Azgaron Posted November 3, 2009 Share Posted November 3, 2009 Very nice work Vaughn! That sure is a great improvement! Cheers, Håkan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacewolf Posted November 3, 2009 Author Share Posted November 3, 2009 Very nice work Vaughn! That sure is a great improvement! Cheers, Håkan Thanks Håkan, it's a lot of work but ya, it looks soooo much better ! Cheers Vaughn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacewolf Posted November 4, 2009 Author Share Posted November 4, 2009 Still waiting for the postman to deliver the goods, I changed to work on the engine. The kit engine is rather simple, not Tamyia for sure but with a bit of work will look ok. If you want to open the cowl flaps you'll have to go after market for an engine as this is set up to have a battery powered spinning prop. Here is what you get. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacewolf Posted November 4, 2009 Author Share Posted November 4, 2009 The cylinders are a bit square in shape and only the front half... the rods are ok but don't actually meet up with the heads.... from front on it looks good but from the side the gaps show.... no going cowl off with this puppy ! Got some work to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azgaron Posted November 4, 2009 Share Posted November 4, 2009 As you said, it looks pretty good form the front, but not from the side! Love to see how it turns out! Cheers, Håkan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacewolf Posted November 4, 2009 Author Share Posted November 4, 2009 I was making push rods the old way..stretched spru from the kit trees when I had a thought. I went and dug out the 21st C. kit and got out the engine parts. I was very glad to see that they include a plate with the exhaust pipes. Because the engine is a 'forced perspective' designed to give room for the electric motor, the engine is a bit 'squished'... this leaves room for me to play. I had thought about opening the cowl flaps but decided not to at first glance because of the way the engine was done.... now I think I might be able to pull off a 'forced perspective' for the rear of the engine and have the flaps open. I'm off on a mission to get shots of the rear of the engine but before I do a word of caution to those who will be building the kit. The cowl insert for the gun troughs has two large molding tabs that have to be removed or it won't fit in place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacewolf Posted November 4, 2009 Author Share Posted November 4, 2009 For those interested in the Zero, here is a wonderful site on the structure of the A6M 3 http://rwebs.net/avhistory/history/Zeke32.htm and one for the engine....I'm not responsible for the music ! http://sidenkai21.cocot.jp/m429.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacewolf Posted November 5, 2009 Author Share Posted November 5, 2009 After checking and looking at pics of the engine I think it's do-able. So here is the plan for my 'Franken engine'. ..using the rear part of the 21st C. kit as the rear face of the Sakae engine I plan to build up the tubes and pipes to detail the engine and using the parts of the exhaust pipe provided, build up the exhaust and thusly be able to have the cowl flaps open. Now to see if it'll work ! First I had to cut off the tabs on the rear of the 21st C. part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacewolf Posted November 5, 2009 Author Share Posted November 5, 2009 Fitting the kit engine rear section into the cowl....... I test fitted the 21st C. part. The distance the spacer provides is just about perfect... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacewolf Posted November 5, 2009 Author Share Posted November 5, 2009 the marks made with pencil on the cowling is the line of the cowl flap leading edge. It's going to be some work to get this all made and fitted, plus I have to figure out how to mount the engine and cowl to the airframe as I'm totally destroying the system the kit uses.. but I figure it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azgaron Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 Nice work Vaughn! Love to see how this will turn out! Cheers, Håkan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacewolf Posted November 5, 2009 Author Share Posted November 5, 2009 Fitting the cowl together the rear part of the engine looks good. With some paint (Vallejo black and oily steel, with Testors chrome silver) it looks even better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacewolf Posted November 5, 2009 Author Share Posted November 5, 2009 I added pushrods to the rear bank of the engine and painted it. then added the other bank and pushrods. With the cowl in place you can't see that the pushrods don't touch the heads properly and the assembly looks good. Wires will be added later. One word of caution, the aligning pin for the front bank on my kit had the cylinders not lined up so I trimmed the opening till everything fit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacewolf Posted November 7, 2009 Author Share Posted November 7, 2009 I went out to one of my local hobby shops and got some evergreen 1/16th rod. I had to add a disc of 1/16th to the rear of the crank case. Making a master with a pair of round nosed pliers I started making tubes and gluing them in place. The left tube goes to the cylinder head of the rear bank, the right hand tube would go to the forward bank but in this case is just glued to the blanking plate. There are still details to add to the tubes but at least they are on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacewolf Posted November 7, 2009 Author Share Posted November 7, 2009 test fitting the engine into the cowl. I've cut off the cowl flaps on the R/H side and cut out the exhaust tube from the 21st C. kit. Now to figure out how and where the pipes fit. I have a good pic of a crashed Zero in the jungle where there is a really good look at the exhaust but it's still got me scratching my head. http://marshall.csu.edu.au/Marshalls/html/...A6M_Engine2.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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