I’m trying to get things to look right for some P-40s I’m adding as deck cargo for my 1/700 Liberty ship model. I finally managed to find out the main landing gear wheel diameter, 30-inches, but how long were the landing gear struts themselves?
I know, I know, we’re talking hundredths of a inch here, but I’ve learned the hard way that a teeny bit too much can translate into a really silly looking effect.
I went through all my “stuff” and found a bazillion drawings of the LG but not one that gave the length. But if it help at all… on my 1/48 E from a point flush with the bottom surface of the wing to the end of the LG struct… not including wheel/tire… is 29/32" or .90625 or 43.50". In 700th scale .06214. Close enough to 1/16" for government work.
The best way other than having a real P-40 to go out and measure is “looks”. The strut lenght would vary according to weight of aircraft, fully fueled and loaded, empty, struts properly pressurized, etc. On some early Corsairs and some flown today the struts are “depressurized” and wired in the fully up position. Mainly due to lack of seals for the struts today. The Monogram B-17 is a good example of one with the struts “bottomed” out! Just doens’t look right! Notice the clearance between the main tire and engines. So, just check out all the pictures of the real aircraft you can and notice the slight differences. If you are lucky you can see the scissors in some of the pictures and the shinny part of the oleo for reference.
Yeah, I may just cobble one of these together with white glue and see if it looks OK, or really, really silly.
Once again, White Ensign Models is amazing - I used two of the landing gear off of their 1/700 aircraft bits set, drilled a couple of small holes on the underside of their 1/700 P-40, used white glue to hold the gear in place, and when it was dry, flipped it right side up. Darn if it didn’t look just about perfect1