Help needed with X-wing landing gear.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Hello everyone... Im building the old MPC X-wing for the Sci-Fi group build as Red-Two. Im getting close to landing gear time as I'm about 1/2 way through the painting. The main gear have doors but the nose gear just hang in place with no doors ? Does the nose skid/gear double as the door or should there be doors ? Also does anyone have good photo’s or drawings of the skids ? All i have in the kit are three chintzy skids identical in size. Id like to dress them up a little at least if possible. 
 

Dennis

[Andy Moore]

Hi Dennis,

 

Yes, the nose gear has doors; two longitudinal doors on either side of the bay. The main gear doors are formed from the bottom of the engine nacelle casing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As for the landing gear itself, the Bandai kit is fairly accurate. The shot below is from my build, and I modified the parts slightly (added some bolt heads and opened up the notches on the front of the skids), but otherwise should work for a reference.

 

 

Andy

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Many Thanks Andy thats exactly what i needed. 

[nheather]

You can get away with a lot in science fiction.

 

Can you imagine in real-life at a design meeting .....

 

“and finally, we come to the main landing gear, where are we going to locate those”

 

”I know, let’s bolt them to the engines”

 

”cool, can’t see any problem there, let’s go with that”

 

Yes, and before you say “many aircraft have the landing gear in the engine nacelle”, yes I know, but in those cases the nacelle is shaped to have room for the landing gear supporting structure and space for the gear to retract into.  

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

7 hours ago, nheather said:

You can get away with a lot in science fiction.

 

Can you imagine in real-life at a design meeting .....

 

“and finally, we come to the main landing gear, where are we going to locate those”

 

”I know, let’s bolt them to the engines”

 

”cool, can’t see any problem there, let’s go with that”

 

Yes, and before you say “many aircraft have the landing gear in the engine nacelle”, yes I know, but in those cases the nacelle is shaped to have room for the landing gear supporting structure and space for the gear to retract into.  

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

So true ! 

[Richard Baker]

I generally like to display my vehicles with the gear down, like they are parked on the tarmac. The only consistent exception to this is the T-65 X-Wing- the way the gear comes down out of the engines just looks stupid to me and destroys the "reality" of the subject having actual functioning hardware. 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

3 minutes ago, Richard Baker said:

I generally like to display my vehicles with the gear down, like they are parked on the tarmac. The only consistent exception to this is the T-65 X-Wing- the way the gear comes down out of the engines just looks stupid to me and destroys the "reality" of the subject having actual functioning hardware. 

I agree and my next X-wing will have custom built gear that fold out of the lower fuselage to rest below the engines. Something like F-104, F-16 or A-7 style. Im looking at my build of red two and the landing gear are just wrong. 

[Steve Coombs]

1 hour ago, Richard Baker said:

I generally like to display my vehicles with the gear down, like they are parked on the tarmac. The only consistent exception to this is the T-65 X-Wing- the way the gear comes down out of the engines just looks stupid to me and destroys the "reality" of the subject having actual functioning hardware. 

To be fair, if you build the Bandai kits, the Death Star base and stand cry out for the vehicle to be in flight. Which means putting a pilot in and indulging in exercises requiring deep patience to get the decals on said individual's helmet.

[Richard Baker]

I agree with the Bandai in flight over the Death Star base, but my favorite way to display fictional fighter craft is on the ground, some ground equipment  near by and maybe a panel or two open for servicing. It just brings the fictional craft more into the "real World" for me. Seeing the X-Wings for the first time in the Yavin Hangar with fuel lines and workers swarming around them made a big impact on me- when I saw those fighter in space later they seemed to be actual combat machines instead of some SFX models in a studio...