Previously I had already worked on the rear landing gear/pad doors. I've now started on the front gear, and thought I'd share how I did it. I don't know whether this is the best way, but it is one way
First up, I made a hinge for the door using a piece of paperclip, a plastic tube from a cotton swab, and some thick index card.
Next, I attached the door to the hinge. The hinge sticks out a little over the long edge of the door, that means the door (which was the actual piece cut from the bottom) hits the opposite edge when closed, forming a natural stop. The door will still get a magnet to make it stick in the closed position.
Aside: You may notice I cheated a little with the upward curving rear of the door. It is hard (possible but not practical) to have the whole door swivel, but I opted for a practical if not totally correct door. Pundits may also notice that in fact the Fire Raptor doesn't actually *have* gear doors: it has landing pads which act as doors when retracted. But I couldn't make this work, so instead I cheated: the closed doors will look like the retracted landing pads, and when the landing pads are extended the doors are hidden in the wells (which is why they do not open outwards). This gives the same effect at half the price.
TL;DR the gear doors work and they look ok
Next up I made the interior attachment point for the removable landing gear
Then I built the walls for the gear "well", and check that the door had enough clearance
Then I mounted the attachment point, and checked again whether the doors cleared the attachment point:
Finally, a visual check with (a) the doors closed and (b) the doors open and the landing gear struts inserted. The pads will go at the bottom of these.
And another check: it looks like the landing struts can hold the weight of the chassis. They will need reinforcement though, since I will add a significant amount of weight once the ball turrets, front cannons, wings, ceiling panels and control surfaces are added.
