Mighty Mini Mitsubishi A6M Zero Swappable - Build Thread

localfiend

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Here's the massive build log. I don't think I'm going to melt the forums...


Mini Power Pod with 30A Esc slotted in. I had to remove some foam from the top layer of the bottom section. I used this ESC as it already had the connectors I needed and it gets more weight up in front.



Fuse:











Slot cut to allow for external motor wires if they're too big to fit the FT Firewall.



Wing:













Tail:



Wire offset to make room for control horn.









Assembled tail section fits right into the grooves on the fuselage



Landing gear cutouts are in the wrong place on the plans, I will move them back over the spar in the final release, you can see where I had to cut new lines.





Cockpit:













Antenna:







Cowl:





Elevator and Rudder Servos:









Wire Holder in placer thingy.



Decking:





Put a bead of glue on top middle of the former and hold in place. Once it dries you can glue the rest of the former and the sides, one at a time.



A metal ruler makes this previously hard part easy.



Hatch: (This will be slightly different on the final plans but concept is the same. I hacked this hatch up to make it work, the newer plans should reflect my hacking)











Hatch Decking: (Same Concept as the rear)









Glue cockpit to hatch. Back window line should line up with the end of the hatch. Make sure you don't glue the cockpit to the rear decking!

This pic also shows the rear cowl attachment point. Directly under the motor there is a stack of two sqares to form the front cowl attachment, I just forgot to take a picture.



Tail Skid.



Finished:





Weight with battery.





 

localfiend

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YES! I love it! Awesome work!

Thanks man. When I was first flying it on some of the downwind passes all I could think of was bolting on my funfighter motor and slapping on one of your speedwings, just to see what would happen. :D


And the more entertaining video is up:


I'm pushing the limits more of my thumbs than of the air frame here. During lunch break I took the plane out to take advantage of the calmer air. It was handling very well, the two crashes in the video were my fault. I tried to do a barrel row down the tree line and used too much rudder the first time, and the second I purposely stalled it to see what would happen and got caught up watching it fall. When I punched the throttle, it went from full stall to tip stall....
Makes me wonder if I should go slightly away from scale on the wings and make them more friendly for lower speed performance. I'm torn between that, and not losing the handling it has now, because the flight experience is excellent when you keep your speed up.

Any opinions?

Right now it's quite stable, very responsive, and inverted is excellent. I need to build and fly the Corsair and P51 to see how they handle.
 

Rasterize

Maker of skins and decals for foam board RC planes
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Awesome build log and thanks for the plans! This will look so great next to the Corsair.
I will have to check but I think I have some art at least partially done for this plane:
A6M5-53-102.JPG
It was flown by Tetsuzo Iwamoto who had over 200 aerial victories by wars end. I will also do a white/gray version as well.
Still have to get through the P51 and Corsair first. :p
Again great job LF!
 

localfiend

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Awesome build log and thanks for the plans! This will look so great next to the Corsair.
I will have to check but I think I have some art at least partially done for this plane:
View attachment 59699
It was flown by Tetsuzo Iwamoto who had over 200 aerial victories by wars end. I will also do a white/gray version as well.
Still have to get through the P51 and Corsair first. :p
Again great job LF!

Cool! That's a whole lot of notches. And no hurry on the graphics, you're gonna kill yourself taking on all these drawing projects. :D Thanks for doing this, it will make the plane look 100 times better than my sharpie jobs.
 

Rasterize

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...revising the finalized plans...


Your changing the wing aren't' you? :(
Why? :confused:
Because I'm almost finished with it that's why. :mad:
Oh well...

FT Mini Zero P1 Proof.jpg

Sorry. My work has rescinded my vacation next week (Mon-Wed) and replaced it with three 12 hour days. This will definitely cut into my project time.
 

localfiend

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Your changing the wing aren't' you? :(
Why? :confused:
Because I'm almost finished with it that's why. :mad:
Oh well...

View attachment 59799

Sorry. My work has rescinded my vacation next week (Mon-Wed) and replaced it with three 12 hour days. This will definitely cut into my project time.

Wow, that looks awesome! Sorry to mess you up, my only change to the wing was going to be adding a little bit more under camber to the wing tip, essentially just cutting things back a bit. It'l only remove the section where the servo is and have the servo cut be a little bit deeper. I'm going off the top of my head here, but I think the only other changes were to move some bad reference marks around, change the internal hatch configuration a bit and remove paper and some of the foam from the tail section. None of that should change the graphics.

You can probably leave the wings as they are. I'm thinking that after the servo is installed another section of the graphics can be printed out to cover it up. I did the same thing on my micro spitfire graphics. That will make for a much cleaner look underneath.

Thanks for doing this, no need to cut into your holiday time to get this done, I'll have to think of some way to repay your efforts.
 

Rasterize

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Doesn't sound like it's a big deal. Guess I'll wait for you to post the new plans before I go forward. I have some art I was using from an old project of mine that translated over well which is why I got this out so fast. A micro Spitfire would be fun too. Got plans for it? :)

I was planning on spending my week vacation with family and working on the P51. Work has destroyed these dreams quite nicely.
I really enjoy taking folks plans/planes and dressing them up. Yeah I could design these things for a living if I could live off of designing these things. Know what I mean?
 

localfiend

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Doesn't sound like it's a big deal. Guess I'll wait for you to post the new plans before I go forward. I have some art I was using from an old project of mine that translated over well which is why I got this out so fast. A micro Spitfire would be fun too. Got plans for it? :)

I was planning on spending my week vacation with family and working on the P51. Work has destroyed these dreams quite nicely.
I really enjoy taking folks plans/planes and dressing them up. Yeah I could design these things for a living if I could live off of designing these things. Know what I mean?

Hopefully I'll get the plans all fixed by this weekend. It all depends on how soon I take off to meet family for Christmas.

The micro spitfire was micro, not mini. 15 inch wingspan. It's still being tinkered with. The spitfire wing shape was giving me horrible adverse yaw effects. I think I know what I need to do to fix it, it just needs time. Like all my other half finished projects.

And I understand the hobby thing. If I could make money shooting guns, flying RC planes, and playing with my Jeep I would do so.
 

localfiend

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Is it an inch back from the leading edge? That's where I would start. Measure the inch from the landing gear cutout marks. Slightly nose heavy is always good for a first flight.

ETA: That's a huge power system!
 
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Mile Hy warbirdz

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I know, I flew my mini Coursair today with a 7x6 APC E and the same motor it was way fast with no glide slope once the power was shut off! Thanks for the CG advise on the Zero. I will try to post a maiden when I get to fly it to share my success and or fail. Thanks Again.
 

localfiend

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Haha. At least you know what you're getting in to. I expect the characteristics will be similar, no glide at all. Hoping my F power pack will be here next week and I can build a moderate version and see what happens.
 

dgrigor02

Member
My 800mm-ish - 130% of the mini plans is ready. Just haven't glue the cowl until the pod is fully seated. I had started prior to the 42" thread or I would have used those plans instead so that the spar is a bit better. I can't find any grey or dark green packing tape so went with the boring white so that its more snow proof. Bottom side is Red for orientation.

Going to give a CF2822 ( Power Pack B ) motor a try with a 8X4 APC since more common ft motor. I usually go with 400 park sized motors and 8X6 for my 800mm sized planes.


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localfiend

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800mm seems like a good size, probably flies better than anything mighty mini sized. I'm finishing up the plans today for the mini and 42" versions. Maybe I'll draw up a set for 800mm as well.