Official Black Horse 2385mm A6M Zero thread

[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

[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]

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]

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]

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

[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!

[Ethan RC]

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

[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.

[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.

[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

[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.

[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]

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]

I'll post a pic or two tomorrow. I cut off the lower scoop from the cowl, it will get mounted to the fuselage instead. Then the cowl just slides on nice and easy. The rectangular "mount box" needed its corners sanded off to fit the exhaust ring. The box will get some glass cloth reinforcing.

Its a pretty straight forward build so far and is a well thought out design. The construction is good, mine has good glue joints where I can see, the covering is very good. The balsa and ply is adequate, I would CA any drilled holes before final screwing, particularly the cowl mounts and servo screws. The hori stab needed some sheeting trimmed back to fit. Hardware is good, I haven't thrown any out. My axle bolts needed a cleanup with a die though. I'm not keen on plastic spinners on larger gas motors so will change that. The instructions are OK in some areas and a bit lacking in others. I dropped the pilot and he split apart, mine had its join seems cleaned off a bit too much before painting! Glad to fix that weakness now before gluing the canopy on and before the gasser shook him apart.

So far so good, it certainly looks great.

[Alpha]

bananaman Thanks for joining Hobby Squawk, Bananaman, especially with such a helpful first post! What did you have to do to shoehorn in the Keleo exhaust ring? Did you cut out a slot through the cowl's ventral face?

[bananaman]

Queries about a FG60R3 fitting? A 90 fits fine after some mount rework, mostly due Keleo exhaust. Easy 6mm clearance all round.

[hellcat716]

Turnigy sells a good 50cc electric motor that is 12s capable. I believe it takes a 24x12 prop.

[T-CAT]

Their current recommended motor on 10S set up may be 12S capable as well (we will see if Alpha has tested certain prop. sizes with it), but with a smaller propeller, but then it may change the look, performance at certain RPM's, etc.

[CF-105]

The write up indicates something equivalent to a 60cc gasser. You could look at the Rimfire 65cc motor, it does 12S and has a solid rep.

[T-CAT]

I would also prefer a 12S power system simply because I use 6S LiPo's primarily, which makes it easy to achieve 12S via series connection.