John R Posted August 23, 2019 Share Posted August 23, 2019 I am building an Anigrand 1/72 version of the XB-43 and the instructions for fitting the main landing gear are minimal, to say the least. Can anybody please enlighten me as to how it should be done or provide me with pictures showing how and where it is attached to the a/c? John PS. What photos I have found on the internet sem to show that the gear legs supplied bear little resemblance to the real thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navy Bird Posted August 23, 2019 Share Posted August 23, 2019 Looks like they pivot aft and stow in the fuselage side. Cheers, Bill PS. Not surprised the Anigrand parts aren't completely accurate. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsr Posted August 23, 2019 Share Posted August 23, 2019 For what it is worth here is how I did my Anigrand XB-42 which should be the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Space Ranger Posted August 23, 2019 Share Posted August 23, 2019 (edited) Here's the airplane at the USAF Museum, but the gear installation is not real clear: Here are a couple more: Edited August 23, 2019 by Space Ranger Add'l. photos. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Joyce Posted August 23, 2019 Share Posted August 23, 2019 I don't have available photos of my Anigrand XB-42, but my landing gear arrangement arrangement appears identical to hsr's. Like he said, the airframes were basically the same and since there seem to be more photos of the XB-42 on the Internet I would base it on those pictures. For either kit, the landing gear is a bit flimsy and I wouldn't trust it to support the weight of all that resin over time. I had a spare 9 volt battery sitting around so have used it to keep the weight off the gear. Someday I might actually replace it with something a bit less noticeable! Cheers, Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John R Posted August 24, 2019 Author Share Posted August 24, 2019 12 hours ago, Navy Bird said: PS. Not surprised the Anigrand parts aren't completely accurate. Neither was I! I have have suffered at Anigrand's hands before but if it's the only game in town... 12 hours ago, Mark Joyce said: For either kit, the landing gear is a bit flimsy and I wouldn't trust it to support the weight of all that resin over time I had the same thought when I saw it. The man who produces Prop & Jet kits manages to cast the resin around a metal core. If only others could do the same. Anyway thank you all for help. I can now see where the legs are supposed to be attached and I think that there is enough there for me to work something out but there are still a few unresolved matters.. That stub at the top of the leg (Anigrand) that doesn't appear to do anything. Where and how are all those doors attached. It would appear that it first flew without them. Presumably they couldn't trust them all to work. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
72modeler Posted August 24, 2019 Share Posted August 24, 2019 John R and others, See the link below to some very interesting photos, especially the unusual wing-mounted aft-firing gun setup as well as how the main gear pivots while retracting/extending. Hope you haven't seen these before! Mike https://oldmachinepress.com/2017/08/05/douglas-xb-42-mixmaster-attack-bomber/ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRealMrEd Posted August 25, 2019 Share Posted August 25, 2019 A couple more that may help... Ed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John R Posted September 1, 2019 Author Share Posted September 1, 2019 After much digging in the internet I have reached some conclusions. There is a narrow u/c bay in the wing into which the main leg fits and this has its own door which can be seen in the photo above.. There is also a small fairing which starts behind the wing leading edge. It's hard to make out in some photos unless you know it's there. Below shows where Anigrand would have you fit the gear leg. The next picture is of the XB-42 gear because it's the only 'clear' picture I could find. You can just make out the bay in the wing and can see which is the main gear leg and that part of the Anigrand leg does not exist There is a great difference between the XB-43 and the XB-42 as regards the u/c doors. I hope this is clear. More to come John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tailspin Turtle Posted September 5, 2019 Share Posted September 5, 2019 See https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/threads/trip-to-the-national-museum-of-the-us-air-force.31824/page-19 Note that the XB-42 and XB-43 are side-by-side with the XB-43 on the right. It looks to me like that portion of the landing gear does in fact exist and the two short legs form a tilted Y, the top of which is the angled pivot axis of the landing gear retraction. However, Anigrand may not have gotten the legs oriented properly (the outboard top of the Y has to angle forward so that the wheel goes into the well more or less vertical with the strut outboard, assuming the B-43 gear retracts like the B-42's; see https://oldmachinepress.com/2017/08/05/douglas-xb-42-mixmaster-attack-bomber/). 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tailspin Turtle Posted September 5, 2019 Share Posted September 5, 2019 Sometimes, I can't stop myself. After taking a close look at pictures and crudely mocking up the strut to establish the required axis of rotation, I'm all but certain that there is a Y at the top of the strut, with the forward leg being much longer than the aft one and extending farther up into the fuselage or wing. As a result, it looks like the Anigrand landing gear strut, given that the kit part is truncated at the lower wing surface for simplicity, is pretty close to correct as "hsr" installed it on his XB-42 model pictured above. For a description and illustrations, see https://tailhooktopics.blogspot.com/2019/09/douglas-xb-4243-main-landing-gear.html 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John R Posted September 9, 2019 Author Share Posted September 9, 2019 Thank you for that Tommy. A brilliant suggestion. After reading your blog I took another look at the picture of the u/c as I had wondered about the function of the inner portion of the 'Y' as it looked as if it had a forked end. If you draw a line along what appears to be the top of the fork it appears to lie along your suggested axis of rotation. However trying to persuade the Anigrand leg to rotate about that axis does not result in it fitting into the fuselage, suggesting that more research into the shape of the leg is required. I feel some wire bending coming on... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawnguylander Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 Hopefully this helps- (about halfway down) http://tailhooktopics.blogspot.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John R Posted September 24, 2019 Author Share Posted September 24, 2019 This is the same as the post referred to by Tommy where it is given its own separate article but thank you for your help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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