zero

CMPro Mitsubishi Zero

By Graham Wilkes

Page 1 of 5

Next Page>>

Ongoing at the moment is another CMPro ARTF conversion, this time a Mitsubishi Zero that was already built and flown and purchased secondhand. I decided that it needed a little modification with new retracting undercarriage, split flaps and a full cockpit with scale pilot. The conversion so far has the split flaps cut and made as per the Warhawk (see club models page), and the retracts having the mounts redone as the original mounts were assembled with NO glue.... and were too narrow to take the Robart units I wanted to use. The mounts were cut and strengthened with the addition of some 1/8th ply between the ribs and glued to the retract blocks. The cockpit has still to be attached.

Photo above shows the wheel wells cut out and the retract mounts opened for modification.

The two photos above show the split flap recess without and with flap.

Photo above shows the split flap construction. The small square of 1/8th ply is for the horn mounting, the horn being on the other side of course.

After a bit of a break from this build, work continues with finishing the wheel wells and retract installation.

The cockpit has been cut out and strengthening is being fitted.

Due to the position of the radio tray and fuel tank a full cockpit was out of the question but a compromise was made using a 3/4 pilot (I cut his legs off) and a cover for the servos.

 

Cockpit interior under construction.

A peculiarity of the Zero is the machine guns mounted above the control panel and of course these have to be modelled as they can be seen from inside the cockpit. Here are the two machine guns in primer.

 

Next Page>>