NICK ZIROLLI ZERO

I have had something of a love affair with the Mitsubishi Zero for a number of years. I built the 42” span version from the Marutaka kit back in the early 1980s and really went to town on it. Powered by an O.S 28FSR, with flaps and retracts, the blasted thing needed a pound of lead to get the C.G right, and weighed an astonishing 8 pounds. Boy did she come in quick! Slow her down too much and wham!! down went that left wing in a vicious tip stall! I had a great deal of fun with this project until it’s sad demise after only one season in a stupid accident caused by ‘showing off’ We’ve all been there.

 I decided to re-kindle the passion at the beginning of last year. Gary Chiles had given me the plan for the 1/5^th scale, 91” span Zirolli Zero as part payment for some work I had done on one of his models and at the time did not think I would ever get round to building it. Having finished re-covering my Sukhoi SU26 I had nothing left to do and got out the Zero plan. A quick look at how easy it appeared to construct and I was hooked. The basic design is very simple. A crutch of 3/8 by ¼ provides the plan shape of the fuselage and ply ribs provide the fuselage cross-section shape. Stringers are placed all round the fuselage that is then planked using 3/8 by 3/32 balsa. I was astonished at how quickly the fuselage went together and remember thinking at the time that the whole thing reminded me of a giant version of the old Keel Kraft rubber powered models that I never got to successfully fly as a boy back in the 1970s.

 I had previously spent 2 weeks of evenings cutting out an entire kit of parts using photo-copies of the plan and ‘pritt sticking’ the shapes for formers and ribs etc onto wood, before cutting out the parts on the club band saw. I also needed to contact Unitracts International for some retracts. The plan calls up Robart units, but even with our club trade account at Ripmax, the price of these units was prohibitively expensive and Tony Goodyear at Unitracts was able to help, even making some scale oleos for me after I had sent him detail of the undercarriage bay and mounting arrangements.

 6 months had the basic airframe completed ready for covering. The fuselage is covered in tissue, the wings are glass cloth and the rudder and elevators are nylon covered to simulate the fabric-covered originals. The ailerons on the full size are also fabric covered, but this was always going to be difficult on the model because of the cross-section shape at the tips, besides, solid balsa is easier and quicker!!

 The most time consuming and fiddly task was the cockpit. I really wanted a sliding canopy and a full cockpit. A very good friend of mine in Norwich sent me some colour shots of a real Zero cockpit and I used these, large quantities of Plasti-card and the excellent Squadron/signals publication book to re-create a representative sample of the components in the cockpit. A major part of the Zero cockpit is the machine gun breeches for the top 7.62mm guns. These stick right into the cockpit and the whole area would look really bare without them. These were made with thin plasti-card and plastic tube, suitably painted and fitted.

 Power plant for this model was another problem. The ideal engine is the excellent Zenoah 62cc 2-stroke petrol. I have never operated petrol before and luckily Gary had a brand new un-run example he sold me for a reasonable cost. Initial starting has proven problematic, but I am reliably informed that it is really a case of getting the ‘knack’ of petrol engine operation.

With the model built, covered and the cockpit fitted out, it was time to think of a colour scheme. Actually I had already found one I wanted to do. For me, the Zero is a classic fighter. Until the USA came up with the Corsair and Hellcat in 1942, the Zero was THE fighter in the Pacific campaign. I wanted to simulate one of these machines, so chose the scheme for a Zero A6M3, model 32 operating out of Rabaul in the summer of 1942. The weathering detail I have tried to simulate shows this machine was very heavily used. I would guess that the moment it landed it would have been re-fuelled and re-armed immediately, ready for the next Sortie. Things like chipped paint, minor dents and scratches and oil, cordite and exhaust stains wouldn’t have mattered.

 The final part of the construction was the static prop. Scale devotees have probably heard of Dave Tilbury who writes for RC Scale International magazine. He is a good friend of mine and showed me how to carve a propeller blank to the correct shape and then cast an epoxy glass copy, having made a mould out of latex rubber. It took a couple of goes to get it right, but the end result really finishes the model. I now have the ability to cast hundreds of fake zero prop blades, any takers?!!

 The last thing to do now is fly the beast. The design weight according to the plan is 25-28lbs. With 11/2 lbs of lead in the nose, she balances at 27lbs and, fingers crossed, the maiden flight will be this Easter, here at Wyton. Hopefully, this will be a success and I look forward to getting to grips with her. Next project? Well I was so impressed with the Zero plan, I sent to the States for another Zirolli design. What would be the perfect foil for the Zero? The Hellcat of course!!

 Richard Tempest-Roe