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1/32 A6M5 Zero - Meiji 1944


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I suspect the best approach would be to pick and chose the PE parts that would best enhance the kit. That would seem to be the ribs and the front face of the outer wheel wells. I don't believe i had posted the image below which gives you the details of the rest of the well.

 

There were some minor differences between the Mitsubishi and the Nakajima wheel wells, but these were mostly in the various plumbing lines were routed. The drawings that were posted are for the Nakajima Zero.

 

Ryan

 

 233 Front Face of Wheel Well

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On 1/5/2021 at 5:40 PM, Rockie Yarwood said:

Wow, just wow! Looking great, Kirby!

 

On 1/5/2021 at 8:39 PM, Jamme said:

Hi Kirby.

Great job you're doing here.

Love it.

Cheers,

Jamme

 

 

On 1/5/2021 at 10:03 PM, dodgem37 said:

Good stuff.  Love what you're doing.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

 

Thanks Rockie, Jamme, and Mark, appreciate your comments!

 

On 1/6/2021 at 12:33 PM, Thunnus said:

Great job Kirby!  Trying to figure out if/how to use a given PE enhancement sets is one of the things that always ties me up.  I usually end up with some sort of hybrid approach of using some but not all of the improvement set.

 

You're right John, my spares box is full of half used PE frets!

 

On 1/7/2021 at 3:45 AM, A6M said:

I suspect the best approach would be to pick and chose the PE parts that would best enhance the kit. That would seem to be the ribs and the front face of the outer wheel wells. I don't believe i had posted the image below which gives you the details of the rest of the well.

 

There were some minor differences between the Mitsubishi and the Nakajima wheel wells, but these were mostly in the various plumbing lines were routed. The drawings that were posted are for the Nakajima Zero.

 

Ryan

 

 233 Front Face of Wheel Well

 

Ah thanks Ryan, I was looking for a picture of the other wall - good to know the PE is accurate for at least one side!

 

So, after giving it some thought I've decided to use the PE enhancement on both sides of the wheel well despite inaccuracy of the lightening hole positions on one side because a) it will look significantly better than simply drilling the holes, and b) the PE ribs are designed to fit properly with both of the PE sidewalls installed. Either way was going to be a compromise but I think this is the best option.

 

The first task was to remove the kit ribs and this where my new David Union rotary tool will earn its keep! Using the saw the ribs were removed in no time and tidied up with the grinder bit. I was careful to retain the cockpit ventilation duct shown in the pictures above which passes through the starboard wheel well (does anybody know where the inlet for this duct is?). This had the added benefit of retaining the structural integrity of the part as there is a very thin section of plastic (yellow arrow) on both parts which is going to be subject to breakage once the ribs are removed. I've tried to temporarily reinforce the port part with some blu-tak while I'm working on it.

 

wheel-wells-cut-arrow.jpg

 

So that part was easy enough but it was about now I started to wonder whether I had made the right decision! Firstly, I needed to cut small notches in the PE parts for the starboard wheel well to fit around the ventilation duct. Once that was done, the PE parts were test-fitted and the positions of the lightening holes marked with a black marker pen. Drilling out of the lightening holes was a bit tricky due to access of the drill bit and I had to be careful not to break the part.

 

During test-fitting, it became apparent the PE parts are slightly wider than the kit parts. Whilst this would not normally be a problem, the wheel wells are designed to fit tightly between the wing halves, so the PE parts could potentially interfere with fit of the wing halves which would be a bit of a disaster! Another example of how making modifications to this kit can create knock-on effects elsewhere if you're not careful.

 

To address this, I temporarily fitted the wheel well to the lower wing and then placed the PE parts in position flush as possible to the wing before running thin CA in by capillary action to secure the part. I really needed 3 hands to do this and it took quite a lot of messing about to get it done, but it was necessary not to end up with a significant wing fit issue later. Thankfully test fitting of the upper wing half looks OK. Here's the starboard part so far...

wheel-wells-drilled-web.jpg

 

I haven't done the port part yet and I'm not looking forward to it as I don't have the structural support on this side and think there is a real risk of breaking it with all the messing about that was required for the starboard side. Hopefully this is all going to be worth it in the end!

 

For a bit of light relief (!) I made some improvements to the inner gear doors. Riveting was added to the braces and the hinged corner of the door was removed with my Tamiya PE saw and posed articulated outboard with a PE hinge, which is the deployed postion accomodating the drop tank as per Ryan's tweak list. 

 

I should add at this point that this kit is designed to have retractable landing gear (mine will be permanantly deployed) which adds some complexity to the kit and design compromises like this. I'm not sure about the value it adds really...

 

inner-doors-web.jpg

 

Cheers, Kirby

 

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Hello Kirby,

 

Here are the details on that vent system. The air intake’s location in the leading edge of the right wing can be seen in the drawing below. The vent had a cover that could be used to open up or close off the air flow.

 

234 Air Vent Intake

 

The cover was controlled by a T-handle on the right floor of the cockpit. The vent could also be pointed to direct the air flow as wanted. The air in the cockpit then would flow out through the hole in the canopy just behind the antenna mast.

 

235 Air Vent

 

It’s really the same fresh air vent system as in a car (but without the added benefit of A/C).

 

Ryan

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 1/12/2021 at 6:57 AM, A6M said:

Hello Kirby,

 

Here are the details on that vent system. The air intake’s location in the leading edge of the right wing can be seen in the drawing below. The vent had a cover that could be used to open up or close off the air flow.

 

234 Air Vent Intake

 

The cover was controlled by a T-handle on the right floor of the cockpit. The vent could also be pointed to direct the air flow as wanted. The air in the cockpit then would flow out through the hole in the canopy just behind the antenna mast.

 

235 Air Vent

 

It’s really the same fresh air vent system as in a car (but without the added benefit of A/C).

 

Ryan

 

Thanks for that Ryan. With their usual attention to detail, Tamiya actually have a nice moulding of the closed vent intake on the leading edge of the wing. I might consider drilling it out later to represent it in the open position.

 

So, work on the wheel wells continues. Sean and Alex in their A6M2 builds and Ryan in his tweak list have all highlighted problems in this area, particularly if you are making some modifications. As I've mentioned previously, Tamiya have designed this kit to have retractable landing gear which has resulted in some compromises. In an effort to save space, the roof of the wheel well is made up of 3 sections - the wheel well part, the upper wing, and an intervening thin strip of the fuselage. The biggest design compromise didn't become apparent to me until I test-fitted it all together.

 

As you can see in the picture below, there is a large and ugly step between the wheel well part and the fuselage strip which, from the reference pictures above, shouldn't be there. This is not a fit problem due to some previous misalignment - all the locating parts are fitted perfectly - it's how Tamiya has designed it (including the inconveniently placed ejector pin marks).

 

wheel-well-step-web.jpg

 

I couldn't live with this so ground and sanded the step down to something more acceptable and also made a start on eliminating the ejector pin marks. This all needs a bit more tidying up but is difficult as the area is not easily accessible. I also plan to obscure the offending area further with the electrical and brake line plumbing.

 

wheel-well-sanded-b-web.jpg

 

I somehow managed to complete the lightening hole and PE modifications to the port wheel well without breaking it at its weak point (phew)! At this point I decided to deviate from the kit instructions, which always makes me nervous with these finely tuned Tamiya kits.

 

I've had a lingering concern that adding the PE cross ribs to the wheel wells before installation could result in a subtle fit problem unless they are bang on in dimension and in my placement. Given the tight design tolerances in this area this is important, so my solution was to install the wheel wells at this point to ensure a proper fit down the track. The instructions would have you attach the wheel wells to the lower wing, but I felt attaching them to the upper wing would give me better access for fitting of the PE ribs and plumbing.

 

The wells were dry-fitted to the wing halves and fuselge and, once I was happy with the fit, Tamiya Extra Thin run into the contact points between the wells and the upper wing halves.

wheel-wells-dry-fit-web.jpg


wheel-wells-wing-a-web.jpg


wheel-wells-wing-b-web.jpg
 

This should give me good access to fit the PE ribs neatly against the roof and install the plumbing and other detail. Then I just need to hope to hell that my dry-fitting was accurate and it all fits together properly later...

 

Cheers, Kirby

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On 8/24/2020 at 11:30 PM, amurray said:

I'm sorry but I have to take you to task here.  Are you not aware that Eduard PE is best left in the original packaging where one can admire it and only fantasize about applying it according to the directions?  But  . . ., No! . . . you actually take the PE out of the wrapper and apply it expertly while making all the necessary mods to the kit itself to receive the PE.  In doing so you make the rest of us face the reality that PE is best applied to the kit.  You've disturbed our complacency!

 

Thanks a lot!!!

 

:BANGHEAD2:

Sarcasm to truth-excellent!

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  • 5 months later...
  • 4 months later...
On 8/5/2021 at 8:41 PM, nmayhew said:

Hey Kirby

 

hope you are well

 

any more progress on this you can share?

 

Nick

 

Hi folks and happy new year! Wow, I can't believe it's been almost a year since I posted on this project. Work kept me off the bench pretty much all of last year, but I have now struck out working for myself so I want to create a little time for modelling.

 

The main problem with picking up a project like this is trying to remember what I was doing and why and the sequence of steps I had in mind - this is where posting on a forum as a record comes in really handy! I found this in the box so I had obviously installed the PE ribs into the wheel wells and started on the plumbing  - more on this and some references shortly...

 

wheel-well-plumbing-a-web.jpg

 

I also fabricated some additional thickness plastic strip and have no idea why!

 

strip-web.jpg

I just dug out the references for the wheel wells and there may be a neuron firing as to the reason for this...

 

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