I am going to start a build thread on this kit. I plan to make it(them) electric. I recently bought this kit in good conditon. I saw some signs of water stains on the box, and there was very slight warping on a few wooden pieces, but most of it is in good shape. So the Idea came to me in making copies of the kit by using the pieces to make a template, then transfer it to a newly bought balsa. The Idea also is to make two planes, and keep the original for reference purposes.
To start out I will attach the manual that I took off of the Top Flite web page. I will also post the copies of the templates (page length).

So, here we go...... Jetzt geht's los!

Here are some schemes that I have considered so far

One thing I didnt notice before on these schemes that they appear to have a two tone coloration, from nose to mid-ship, and mid ship to tail.

Here are some templates I got finished today

some more templates

I have had this on the shelf for over 15 years.
It will be nice to see you do this build.
One thing you might do is put a scale on your pictures.
Just put a ruler somewhere on the page.
One thing I did was take the plans and get 2-3 extra copies made.
Its so much easier to look at them on white paper.
My copy was turning yellow.
good luck

Thanks, I got the copies made today. I'll be heading to the hobby store tomorrow to pick up some materials, I'll post pics of the progress.

Wow I didn't even know Top Flite had a zero kit! I'll be following along...

Originally Posted by Gree

Wow I didn't even know Top Flite had a zero kit! I'll be following along...

They don't anymore. This one is from the Red/Yellow box era and was a very nice rendition of the Zero designed by scale competitor Hal Parenti. I'd love to see this one re-released in a Gold Edition kit but I don't think we will see any more warbird kits coming from Top Flite. Maybe an ARF?

Today I purchased materials to start the build items include:

Five sheets of 1/16"x6"x36" balsa
Five 1/4"x3/8"x36" balsa stick
Five 3/32"x3/8"x36" balsa stick
Two 1/4"x1/2"x36" balsa stick
Two 3/8"x1/2"x36" balsa stick

One Revel Balsa project bag blocks (asortment of balsa blocks)
Two 4-pack of .005 clear-lay film
one pack of ultra-fine sharpies

I started with the Horizontal stabs. I layed out the plan for the stab on my board. **Note** the stab is not complete on the plans it shows 2/3 on one sheet, and the othe 1/3 on another, so you have to cut out and align, and tape it to the building board as shown

The clear film is used along with the sharpie to trace out the stab sheeting from the plan, cuting the traced out clear film , then using it to mark the outline with a pencil onto the 1/16" sheeting.

With the bottom two cut out I began to mark the positions for the rib placement

On the manual these ribs are labeled "shaped ribs". I looked all over the box to see if I could find any "shaped stab ribs", but could not find it. So going back to the plans, I decided to use the clear film to trace the only shaped rib shown, then transfering this to a strip of 1/16" sheeting, I was able to use this as a master template for the rest of the ribs.
***Note*** I couldn't find any pre-shaped LE Thin enough to copy the ones in the kit. I went to three place, so I will form the Stab LE with the 3/8"x1/2" balsa sticks.

Once all the ribs were shaped, I glued in the 1/4"x3/8" stab TE, along with the ribs.