A6M Zero (2 Viewers)

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Jadera

Recruit
4
4
Sep 16, 2026
Atlanta GA
Me and a group of friends at school are building a large scale Zero, and we were wondering if anyone of you guys on here had any historical Zero documents, like part manifests any other historical stuff, but anything would be amazing. :)
Thanks guys!
 
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If you are serious about building, then you need to be prepared to drop several hundred bucks on reference materials. Here are first three you should probably have for starters:




You'll need to also learn or figure out how to read Japanese or translate it to English. While these are pretty extensive references, they are not complete enough to simply go and start cutting metal and making parts. I have the first book I listed and even with more than 45 years in aircraft construction and restoration, I would have significant challenges in building a flyable replica off what documentation is available out there.

BTW, for giggles, my current main restoration project has over 13,000 drawings, and I don't think I have a complete set. There are factory standard parts drawings that I don't have and it will require me to derive dimensions from existing parts and from assembly drawings. It's going to take me til nearly March of next year to finish converting the drawings from microfilm to electronic format for shop use and I started that part of the process in May of this year. I still have to earn a paycheck or I'd get more time every week to work on it.
 
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Another data point to keep in mind, that you are going to need to spend between $150,000 and $200,000 for a P&W 1830 engine, prop and manufacturing the landing gear. Quality overhauld engines are running 6-10 months lead time and they don't take payments.... 2024T3 is running about $6 a square foot for .032" and .025" is about $5. Between everything that is formed from sheet, wasteage and screwed up parts, you would probably need somewhere around 1100 square feet of various thicknesses.

By the time you get everything designed and prints done, materials bought and a shop tooled up, you are probably going to be dropping better than a million $ on this project.
 
Another data point to keep in mind, that you are going to need to spend between $150,000 and $200,000 for a P&W 1830 engine, prop and manufacturing the landing gear. Quality overhauld engines are running 6-10 months lead time and they don't take payments.... 2024T3 is running about $6 a square foot for .032" and .025" is about $5. Between everything that is formed from sheet, wasteage and screwed up parts, you would probably need somewhere around 1100 square feet of various thicknesses.

By the time you get everything designed and prints done, materials bought and a shop tooled up, you are probably going to be dropping better than a million $ on this project.
Hey i'm another member of the group working on this.
I can't tell if this is a joke or not, but just to clarify, we are making a large scale rc plane; not a real one. It will use like a hobby shop engine and be made of like balsa wood and we would like to build certain components of it from scratch. That is why we are looking for these resources-so that we can make CAD models of some of the parts with more complex geometry.
 
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Hey i'm another member of the group working on this.
I can't tell if this is a joke or not, but just to clarify, we are making a large scale rc plane; not a real one. It will use like a hobby shop engine and be made of like balsa wood and we would like to build certain components of it from scratch. That is why we are looking for these resources-so that we can make CAD models of some of the parts with more complex geometry.
Is no problem grasshopper....(jeez, I'm dating myself.....) :rofl: Specificity helps a bit, as Mitsubishi uses Model with a number to designate variations on the A6M. The IJN used the A6M-(x) designator.

I'd suggest you should probably part with the 60$ or so for the Ziroli plans and build from them. Unless you are going to cnc parts, you would be far ahead. There is a service that lasers parts for the Ziroli plans and the kits aren't too bad. If you are going to low budget it, a used .70 to .90 for those plans ca be had for under $150 on fleaby. A new one will set you back $250-800, depending on brand.
 
Is no problem grasshopper....(jeez, I'm dating myself.....) :rofl: Specificity helps a bit, as Mitsubishi uses Model with a number to designate variations on the A6M. The IJN used the A6M-(x) designator.

I'd suggest you should probably part with the 60$ or so for the Ziroli plans and build from them. Unless you are going to cnc parts, you would be far ahead. There is a service that lasers parts for the Ziroli plans and the kits aren't too bad. If you are going to low budget it, a used .70 to .90 for those plans ca be had for under $150 on fleaby. A new one will set you back $250-800, depending on brand.
we are actually using the ziroli plans as a starting point, however we're making some modifications to it and also intend to make the vast majority of the components ourselves since we have access to all of the tools and machines to do so (lasercutter, metal cnc, etc) as well as the materials to make it
 

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