I’ll end up with 6-7 Vietnam era planes. I haven’t built an airplan for 20+ years but I do remember that the landing gear was the weakest part of some airplane models that I built when I was a kid.
So, I’m thinking about aftermarket metal landing gear. If you have used metal landing gear, please tell me whether it’s worth $15-$20.
In my opinion, not. Metal landing gear is made out of soft metals and highly malleable, so IMO it’s not really any stronger than the kit plastic. And a major failure point - like the wheel fork on nosegear - will be very prone to bending.
Though…I’ve heard that G-Factor’s stuff is both better-detailed and made of harder materials than, say, Scale Aircraft Conversions, if you’re bound and determined.
I’ve only used it once, on a Revell P38. I’ll [dto:] Doogs on the “softness factor”. Nothing really wrong with them, I just don’t know that they add much. I’d use them again if I found a kit that had horrible kit-supplied parts, but that’s about it.
IMHO?
Generally speaking, no… However, there are some folks who buy them because a particular kit’s landing gear is incorrect for the variant, or is inacurrate for a Navy vs. Air Force version, or is molded “out of scale” or something like that…
Pretty much, it’s going to come down to the kit itself… There are SOME out there that may benefit from stronger gear-struts, but in my 45 years of experience, I’ve had very few landing gear breakages from a kit’s own weight… Those that have, it was the axle that broke (or the afore-mentioned forks), not the strut, and was quite easily repaired (or re-enforced at the out-set) with a drill-bit and a short piece of straight-pin or stiff wire… Just don’t “taxi” them around, lol…
Some resin kits, on the other hand, will give you fits… Resin kits are heavy and if the struts are resin as well, will probably break eventually… Most of the heavy ones have metal gear included though…
But overall, you can tell if the gear’s gonna stand the weight of the kit, even those tail-sitters that you have to add weight to… And, by adding a little more weight farther back from the nose gear, instead of putting all of it in the “pointy-end”, you shift the weight to all three struts instead of just one…
That said, if a new set of landing gear costs 15-20 bucks, and I can’t fix them myself, the kit’s gonna get stuck on a stand, gear-up…
lol, I had just thought of that - “gear-up = $0”. I’ve had a few kits that went that route!
In a few cases where I had to add nose weight to prevent tail sitting and the model became somewhat heavy I have found in some cases it was stronger than the styrene struts and probably made the model more sturdy…
I’m glad I asked. I thought metal landing gear was made of steel!
I agree with all of the above- plus, once you paint 'em, nobody will see the difference, except you, if you don’t forget after a few years.
You crazy the shelf will break before anything on the model will fail before anything fails on the models. On the other hand some good powerful magnets could probably keep the models from falling off of the shelf.
I think it’s a judgement call at the time, and depends on the kit being built. In most cases a tail dragger would not need a metal gear. However a tricycle gear may. It depends on how long the nose is, and how long the tail is, and how much weight needs to be added to keep the nose on the ground. A short nose and a long tail requires more weight in the nose to keep it on the gear. The PBY I recently finished required alot of weight to keep the nose on the ground, hence a metal gear. The 1/32 HK B-25 will get a metal gear. All depends on what you’re working on.
FWIW, some 1/32 kits come with both metal and styrene landing gear but I don’t know about the other scales. The metal used by Trumpeter in their 1/32 kits isn’t particularly soft and requires a good filing to remove the casting seams.
About the only weakness I can see would be where you join the metal struts to the kit’s wells- what may be a strong plastic-to-plastic weld might be less strong with a metal-to-plastic join with CA.
it’s more of a weak cast aluminum. people only use them for broken replacement parts or to correct inaccurate ones. I do agree with you though because some kits have poor landing gear.
Based on my experiences with metal gear, I’d be extremely hesitant placing that much weight over it. Especially on the B-25, with the structure of the nose gear.
Besides, I’m working on the B-25 right now, and the kit struts are extremely beefy.
That’s the point. The mains look like they can handle the weight. The nose gear not so much. I just don’t want to take the chance.
No.
That being said, some kits don’t come with landing gear.
Hans will remember the Aurora in flight stuff. Happy pilot in the box pic although we all know he has no lower half of a a body. But his jet is in the air and buttoned up,
http://www.oldmodelkits.com/index.php?detail=9663&page=18&manu=Aurora
[dto:]…it has always been the front tricycle gear with the one-sided support (in lieu of forks) that have caused me the problems/concerns…