and I didn't want to lose it's character.



Battery hatch is similar to the Mustang. The final version will look a bit different than this, but it's close. Hopefully I'll have enough room to get this thing balanced. The Zero has a very short nose.



I know that The-One-Who-Never-Crashes is also working on a Zero. I figure that two models is better than one. More planes for slaughter house.

I need some electronics to finish off this build, but I'm hoping I can get a test flight in pretty soon. After I confirm that it flies I'll be releasing Beta plans for anyone that wants to help me work out any bugs.

Final Plans are out!





Mighty Mini Mitsubishi A6M Zero Plans v1.0 - Tiled - Full

 

[Scottie]

Nice looking build,good luck with the maiden

 

[kacknor]

Very sweet build. Somebody was asking for a Axis build, don't remember who. BTW, you call that a mess? Please....

Good luck in flight!

 

[Rezolution]

I was the other guy asking about the Axis planes . Just got the link to this thread from kacknor.

The plane looks amazing. Quite a quick turnaround on the build, too. Please let us know how it all goes. I'd be happy to build one once you're finished.

 

[localfiend]

No mess outside...

The plane looks amazing. Quite a quick turnaround on the build, too. Please let us know how it all goes. I'd be happy to build one once you're finished.

Will do. I hope to have plans up next week some time.

Spent the morning making all the changes I've come up with to the plans and a bunch of tweaking on the hatch and Canopy setup. I think I've got it to a point where I'm satisfied with the look.





Now I just need a motor.... I have a 2213 shoved in there to hold the prop right now. The only thing I have that's small enough is a 1704 and a 2206 (If I steal it off of my Race Quad).

I don't think I'd be happy with the 1704. I've got an F power pack on order. Might just have to wait for it.

 

[kacknor]

It looks like it would fly real nice on the 1806-2280 from the A pack. The F pack will be super. I have the 1806 on my FT Tiny Trainers and with a three cell they are more than enough.

 

[wlouisharris2000]

Nice looking build. The Zero is one of my favorite WW2 planes.

 

[localfiend]

So... The first prototype died a horrible fiery death. The video wasn't great, my gopro head camera was pointed too far skyward but I might be able to get something out of it later.

Decided to try things out with the 1704, a 6045 prop and 850mah 3s battery.

The battery barely fit, and that's after I cut out some of the internal structure. Unfortunately I couldn't get enough weight in the nose. After the first couple of faceplants I shoved some rocks into the cowl and got a slightly longer flight out of the thing, but it was still too tail heavy and essentially uncontrollable. The CG point is further forward than I thought it would be.

So, I've made a bunch of changes for v.3. The wings have 1 extra inch of wingspan, the Nose has been stretched out about a half inch, the whole fuselage gained 0.2" of height to allow 1000 - 1300 mah batteries to fit, the wing tip under camber section has been extended and the servos moved further inward. I also changed the hatch and internal fuselage arrangement to allow the battery to sit further forward and to give room to move the rudder and elevator servos further forward.

Here's the v.3 plans I going to be building off of.

Mighty Mini Zero v.3 Beta Plans PDF



I think that with these changes things will go a lot better. I'll have room to adjust the CG, I'll be using a properly sized motor with some more heft to it, and I plan on installing the landing gear this time. That will add even more weight up front to combat the super short nose which should hopefully make the next flight more successful.

 

[localfiend]

Time for bed.....

 

[localfiend]

The retired crew in my local club likes to fly on Tuesday morning during the winter. I snuck away for a bit this morning to join them for a bit of combat and to test out the Zero.

Here it is during pre-flight checks. Had to tape a nickle to the bottom of the cowl to get things to balance.



Just enough room for a 850mah 45C 3s battery. I'm getting about 5 minutes of flight time out of this, but if you're not doing much full throttle it could probably go 6 or 7.



And here's the maiden flight:

It went remarkably well in the high winds. Was a pretty steady 14 mph without much gusting which helps. Thought I was still tail heavy at first, but that was just the wind and being out of trim. Roll rate is pretty crazy, but it's very stable in the air, probably as a result of the Zero's high level of dihedral.

It's also much faster than I expected it would be. The 2206 2150kv motor and 6045 prop put out 610 grams of thrust, which is a whole lot for such a small plane.

The maiden flight went so well that I jumped right into combat against a a bloody wonder and a giant franken wonder. Video for that is currently uploading. I didn't hit anything (I blame the tiny prop ) , but it does a lot to show off the speed and wind handling abilities.

 

[dgrigor02]

So version in the above video was using your Beta V3 plans from post #8 ? If so I'm ready to get started. I've got unrauv's untested plans on the table, thought I'd build both and see which I prefer.

 

[localfiend]

So version in the above video was using your Beta V3 plans from post #8 ? If so I'm ready to get started. I've got unrauv's untested plans on the table, thought I'd build both and see which I prefer.

If you don't want to wait for final plans use v.4 it has most of the changes I made as I was building the plane in the maiden video. The hatch configuration is a bit different.

Mighty Mini Mitsubishi A6M Zero Beta Plans v.4 Tiled

I'll be posting a build walkthrough and getting more final plans uploaded in a bit. Right now photobucket is not cooperating and I have some more tinkering I want to do.

Let me know how it goes or if you have any questions.

 

[Crash and Burn RC]

Make an article!

Dude that is an awesome build you should really make an article! Also, this has inspired me to try out a llyushin-2 Sturmovik. That is one of my all-time favorite airplanes, and again, nice build!

 

[localfiend]

Dude that is an awesome build you should really make an article! Also, this has inspired me to try out a llyushin-2 Sturmovik. That is one of my all-time favorite airplanes, and again, nice build!

Do it! I was thinking of doing an Illyushin-2 next, it's also one of my favorite looking warbirds. If you have it covered, I can work on something else. I have a couple german planes in mind.

When photobucket starts working again I plan to outline the build and I'll make an article.

 

[Chameleon257]

After Flitetest released their Mighty Mini Corsair and Mustang, I decided that the other side of the warbird picture was sorely lacking and in need of some attention.

Decided to build a Zero that will be swappable with the mighty mini power pods. It was a close call between the Zero, Fw-190, and Ilyushin-2. Might build something German or Russian later.







****************************************************************************


Anyway, here's my rough prototype. Yes my desk is a huge mess. It started out clean today. :black_eyed:

Canopy still isn't quite right, and it's all made out of paper. Ran out of time tonight. I'll be tweaking stuff and using actual posterboard tomorrow. The cowl could also use some work. I'm considering beveling the front edge and adding the exhaust cutouts to the rear of the cowl.



Came up with a simple way to do a split elevator. All the other options just didn't look right. The Zero has a tail arrangement that's a bit different from most other FT builds and I didn't want to lose it's character.



Battery hatch is similar to the Mustang. The final version will look a bit different than this, but it's close. Hopefully I'll have enough room to get this thing balanced. The Zero has a very short nose.



I know that The-One-Who-Never-Crashes is also working on a Zero. I figure that two models is better than one. More planes for slaughter house.

I need some electronics to finish off this build, but I'm hoping I can get a test flight in pretty soon. After I confirm that it flies I'll be releasing Beta plans for anyone that wants to help me work out any bugs.

Here's what the plans look like at the moment:

Absolutely love it. The IL-2 was allied plane in WW2 I know Russia is a big baddy after WW2 but we were allied with them and sold them equipment too!

Axis planes in mind I love the Zero as well as the Betty. I would love to see a good BF109 or even the FW190.

I do agree you should make this into an article. One question though I don't see on the plans how to do the split elevators how did you do it?

Thanks again for the effort into the plane and it looks very very good.

 

[Rasterize]

Happen to have the V.4 plans not tiled? Just one big plan in PDF format?
Thanks! Looks great!

 

[SP0NZ]

Happen to have the V.4 plans not tiled? Just one big plan in PDF format?
Thanks! Looks great!

Please tell me that means you are doing a paint scheme for this one too?

 

[SP0NZ]

This is awesome LF. Great design, we needed a Zero. Love the plans too.

 

[localfiend]

Absolutely love it. The IL-2 was allied plane in WW2 I know Russia is a big baddy after WW2 but we were allied with them and sold them equipment too!

Axis planes in mind I love the Zero as well as the Betty. I would love to see a good BF109 or even the FW190.

I do agree you should make this into an article. One question though I don't see on the plans how to do the split elevators how did you do it?

Thanks again for the effort into the plane and it looks very very good.

Russia was bad before WWII. We were only on their side out of desperation, but I understand your point. I can't just call them evil when they were technically on our side.

I'm uploading a massive amount of pictures to photobucket right now that should clear up most build questions like the elevator. Might take a while, as I'm also uploading video.

Happen to have the V.4 plans not tiled? Just one big plan in PDF format?
Thanks! Looks great!

I do, but I'm still not sure if I'm going to change the main wing tip shape or not. I'm uploading some video that will give a better reason why, but the plane can tip stall at low speeds and full up elevator. A more rounded wing tip might help with that, but it might also make the plane slower. Gotta decide if I want a full out warbird or something that is a bit more docile.

Here's the v4 plans. I don't think I'll be changing anything major except for the afore mentioned wing tip shape.

http://www.lfarmory.com/webapps/RC/Plans/MMZero/Mighty Mini Zero Beta v.4 Full.pdf

This is awesome LF. Great design, we needed a Zero. Love the plans too.

Thanks. I had inspiration on the plans. Actually, not really. I blatantly ripped off your style. Too good to not imitate.

I'm liking this one so much that I'm thinking of up-scaling it to match the size of the current P-51 and Spitfire. I think it would make for a very nice flier at that size and much of the CG issues will be able to be solved with battery size, not just dead weight.

 

[localfiend]

Combat video finally finished. Might not be the best, as the plane is small, but it gives you a good idea of how it compares to the larger craft. In the video I'm attempting to cut the streamers on a Bloody Wonder with a very large motor, and a Giant Franken Wonder thing. This is very hard with a 6" prop when stuff is far away.

Really shows the wind handling and power as well. I wasn't expecting a rocket on 3s.