I bought the 1/48 czech model of the xf2r-1 dark shark cheep. Good thing .LOL. I can deal with most of the problems of this kit but the landing gear. The gear is junk and thats being nice.I dont want to try to build from scratch,so does anyone know of something even close to it? Doesn’t need to be 100% match,but i don’t want you air plane guys laughing at me.(I do mostly armor) Any help would be great.
I was working on this kit a few years ago and couldnt find diddly squat on cockpit detail and color, so I had to wing it. I do have a book on this bird, but it’s sparse. I think if you want accurate landing gear you’re going to have to brake out your caliper a good scale, some paper, and do the math. Scratching will be the only way.
The pit is tucked away, so you really cant see anything once the fuslage is together, so I fretted over nothing.
Once it was in, this was all you could see.
I found the fit on this kit to be awful at best, but it could have been worse. I like Czech models because they are the only company releasing kits such as this. It just take a lot of work getting one of these bad boys together properly.
I lost my landing gear and props. I inadvertently tossed out my box that contained the sprues. I painted the Shark once, then stripped it down because I didnt like the way the paint was laying. Now I may repaint it, close up the wheel wells and hang it from the ceiling.
Here are some pics of the landing gear, I hope they help.
Maybe F6F or SBD main gear. No thoughts on the nose gear right now, but maybe P39 shortened up a little?
If you feel the need to have better looking landing gear, simply modify what comes with the kit. It should take you where you want to go. I left you photos for reference. It shouldnt be a major deal.
I was thinking maybe the gear off an F-102? Same general time frame and honestly most people won’t know the difference.
thanks for the ideas. I’ve been putting this off to long(2 years). Thanks for the pics. I couldn’t find any good ones. It will help a lot on finding a close match. I really didn’t want to build from scratch.
Just modify what you have. It really isnt starting from scratch, you will just be adding the detail.