Official Black Horse 2385mm A6M Zero thread

[bananaman]

A bit of work done on the model today. Nearly finished now, it just needs the landing gear fine tuned position wise, some wiring and finish the engine installation. Hover over the image for a description.

[bananaman]

The carbon reinforced mount in position with the engine installed. There is 8mm clearance to exhaust ring. The cowl is a bit of a pain, the exhaust stubs don't match the cutouts so a bit of rework needed. Servos are all fitted. Ldg gear is fitted and functioning well. The cowl sits off the firewall so lots of cooling air going past. Time for cowl mount hole reinforcing and baffles.

[bananaman]

I cut off the "oil cooler" scoop, it is glued to the fuselage. The exhaust ring has been cut down and the scoop face closed off so it doesnt get full of oil. I didn't notice that my Keleo stub wasn't centred on the ring, hence the offset. The baffle is in as well.

[SirAbuse]

Hello from Germany,

my name is Dennis and i will put a Saito FG-73R5 in the Zero from Black Horse.
I have a exhoust ring from GB Morris Mini Motors and it is not in center too.

Now first i do the break in of the Saito:

Viele Grüße...
Dennis

[Joehockey]

I only fly electric due to stress on my wrist and engine start up. I live for the day when someone stops trying to mimic the real WW2 sound with sound systems and they simple try to mimic the incredible sound of RC radials, 4 strokes ect . Nothing sound as cool as these engines !

On electric side,has anyone made progress with the conversion or power set up ? I am curious to determine if this model needs a ton of nose weight or if the lipos fill the need.

[bananaman]

I do fly electric too and am lucky enough to have a couple of radials. They do sound great, but also need a lot of TLC compared to electric power. My neighbour (a non-modeller) cracks a can of beer and sits on his back deck to listen when I do runs at home.

Regarding nose weight, the FG90 weighs approx 3.5kg with ign, spinner and prop, the model is nice and light and the back end is not heavy for a model this size. My model is just a little tail heavy without any flight batteries. The electric mount is quite long and there is room within the cowl for batteries. The weight of 10s, motor, ESC, prop is roughly 2.5 kg. So my guess is it might work without nose weight, depending on what you use. The hassle is removing the cowl to change batteries. Of course you could modify the cowl with a hatch. The model would need weight if you had the motor batteries within the fuselage and might not if you can use the space within the cowl. James will soon give the actual answer with his build.

I'm not into super scale details but appreciate the effort of those that go down that path. My only minor complaint as they did such a good job on everything else is the 9 cylinder dummy radial. The real A6M had a Sakae double row 14 cylinder, so 7 in front. The model has 7 exhaust stubs, like the real one. The A5M did use a 9cylinder, a very different looking airplane.

[Ethan RC]

That bronco looks sweet! I hope to see one fly in person at the club!

[WAYNE888]

If this size proves popular for us, be careful what you wish for...

you had me at Hellcat …… I am loving this A6M.....I haven't flown the Dornier yet
Budget wreckers!

[Joehockey]

Banana man , Thanks for the comment .I am not sure what direction I would venture in Giant scale . I have a Zero, Bearcat and Dauntless covered !
Time will tell and instock statue lol
I am still working on my CMP Zero and shedding 2.5 lbs from the nose needed for CG

[bananaman]

Hi again, guess I should post some finished pics. Final weight with the FG90 is 26lbs, 10.8kg. My field is outside our travel zone, maybe 2 weeks until test fly.

[Joehockey]

Nice job looks great !
I am not a scale nit picker, however is the distance of the leading edge to the cowl usually long for a Zero ?
I would not hesitate in purchasing this model for one moment, I am just checking out all there giant scale offerings for the one that fits my desire to assemble lol !
The flying weight of 26lbs is awesome for the size of this model !

[bananaman]

I guess the gap between the cowl and wing is about twice as long as it should be to be closer to scale? I hadn't noticed while assembling it. Its more pronounced in the image than when sitting on the bench. You could move the firewall back, would need a couple of pounds more nose weight then. Where I fly, no one will notice. Restrictions are lifting here, so that test flight might be next week.

[Joehockey]

I would rather have a lighter plane vs shorter nose !
If this was an intentional mod by the factory, it was a good move !
i am still struggling on my CG on my Zero , hopefully this next attempt is successful

[SirAbuse]

bananaman Very nice pictures from the plane.

I had to cut the gas mount for the Saito R73R5 too. The mount from the engine is too big for the wood mount from the plane. The wood noses must cut off. Ring muffer has enough space.

On the Saito website is a convertion mount for the FG 60R3 and the FG 73R5. But not to buy here in germany.

But the kit looks very fantastic.

Viele Grüße
Dennis

[SirAbuse]

Here are some new pictures from my plane. First install of the Saito:








Viele Grüße
Dennis

[Alpha]

SirAbuse Thanks for posting photos of your installation, Dennis! The Saito looks right at home in there. What do you plan to do for a spinner?

I would rather have a lighter plane vs shorter nose !
If this was an intentional mod by the factory, it was a good move !
i am still struggling on my CG on my Zero , hopefully this next attempt is successful

Joehockey Yes, the factory sometimes adjusts scale profiles to deliver better advantages in the context of RC flight. A perfectly scale nose would have required too much weight up front, too many changes to the flying surfaces, or both. Like you, I agree this was a good move in the case of the Zero because the result is a good-looking representation of the Zero that most importantly flies wonderfully.

[SirAbuse]

Alpha I have a TopRC Scale 3-blade spinner vor the Zero: https://www.engelmt.de/mtluftschraub...ero-fighter-93

But i must cut the blade holes.

Alternative for the test flights a VarioProp from Ramoser with
adjustable blade pitch and a nut as spinner: http://www.ramoser.de/home_d/variopr...rioprop_d.html

Viele Grüße
Dennis

[bananaman]

Hi Dennis, motor looks great. I didn't fly mine this week but took it out to our field for a run and balanced it again with assistance. I needed 270gm at the tail wheel to get it spot on for the published C.G., so add that to my total weight. Its now 11.1kg, which is under 25lbs (how did I get 26 before?). I could move the motor back another 5mm, but anymore means moving the firewall. The 90 R3 weighs roughly 300gms total weight more than the 73R5 so I think you will be fine with your motor. I have my batteries at the very back of the tray. If you haven't glued your tail cone on, (I did) maybe make it removable so you can put some weight in there behind the tail wheel if you need to. Your 3 views gave me an idea that has worked out well. While not scale, it looks a bit better I think and solves my balance problem.

I made a balsa tail wheel fairing block, coated it in CA, then did a simple volume check using a glass of water to full, pushed in the fairing block and used a medicine cup to measure how much water I needed to top up to full again. Volume now known in milliliters, multiplied that by the density of lead per mm and got the weight I needed (first try). Then I made a set of molds from Bondo, and cast the block in lead. Its a fair bit of weight to just glue on, so it has four coarse thread screws that straddle the lowest stringer, all epoxied to that and the back screws touch the tailwheel bulkhead. Had to remove the collar and wheel to fit it. I did a bit of airbrushing to match and it turned out OK. That fairing is solid lead. Model is ready for flight. Video of the motor run below.

[Joehockey]

Incredible , nothing beats a radial !

[RMatteson]

To those who are going electric, model calls out Rimfire 50cc, is this what you are using? Was going to also look at Rimfire 65cc, which is what the H9 KI-43 calls out for electric motor, thou the H9 is smaller then the Zero. I'm going to measure the distance from motor mount to cowl face to see if the longer 65cc will not stick out too much.
Thanks Rick