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What does this have to do with this build?

IMG_3905

GIVE UP?

Well, actually I’m using this vase to help re-shape the main gear doors to match the wing better, as well as help hide the main gear without major surgery. In looking through the other online builds, most have taken these gear doors (which come perfectly flat), and simply mounted them to the gear. Doing this not only looks a bit weird, but means you must make major modifications to the gear mounting – basically, moving the gear another 1/4″ into the wing. That’s cutting the plywood mounting rails, cutting the formers, dropping the gear well, etc.

WAY TOO MUCH WORK.

Why not shape the gear door to the proper shape and take a lot of the work out of it? Using this vase (with wax paper over it) and my heat gun, I can use this sort of like you’d use an English wheel when forming metal. It takes a bit to get used to it, but I’m very happy with the results so far.
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IMG_3907I will need to build up the inside of the gear for for strength and scale realism and that should lock it all in place.

This entry was posted on June 15, 2009 at 3:15 pm and is filed under Yellow P-47 build, retracts, wings with tags , , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “What does this have to do with this build?”

  1. David Says:
    June 18, 2009 at 4:18 am

    On my BVM Bandit I had the same issue: the strut would not hide completely inside the well. I added a washer between the retract mount and the retract rail on the 2 outboard bolts. This helped the strut “tuck-in” and out of sight. I think a small shim would be better (less loads on the plywood rails).

    David

    Reply

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