This year I finished Revell’s 1/48 scale B24 and B17. After Summer I intend to build Revell’s 1/48, B29 in a natural finish using Bare-Metail foil as a final finish. I never used metal foil as a finish material, so I thought that I would give it a try on a smaller and cheaper airplane before I tried it on the B29.
I have decided to use Revell’s P47N as my first try at using metal foil. HOWEVER, the instructions require that the landing gear be attached before the wings are glued together[bnghead]. This is nuts because there is a good chance that the landing gear will get broken off during the remainder of the build. Has anyone developed a procedure for installing the landing gear after the wings are glued together?
Yeah, I built the kit a few years ago. I was worried about the same thing but thankfully they didn’t break off during painting. They’re stronger than they look, still I agree- some weird engineering there.
I just used that kit for a donor for wings and empannage of an XP-47H (vacuform fuselage conversion). I found no way to put the gear in later, so I painted it and stuck it in before gluing wing halves together. I then had to mask the gear with low tack tape. It worked okay- I was able to remove it without damage. I stuffed tissue into the wheel well to mask that area.
Thanks for the advice. I plan on finishing the airplane with Bare Metal Foil. I plan on foiling both sides of the wings except for the leading edge. At that point I’ll install the landing gear and glue the wings togther. Then I’ll foil the leading edge. That way there will be less of a chance of breaking the landing gear.