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  #11  
Old 05-19-2009, 05:23 AM
GreMir GreMir is offline
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Shinji,
I think I can help here..
If you look closely at the templates of the wheels, you will notice a cutout in the center part that supposed to accept the wire.
Wire should go through the strut and then directly into the wheel.
This way it is hidden from view and gives solid support to the airplane.
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  #12  
Old 05-19-2009, 05:39 AM
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I see what you are talking about, Shinji. Now that I look at the Ki-44 Shoki that I am working on, I see that the drawing is the same: straight green line in the side view.

My plan is to (1) print an extra copy of the landing gear piece (part 20 for the Ki-61) on bond paper; (2) to wrap it around a length of 0.5mm brass wire that is several mm longer than the paper piece; and then (3) to bend the lower part of the wire to conform to the actual shape of the landing gear leg. I will cut off any excess and then insert the top end of the wire into a 0.5mm hole in the lower wing.

In other words, my wire will conform to the actual landing gear leg shape. I do not think that this violates the "out-of-the-box" policy, since the side view drawing does not preclude that approach. Chris will let us know.

By the way, in order to provide sufficient stability for the landing gear, I recommend gluing a bit of cardboard or wood inside the wing and drilling a hole for the landing gear leg. I meant to do this on the Shoki (Lala and I discussed this in her LaGG thread), but forgot. I will always do it in the future for the other Marek Japanese aircraft I hope to build, but for the current Shoki, I will have to hope that the glue joints between the top of the landing gear leg, the top of the landing gear cover, and the underside of the wing are strong enough to support the airplane.

I don't have any images to illustrate this just now, but will take photos when I build the Shoki landing gear.

Don

PS: Thanks for the kind words about my translations.

PPS: By the time I had finished writing and posting this, Mike had already weighed in with an alternative solution that seems to be closer to what Marek intended. I am still going to try to use my apporach on the Shoki to see if it turns out.
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  #13  
Old 05-19-2009, 05:45 AM
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Admittedly I've only seen the 1/33 Marek's, but they all have templates for the landing gear wires. I'd be surprised if the intention wasn't to have the wire shaped as the strut on the opposite side of the door, that would be typical to Marek's and other plane designs.
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  #14  
Old 05-19-2009, 05:53 AM
member_3 member_3 is offline
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The method described by Mike is used on many of Marek's 1:50 scale models.
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  #15  
Old 05-19-2009, 11:15 AM
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ruf0us ruf0us is offline
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Thanks Michael, now I got the picture. I never thought about sticking the wire into the wheel because if you did it that way the wheel wouldn't roll! ...wait a minute, the wheel won't roll because we glue it in any case:D

Unfortunately Don, there is a template of the wire for the landing gear and it is a straight line. So if I bent it into any form that would break my out-of-the-box policy. I am looking forward to see how your approach turns out with your Shoki. And thanks for the tip about stiffening the joint between the wing and the landing gear. I will follow your advice in the next build. This time, I already closed the wing and I must come up with something else. I will probably use some super glue to stiffen the joint.

Thanks,
Shinji
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  #16  
Old 05-19-2009, 12:52 PM
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Darwin Darwin is offline
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My recommendation is to deviate a bit from Marek's design. My general impression is that landing gear design is not Marek's strong point. In the 1:32 version of the corsair, he doesn't show the use of wire at all, but in the 1:48 version he does use wire supports for the LG. Go figure. There are limits to "out of the box." As long as there is not significant redraw of the model, builder modifications for improving buildability of the model are ok, but Chris does seem to want us to document what we did so he can feed it back to Marek for improving the kit in the future. The direction I would go with this model is to pass the landing gear wire down the center of the LG strut, bend it to conform with the shape of the LG fork, and then bend 90 degrees for the wheel axle. This is the approach taken by the Maly Modelarz version of the Ki-61, and works quite well. Looking at the parts page of the kit, the fork should nicely hide the support wire. I also recommend filling the portion of the wing where the LG attaches with balsa or thick cardboard to give the LG some strength. I failed to do that with My MM Ki-61, and the LG collapsed within the first week after kit completion.
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  #17  
Old 05-19-2009, 01:09 PM
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Darwin has described more eloquently and clearly than I could the exact apprpach that I hope to take. I think it is an acceptable deviation, but I certainly respect your desire to stay strictly within the confines of the instructional drawings and wire templates.

Based on what you have done so far, I know that whatever approach you take will be structurally sound and will look good.

Don
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  #18  
Old 05-19-2009, 11:22 PM
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ruf0us ruf0us is offline
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Thanks Darwin for the write up. Actually, I have tried a similar method to what you described, when I built a free model of 1:50 P-51D Mustang "Old Crow". The instruction of the Mustang did not suggest any use of wires for the landing gear, but I thought it would be too weak without support of a wire. It was pretty difficult for me to shape the wire to fit inside the strut and the fork and bend it 90 degree for the wheel axle. I think it turned out well in the end.

This time around, I think I will try the method that Michael suggested. The reasons are A) it seems to be what the designer intended, and B) I just want to try something I haven't done before

Thanks,
Shinji
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  #19  
Old 05-22-2009, 02:31 PM
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ruf0us ruf0us is offline
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Hi everyone,

I built the wheels. Just wheels. I'm a slow builder. I already know I have no chance to win and I just enjoy building the model

I cut out the parts with a circle cutter and made a slit for inserting the wire using a chisel blade (X-ACTO #17).



Then I laminated the parts to form two discs.



They just look like land mines and their tread surfaces look uneven. I didn't like them look that way and I decided to sand them down.

This is the fun part. I skewered the wheel at the center with a thin nail (the one that's used for hanging pictures) and mounted it on a power drill. Then I rolled it on a #220 sandpaper sheet, flattening the tread first and then making the shoulders round.



Please note that I marked the opening of the wire slot with a pink marker. If you didn't do this before sanding, you might miss the hole filled with the dust.

Then I painted the treads in dark gray with acrylic color.



That's it for today!

Thanks,
Shinji

Last edited by ruf0us; 05-22-2009 at 02:42 PM.
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  #20  
Old 05-22-2009, 03:11 PM
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Don Boose Don Boose is offline
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The wheels look good, Shinji!

I have been wondering about what to use for a mandrel to sand down small wheels like this. I have been thinking of imbedding a 1/32 or 1/16 dowel with Duco or Ambroid cement, chucking that in my Dremel, and then, after sanding down the wheels, dissolving the cement with acetone. I would put both wheels on the same dowel, about 1/8 inch apart, so that I could insure they were both the same size.

However, thnis seems like a rather overly complex approach and your thin finishing nail seems to have doen the trick.

Don
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