I'll be working on the wing today...one eye on the football games...one on whatever else I need to be doing.  The wing is a basic dimer structure...may add a couple of extra stringers...one on the bottom to form a proper spar...the other on top toward the leading edge to discourage tissue sagging later on...my usual SOP.

The Zero's wing has an interesting history...main spar was constructed as an integral part of the fuselage bulkheads.  The benefits were added structural strength with regard to aerobatics...as well  as weight reduction.  It was estimated that at least 100 lbs of weight was eliminated in fittings (connections) alone.  There was a major drawback however...components could not be remotely manufactured and then assembled at a central location...jigs required assembly to be conducted at an exclusive point.  This in turn made assembly a very skill-intensive procedure and consequently dramatically reduced production rates.  All those Zeroes one sees laying around over-run Japanese airfields...it wasn't for lack of desire to return them to action.  If the wing structure/spar was in any way damaged...the aircraft was a virtual write-off...no way to simply change out a wing panel!

As I stated previously...the Zero was intended to be dogfighter...and lightness was paramount in that regard.  Add to the mix a pair of 7.7mg...as well as two 20mm cannon...and it was literal hell in the air.  Why no one could visualize that reality from the nearly intact aircraft remnants available...is amazing...if not near-criminal.  Of course...the AVG knew this all along...but no one officially listened to Chennault.  NEVER dogfight a Zero...or an Oscar!  It really was not until the advent of the F4U that any kind of parity came to the Zero's performance...and not until the arrival of the F6F (although slower than the Corsair) that the Allies achieved true air-superiority.

I recall listening to an interview with a Hellcat pilot...talking about his encounter in 1943 with a Zero.  The Japanese pilot, not realizing the difference between the Hellcat and its predecessor (Wildcat), put his ac into a near vertical climb.  The Hellcat followed.  Ordinarily, a Wildcat would have eventually stalled out...and then the Zero would have turned to finish it off...but this time, the Hellcat just continued to climb, all the while gaining on the Zero.  Eventually the Japanese ac was within range and those six .50's went to work.  The Grumman's big powerful engine had changed the equation.  The Hellcat could out run, out climb, out gun, and even turn equally with its rival.  The Zero's superiority was finally ended.

Neal

Marc,
Did you get this from Antman and the Wasp? Very interesting...I'll have to get one for myself as well!

Neal, my thought are with you and your wife.  I've been playing taxi for my wife as well with vertigo and high blood pressure fluxuation.  Doctors can't figure out the blood pressure delima.  Hang in there!

Hope everyone has a better day, yes, my wife also is now my #1 patient. I take one day at a time.....
And good news is: my search for the miniaturization machine is over! Doug must of found this machine and used it to get his model of Dinah......along with countless others, they don't build these planes.....Noooooo......they use this:


They find a full size plane, take a 'picture' of it....then go back to the workshop....and dial in the scale, press the button...and *poof* out pops a airplane!!!

The mistery  is solved....all this time I see build articles....TRICKERY!

Now I just need to see who sells them and what the cost is......then I too can "build" these models.......
Marc

There is... I've had some family issues that have kept me from starting at present.  Family first, hobby 2nd or 3rd etc.
Sky9pilot

As much as I love Dinah...I don't think I'll be able to get to her just now.  I've pretty well talked myself into something a little less "mental."  Building from a 3-view can be slow going during  the best of circumstances...and that may have to wait for another time.

Meanwhile...how about another Mitsubishi...like Comet's 1943 kit E-3...yep, another Zero.  I really like what Mike did recently with his Whitman Dauntless.  Sometimes it's not the airplane that one is modeling...but the kit itself.  What I mean by that is...there are far better plans available of a Dauntless than what Whitman offered...but obviously, Mike wanted to do a specific plan.  Likewise with Comet's Zero...far better plans available...but I want to do the 1943 plan by Comet.  Needs a bit of tweaking...particularly in the tail, but otherwise...pretty close...acceptable.  I compared it with a decent 3-view...and it's not bad at all.  I've drawn some lines in to get an idea of those tweaks...just a rough idea.

I'll get to Dinah eventually...but meanwhile...a little Zeke...an historical kit design...a contemporary of the time...1943.

Neal

Wow!  Thanks, Andy and Ian...that really is beautiful work...setting the bar high.  Funny...he says that he designs "old style," something I'm very familiar with.    Again...thanks for the direction...gives me a nice reference to begin this project.

A word about Dinah...was originally designed and constructed to meet a IJAAF specification for a reconnaissance aircraft that could get in and out without interception, a task it accomplished admirably during most of the war.  As such, it was unarmed, unarmored, flew fast and high.  Ultimately those capabilities made it one of the few Japanese aircraft capable of intercepting the B-29 Superfortress.  Armed, Dinah sported a battery of 20mm cannon and even a 37mm gun firing obliquely upward.  Very few Ki-46 aircraft were successfully intercepted during the war.  As an interceptor itself, Allied aircrew took it very seriously.  Here's a photo of Dinah plunging through a Superfortress box...on what was probably intended to be, at the very least a ramming attack.  That kind of behavior would definitely attract attention, as noted by the B-29 firing ventral turrets and evasive maneuvers.

Neal

Sky9pilot wrote on Dec 4^th, 2020 at 4:11pm:


https://www.google.com/search?q=ki-46+iii++balsa+model+plan&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEw...