Hey guys, I just finished messing with the folding wing mechcanism on this kit. It seems that if you build it per the kit instructions, the wing hinges will have too much slop and they droop when unfolded. Another problem is the “petal door” on the bottom section of the wing. If built like the kit, the door would simply fall off.
However, after a few hours, I devised a way that fixes both of these problems. The petal panel now stays on and the wings don’t droop when unfolded. I’m still working out a few things with the petal panel. I plan to try and make the panel spring loaded such that when the wing is unfolded, the panel will spring shut. I have an idea with this already and I can’t think of any reason why it wouldn’t work.
I guess my question is to find out who would be interested in learning how I did this. I’ve never wrote an article or anything for these forums but I’d be willing to do so with pictures and all if there is enough interest. I just wasn’t sure how many of you guys had this kit in your stash.
My fix to this problem was to build the kit with the wings folded. I plan on building their F4F-3 kit in the future and that has “plank” wings. They also take up less room folded up.
Ok, here’s the deal after messing with it some more.
I got the petal door to spring shut as I said. That seems to look fine. i am however a bit concerned as to whether or not the arms of this door can withstand the strain. It may require some beefing up. Another issue I’ve ran across is that, while the wings do not droop, it does want to show a seam along the top backmost edge of the joint. The reason: Gravity wants to pull the front edge of the wing down to begin the folding sequence. You can help lock it by ensuring the petal door is in place, but that’s about it.
The other issue is that when the wing is folded, once again gravity comes into play. It will try to pull the wing tip down towards the unfolded position.
I guess the question is, why did Trumpeter give the option anyway when there’s nothing that really holds the wing in either position? They went to allot of trouble to create this option but didn’t ensure that it worked properly in the end.
The bottom line? I may end up just gluing the wings in place. I think that with some more thought and work, all these issues could be fixed. I’m just not sure I want to spend anymore times with it. Unless of course anyone has any other ideas or input…
The wings were not meant to be foldable. The idea was to give you the option of building one way or another. They have supplied 2 metal bars that you can paint red and use to hold the folded wing tips to the Horizontal Stabilizers (just like the real thing).
Here are a couple photo’s of what I’m talking about:
Just use CA glue and they hold the wings solidly in the proper position.
