scratchbuilt landing gear out of metal tube/rod

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
1

I’ve often been dissapointed by the weak plastic landing gear in many kits easily snapping off. I’ve been using brass tube for a while now for gun tubes and thought, “why not” make landing gear struts out of them.

Sounds simple enough, but I would ask this: Is their any articles or how-to instructions out there? The biggest problem I see is that you frequently have more than one diameter to represnet and cutting and fitting one tube inside another isn’t always that easy.

Your help please…

2

Take a look at Rodney Williams’ work on scratch built landing gears.
His work pops up on many modeling sites and, if you don’t let it intimidate you,
it’s inspirational.

3

Here’s a URL to check out. It’s about Rodney Williams P-51B with plenty of info
about landing gear construction

http://www.kithobbyist.com/largescaleplanes/articles/RodneyWilliams/P-51B_5/P-51Bpart5.htm

4

Thanks Ray… Whoah! Rodney’s stuff has given me a headache!

5

Even easier, Drill up through the kit gear and insert some wire, glue it in with superglue. I use telephone wire or even guitar wires which come in a variety of sizes and are very tough. Both of the above can also be used for detailing on kits, the guitar wire looks close to braided wire as used on landing gear, in wheel bays etc. Alternatively, there are plastic tubes (evergreen etc) that are tougher plastic than in the kit.