I’m currently building Revell 1/72 P-51B. Now I’m the stage of attaching the wheels and the undercarriage…
And on some model galleries I’ve found a difference between making this…
As shown in the manual as well - this means both parts of the covers are errected. Like on this image:
Only the outer covering which sticks to the wheels leg is erected (as well as the wheel, of course) but the inner covers are laid. Just as on this pic:
Could anyone gimme a hint on this, please?
The first one is definately correct but what’s the second example??
The wheel bay covers & flaps were hydraulically actuated & linked. On a parked AC, the pressure would gradually bleed off & the Flaps & covers would drop. If you show the flaps dropped, the covers should also be dropped. If you show the flaps up, then the covers should be in the closed position.
So does this mean, if I build OOB, the outer covers should be closed? Strange… The original OOB kit has no option to lay the flaps down (except you cutt 'em off), but the manual guide says you to lay both of the covers opened, if you want the wheels down…
I’m not the best bugger on the block, has no experiences with this kinda repairs… so is it hard to cut the flaps off if the entire plane body is assembled yet?
The Phantom’s flaps and aux air doors would droop on the ground, I think. And you definitely had to keep the red canopy up-locks on when it was parked (remember this detail when modeling the F-4), because they would gradually close on their own without pressure. Any F-4 techies out there who can correct me here?
Tom
A lot of modelers simply ignore it & build with flaps up & covers dropped. The only P-51 kit that I can think of that gives an option for dropped flaps OOB is the 1/48 Tamiya kit. Dropping the flaps isn’t terribly difficult, but you might want to practice on a scrap model first. If you want accuracy & don’t want to drop the flaps, then the covers should be closed. Of course on some kits, like Hasegawa’s, the doors don’t fit in the closed position, which makes life tougher. Not sure about the Revell kit in that regard. As far as other AC with this “feature”, I think ( not positive ), the FW-190 was a similar set up, although the inner wheel bay doors were often removed due to reliability problems.
You know, the flaps and the inner gear doors on Mustangs sag at different rates, and differ from airframe to airframe. You could be correct with about any position of the gear doors with the flaps still retracted. Also, the doors don’t have to be open the same distance. There is a refreshing amount of latitude here! Enjoy the build.
The reason these doors immediately closed again after opening briefly to let the gear in or out, was because Mustangs, and later, F-86s, and some other types, often operated from dusty, muddy and genrerally FOD-infested runways. The doors were made to stay closed while taking off, landing and taxiing in order to keep crud from being thrown up into the wheel bays. Notice how Russian tactical jets, all made to operate from unimproved forward air strips, have motorcycle-type fenders on the nose wheels, and in some cases on the main geer, for this same reason.
TOM
Although the hydraulic pressure would bleed off, causing the flaps and gear doors to drop gradually, the flaps on the P-51 could be locked ‘up’ as could, I’m pretty sure, the inner gear doors on the D & K. I dunno if the doors on the B & C could be locked or not but in reading something that Merle Olmsted stated in correspondance with Butz, I get the feeling that they could not be locked on the B & C.
There was also a hydraulic ‘dump handle’, as some call it, which, when pulled, would drop the doors; the ground crew would often do this so that they could inspect the gear wells. This ‘dump handle’ would also drop the gear in flight, but I’m not sure about its connection, if any, with the flaps. I guess I’ll have to ask Mike to ask Merle, or maybe I’ll just shoot Merle an email.
So if you want to model the thing ‘dirty’, with flaps and the doors down or in varying stages of bleed-off, go ahead. But if you have the flaps down, you don’t necessarily need to have the doors down and vice-versa, at least not on the later variants of the aircraft.
Anyhoo, here’s some shots of Stangs in various stages of ‘dirtiness’…
There is one pix that I have of Perron’s Stang which is a B that shows the flaps fully down and the inner gears doors in the retracked position…
Like Blackwolf had mention, they bleed off at different rates so its up to you basically. Flaps up, Mike
Hiya Steve,
I knew what he was talking about…[:p] Just wanted to see if you were paying attention.
You’ve pasted the “butz” test…[:p][;)]
Flaps up, Mike
