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I have been doing a lot of painting to hull panels and the final mandible over the last few weeks. Because of the painting techniques I have adopted, it is, and will take many weeks to complete. Now we are nearing the completion of the custom build, I have decided to assemble the landing gear, where I will be customising this section. The plan is to attach the legs before completing the wiring and fitting the internal parts together as I don’t want to be finalising the bottom piece with everything attached.
Pictures 1,2 &3. Here are some pictures of the side panel to the second mandible. This is how I will be painting all the side pieces and the landing gear section, as you can see it is very time consuming, but worth the effort.
Pictures 4 & 5. Here I have started painting the landing gear. First I have sanded down the parts to remove the pre-moulded marks and seams. Once removed I primed and painted all the parts with Metalcote paint ready to paint the final coat.Markwarren attached the following image(s):
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Picture 1. A little experimenting with the landing legs. I saw some pictures on the net with the rear twin landing legs attached to each other as shown in this picture below. Note the legs in the background show it a little more.
Picture 2. I had a spare set of twin landing legs to experiment on, so I first made a scaled drawing of how I wanted them to look. As you can see, I have a top and side view. This will help me when I cut the desired pieces as I can use those measurements for accuracy.
Pictures 3 & 4. As there are two twin legs, I will need four brace supports.
Picture 5. Then I glued two pieces with three dividers, shown here.
Picture 6 & 7. The final two pictures show them test fitted to the landing legs. Note I have cut away the end of one foot. As the legs, I have used were for experimental reasons and not the legs I will be using, I will show how to cut the ends of the feet to accommodate the brace supports later. Next, I will be making the piston rods to fit on the supports, as shown in my drawing.Markwarren attached the following image(s):
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Pictures 1,2 & 3. The next stage is to make the piston rods that will attached to both legs via the brace support. I used a 1mm brass rod and some shrink tubing.
Pictures 4 & 5. Next, I test fit it into the spare landing gear I have used, to see if there are any alteration I need to make.
Picture 6. I then made a second one for the other set of legs of the Falcon
Pictures 7,8 & 9. Now that the pistons are done, I then started work on the pre-painted landing legs I will be using. First, I cut the part of the foot to make way for the support. This was then glued into the bottom foot section.
Picture 10 & 11. I then marked with pencil the piece that attaches to the end of the foot and cut as shown.
Picture 12. I then test fitted the part, before gluing into place.
Pictures 13,14 & 15. I then marked where the brace support will be and made two more cuts.
Pictures 16 & 17. Once cut, I then test fitted the brace support.
I will be using some plastic cement to fill the holes so you will have a flat surface on top of the foot. Note, I have not attached the support or the pistons, as these will be pre-painted before fixing pertinently. There is a lot more that will be done with the legs before any weathering will be done.Markwarren attached the following image(s):
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Pictures 1 &2. The next stage, I drilled some holes into the leg column to accommodate the central leg support. I also drilled a hole into the centre of the upper landing deck.
Picture 3. The next picture shows the central leg support with three pieces of plastic tubing glued into place.
Picture 4. I then filled the holes in the feet where I had cut in my previously. These will need sanding before painting.
Picture 5. I then sprayed the feet support, leg supports and hydraulic pistons with Metalcote paint.
Picture 6. Here, I gave the leg columns a little more detail, using heat shrink tubing.
Picture 7 & 8. The next pictures show all the leg parts painted and ready to test fit.
Pictures 9 & 10. I then test fitted all the parts before weathering with oils. I will be weathering most parts before gluing together.
Next, I will be making some hydraulic cables and pipes that will be fitted to the under carriage.Markwarren attached the following image(s):
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Just a quick update. I was going to give the parts the first step of weathering, but decided to drill the holes for the hydraulics to fit, reference picture in my earlier post. Then I got carried away and started to test fit to see how it would look. I used a guitar string, cut to size, and a thin piece of electrical cable. Now it will all be dismantled and pre-weathered. I’ll be updating the pictures once the landing legs are complete, before I will fit the landing bay doors.Markwarren attached the following image(s):
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Picture 1. I have spent the last few days pre-weathering the parts as shown, leaving each layer of oils to dry before applying the next one. You probably can’t see must as the parts are small, but when you look close you can see the various colours on the panels, a lot of work but worth the effort.
Pictures 2,3,4 & 5. These are the final pictures of one of the legs, fully weathered. This took around 3½ hours to finish, and I have another four more to do. Looks like I’m going to be busy over the next few evenings.
Markwarren attached the following image(s):
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Pictures 1,2 & 3. I am still painting the other legs, but I thought I would have a go at fitting the landing gear flaps. I wanted to fix them to the landing legs and not the hull. I made some hydraulic pistons out of some brass rods I have. I then UV glued them to the plastic flaps.
Pictures 4 & 5. I then made the hole in the top of the landing gear housing.
Pictures 6 & 7. Once the glue had hardened, I primed and sanded.
Pictures 8,9 & 10. I then test fitted it into the landing gear.
Pictures 11,12,13 & 14. The final pictures are the legs fitted into the hull panel as another test fit.
Just a few more legs to paint, then I will finish making the other flaps and paint them. I will then finish the underside of the hull, painting etc., before starting on the wiring of all the extra lighting I have done. I have all the electronic boards I need to now complete this and will show how everything comes together soon.Markwarren attached the following image(s):
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