Tamiya Zero - Mounting the engine

[SJL]

Greetings

I have the above beastie and have struck an issue with fitting the engine.

I followed the instructions to the letter but when mounted the engine sticks up at the front and 

the cowling wont mate up to the upper fuselage correctly. I cant see anything wrong or out of

place, everything is where it should be.

Any suggestions, hints or the address of a good hammer retailer would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Juggernut]

Perhaps a photo or two to illustrate the issue might help us (me) understand exactly what's going on.  There are several of us here that have built that kit and if we could see it, it'll make evaluating the situation a tad easier.

[thierry laurent]

If this is the A6M2 kit, look closely as the kit has many leftover parts from the prior A6M5 kit. The parts look really similar but are not as the engine area was longer on the late mark. A part error may hence explain this issue. Otherwise, without a picture, it is indeed difficult to give you any other logical explanation.

[cbk57]

I am currently building the A6m2 and I see several potential risks.  There are two sets of motor mounts in the kit and two sets of the back parts for the engine.  The A6m5 parts are for the Sakai 21 engine.  The A6m2 are for the Sakai 12 which has a shorter super charger assembly.  The visual reference is the Sakai 12 intake and carburetor are on the bottom of then engine while on the latter engine they are on top and the super charger intake housing is longer.

 

The more likely error I think is that you may have the mounts reversed or upside down.  Make sure you have the right set of motor mounts and look for reversal as well.

 

Another corresponding issue is firewall.  Did you use the correct one.  The A6m2 has a tank at the front that is a half circle while the tank for the a6m5 is odd shaped.  Their are different tanks and corresponding firewalls.

 

I hope this helps but photos would tell us more.

[mhorina]

As Thierry said, Tamiya had different but similar engine parts in the Spitfire kit that were included in the Mustang kits.

[cbk57]

I also built the Mustang and there are a lot more extras in the A6m2 kit than the Mustang.  However close attention to detail with both are critical.  I almost made the mistake with the mustang of using the wrong supercharger intake but figured it out promptly.

 

One thing that is really interesting about the Zero is that there are parts in it that are specific to the A6m3.  So far I know for sure they included extra panels under the guns which upgraded the magazine to a 100 round magazine which was used on the a6m3.