WING WALK AREAS

WING WALK AREAS

Posted By: Grant Goodale <grant.goodale@sympatico.ca>
Date: Thursday, 17 August 2000, at 7:56 p.m.

Hello all -

Looking over various photos, illustrations and drawings, some indicate that Japanese a/c had wing walk areas but some did not appear to have them. In some photos, they seem to be black (especially on light grey IJN birds). Other photos seem to be bare metal, probably because of wear and still others (almost all) show no separate wing walk areas at all. Most models that I have seen do not have them. Does anyone have any general ideas or educated guesses about this seemingly important area? Thanks for any information.

Posted By: Rob Graham <reishikisenguy@aol.com>
Date: Thursday, 17 August 2000, at 8:25 p.m.

Grant:

I'll take a big stab at a minor detail. I see the same thing you are asking about. I have seen a lot of shots where the paint on the wings was worn and there was no wing walk area. But I have also noticed the skin on the typical Japanese fighter might be only ½mm thick and not really designed to be used as a walkway. I have noticed the numerous retractable hand- and footholds on the planes and I believe these were the main ways to climb up onto and back off of the wings. So the worn paint was likely (in my opinion) from rubbing the paint, but not full-weight walking. I'd never walk along the wing of one of these planes unless it was on the spar.

Rob

Posted By: DOUG VERNON <SDAM.MIA@USA.NET>
Date: Wednesday, 23 August 2000, at 6:30 p.m.

Rob:

Actually the Zero wing is very sturdy. I've walked out to almost the tip of the port wing and no problems...but yes...it would be best to follow the spar caps. The place you do not want to walk is in the red outlined above the inboard part of the flaps. This is a very, very weak section. That's why they have the red warning lines painted in. I don't remember why the dimpled scuff patch is on the wing accept, every time the pilot gets up to that point to prepare to step into the cockpit, he makes a quarter turn from facing the front of the plane to facing the cockpit. After doing this either until the war is over or your shot down, one could wear off a lot of metal in that single section. That's the best I can come up with.

Doug Vernon

Posted By: Grant Goodale <grant.goodale@sympatico.ca>
Date: Friday, 18 August 2000, at 5:31 p.m.

Rob -

I was doing further research, especially in the FAOW and Koku-Fan books were they publish very crisp b & w photos and I noticed that there does appear to be a wing walk strip riveted onto the wing, probably at the factory. I noticed that it is usually on the port wing only except for A6M5, D4Y, Ki-61 and Ki-100.

Some of the photos indicate a very dark surface, others indicate no paint at all (probably from wear) and most appear to be painted in the same colour as the upper surfaces. I will really shoot from the lip here and hazard a guess. The aircraft were shipped from the factory with black anti-skid paint and were supposed to be painted that way in the official spec but that was probably ignore in the field and on board carriers. I apologize to all those readers out there with extreme AMS since this will probably cause extreme angst.

I would love to hear from anyone who has more "definitive" information.

Again, thanks Rob for your information

Posted By: DOUG VERNON <SDAM.MIA@USA.NET>
Date: Wednesday, 23 August 2000, at 6:16 p.m.

Grant:

Doug Vernon here. I think that patch with the dimples in it is just that...a patch more than a strip. Also, what if you cut a patch from plastic, slightly heated it and then took a pin or a similar instrument and slightly nudging in the dimples...then, turning it over and applying it to the correct position on the aircraft. Make any sense?

Oh, and yes, the patch of course was applied at the factory and painted over in the appropriate color.

Best,
Doug

Posted By: Ryan Toews <ritoews@mb.sympatico.ca>
Date: Monday, 21 August 2000, at 8:31 a.m.

The wing walk area of the Zero is described in the report by Douglas Aircraft on one of the Zeros (tail code 8-07) captured on Saipan as a "walkway step plate [which] consists of a 5 inch by 10 inch sheet of finely dimpled aluminum alloy". Aero Detail 7, page 24, photo 102 provides a good view of this plate. Close examination of the photo indicates that the plate had 13 rows of dimpling, each with about 25 dimples (I am still trying to figure out how to replicate this in 1/48th scale). The plate almost certainly was painted in the same color as the rest of the wing.

Ryan Toews

Posted By: Pete Chalmers <pchalmers@carolina.rr.com>
Date: Monday, 21 August 2000, at 12:41 p.m.

Ryan:

Letraset (Letratone) has numerous grids of black dots on transparent film - ranging from 27.5 per inch to 101.5 per inch, in various "%" darknesses. 2.5 dots per inch is 1:1, so 1:48 would be about 120 dots per inch - very hard to distinguish the individual dots !

You could cheat and use 65 or 85 lines per inch / "20 %", which would look pretty good ( My old Letraset catalog lists these as part #'s LT51 and LT58 respectively - comes in 10 x 15 inch sheets !

I use this grid to simulate oil coolers and radiators - cut or Waldron punched and applied over silver or brass painted plasticard, it looks sharper and better than the very fine nylon filter screen available from Small Parts.

Posted By: Grant Goodale <grant.goodale@sympatico.ca>
Date: Tuesday, 22 August 2000, at 11:34 a.m.

Pete -

I have use Letratone for artwork in the past but, as I remember it, the material was an adhesive film. I am not sure how one could use it on a model without it looking like a Scotch tape sticker. Have you used this and/or do you have any ideas on how to use it for a wing walk?

Thanks

Posted By: Pete Chalmers <pchalmers@carolina.rr.com>
Date: Wednesday, 23 August 2000, at 5:38 a.m.

Judicious use of "Future" !

Seriously, that's a problem. Since the pattern is printed on the top, you can remove the adhesive from the back and use Future to "glue" to a glossy decal-prepped surface, then Future over. Another product, "Instantex" or "Instatex", which I have not used, is evidently press-applied dry-decal, like Letraset lettering, and comes in similar dot patterns. I haven't really looked for this.

Posted By: DOUG VERNON <SDAM.MIA@USA.NET>
Date: Wednesday, 23 August 2000, at 1:21 p.m.

Regarding the wing walk area on Japanese aircraft; the only aircraft that I am really familiar with is the Mitsubishi a6m7-63 bomber fighter which was assembled by the Nakajima works. Correct entry onto the aircraft is from the port or left hand side, placing the right foot onto the retractable fuselage step at the lower side of the aircraft, hoisting the body and pulling one's self up by the right hand which is holding onto the retractable fuselage hand hold.

Then taking a really long step with your left foot setting it on the wing root trailing edge, take hold of the second retractable hand hold with your right hand and pull yourself up onto the wing right next to the wing/fuselage fairing. From there, you walk up the wing to enter the cockpit. You enter by placing the left foot onto a small retractable step set into the side of the fuselage about midway between the cockpit and the wing. By this time, you're tied in a knot!

Entry to the plane is from the left side only, not the right. By the way, as you may know there is a "no-walk” area on the inboard trailing edges of both wings outlined in red paint. The reason for this is, the flaps are below these areas and the upper surface in these areas cannot hold weight. So when you step on the wing be sure to put your feet between the red line and the fuselage.

The last item is that there is no non-skid surface on the wing walk area...it is metal only with the single dimpled area which has previously been discussed.

Concerning the hand holds and steps, as I said they are retractable. When not in use, they are flush with the fuselage when not in use. All are vertical to the fuselage with the exception of the lower fuselage step, which retracts into the bottom left hand side of the empennage. To do this you simply push the step up until it locks in place. To bring it down, push a button, which I believe is just to the left and up a bit. All of the other hand holds and cockpit step are also activated by a button. I know all of this sounds complicated and is probably so due to my poor way of writing instructions. But for those of you who want to be as detailed as possible when building a model of an A6M, I just wanted to describe the subjects at hand in detail for you. I hope I didn't botch up the progression too much. I hope this information is of some use to you.

Doug Vernon
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