Hi ya'll !

I wanted to do this build thread for those that would like to get their first Giant Scale (IMAA legal) warbird.
I am MUCH more into the aerobatic birds but thought it would be cool to have a WB to fly every once in a great while and something to attend warbird fly-in events with.
I had a THOR 45cc left over from a crashed profile plane I brought home from "Nall" last summer.
I really wanted to keep this on the cheap if possible, but there is not a great offfering out there of 50cc sized ARF warbirds.
I stumbled upon this online and when I mentioned "Nitro Models" to other club members, I always got a pretty quick frown as a responce.
But I figured if a guy new the inherant weaknesses of this breed of ARF, and took proper care to reinforce here and double up there... etc, and tryed to detail her up a bit, she would be semi- standoff scale... and by golly... Ive got a stinkin WARBIRD.
Now I'm not talkin bout a total (and fantastic) re-do like "ForkedTailDevil" did on another thread..... But you'll see what I have in mind.
I kinda got a half a chub about building this bird !

Hang with me as I am slow at this building stuff.

This should be fun !

Jim

A couple pics of the dry fit......

That thing looks awesome!!

Yea, ya know... it is what it is... not really too shabby !
There are some things that are not real acale, but I bet it'll turn a few heads with a low fast pass down the runway !

I forgot to mention that the ARF is only $299.00 US and I found a promotional code online and got another 10% off.
That's only $269.00 !!!

Jim

Well the instructions really blow on this one so prolly not for a novice ARF builder.
That said, I dont usually follow the directions step by step, but rather do what I feel like doing at the time.
So I wanted to see what the plane would look like with the cowl attached and the dummy exhaust pipes attached so that is kinda where I started.

The fuse is fiberglass with the formers, tail wheel bracket, servo/gas tank tray and ply in all the criticle places already installed.
You have to attach a ply cowl ring with ply blocks glued on in certain places to allow spaces for the pipes.

OK... the cowl ring fits over the air scoop at the bottom of the fuse.
I lined up the cutouts on ring & cowl and marked the spots for the pipes with an O... anywhere else could be for the mounting blocks to be spread around the perimeter.
Then used some rolled up tape to position thc cowl & ring to mark where to drill into the fuse bulkhead.

Well if you're only going to have one war bird you sure picked a good one! Very nice looking plane but I have heard that Zeros are really hard to balance and desperately hard to land without nosing over. Hope that's not the case.

Epoxied the cowl mount blocks and painted black.
athen I temporarily mounted the engine box to make sure it would line up with the hash marks on fuse and box... no problem. (more on eng box reinforcement later.

Originally Posted by Al Lewis

Well if you're only going to have one war bird you sure picked a good one! Very nice looking plane but I have heard that Zeros are really hard to balance and desperately hard to land without nosing over. Hope that's not the case.

I have heard of this model tending to be tail heavy so mods are under way to correct that... as for the landings... I'll have to keep my fingers crossed !

Jim

So i mounted up the pipes and slid the cowl on for a couple pics.

I had a byron Zero with a G62 in the nose. That plane flew like a trainer. Would do carrier style landings with flaps down. If this plane is designed right it should fly great.

Well, at first I thought that looked pretty cool... till I saw some pics of full scale Zeros.
So... MOD time !
I went to the LHS and got some 1/2" thin wall brass tube.
Cut the pieces to length and shaped them with the vise and some manual bending.
Once I got them all shaped the way I wanted, I fit them, numbered there location, then removed and super heated them with a torch... till WAY red hot.
When cooled, they look like hot header pipes !!!

You prolly noticed that the pics got ahead of the story a little.
I'll get on to the motor box and engine install tomorrow.

Jim

Well.... work to my Zero has come to a temporary halt as I am 12 days POST surgery for rotator cuff repair.
Feeling a bunch better today, so I may go back to the hangar and tinker some more on the H-9 retract retro fit.
One wing is pretty much done except for the bolting in place. Then I have to duplicate all that work on the other wing.

Jim

Jim,
How's the shoulder doing? I hope to make it out to SAM sometime soon and say hey to everyone if my back quits bothering me.

Shawn

Doin pretty good Shawn, thanks for askin !
I Plan on coming out to SAM this weekend and get a little air over the Sukhoi's wings... if I can get someone to assist me with assembly, fueling and flippin the prop.... I got it from there !

Jim