A-6E Main Gear Door Actuators

[Ade H]

The HobbyBoss A-6E misses the actuators for the rearmost doors of the main undercarriage bays. They kindly remembered the actuators for the smaller dog-leg doors, then suffered brainfade (again).

 

I want to scratch-build them. The trouble is that I can't find a photo of them in any walk-around because they are in an awkward spot on the rear bulkhead right behind the undercarriage leg. Does anyone know of a photo, drawing, or even some instructions for a kit which includes them?

[72modeler]

See if this walkaround from the Prime Portal website helps. I see what you mean about almost all landing gear photos being taken from the front.

Mike

 

http://www.primeportal.net/hangar/howard_mason/a-6e/index.php?Page=2

 

[Tailspin Turtle]

It looks to me like there is a fixed link at the very back of the gear door that is attached to the gear strut or the retraction actuator and pulls the door shut as the gear retracts. I couldn't figure out where the gear retraction actuator was until I looked at this video (it's hiding in plain sight on the back of the main landing gear strut); https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG18jjJ5G0A

[Ade H]

@72modeler Hi Mike. Thanks for the link, but I have that one bookmarked and, as you found, there's no clear view. One end can be seen from the back view, but that's all. If only the photographer had pointed his camera upwards at the back, he'd have got it.

@Tailspin Turtle Thanks, but I'm not seeing what you're seeing from that video, as it's just an admittedly very clever model of the landing gear leg itself. You may be right that it's attached to the leg rather than the bay, though.

[Julien]

Anything here help?

 

 

[Tailspin Turtle]

3 hours ago, Ade H said:

@72modeler Hi Mike. Thanks for the link, but I have that one bookmarked and, as you found, there's no clear view. One end can be seen from the back view, but that's all. If only the photographer had pointed his camera upwards at the back, he'd have got it.

@Tailspin Turtle Thanks, but I'm not seeing what you're seeing from that video, as it's just an admittedly very clever model of the landing gear leg itself. You may be right that it's attached to the leg rather than the bay, though.

All I got from the video was an understanding of the purpose of the actuator was on the backside of the landing gear strut. Usually the gear retraction actuator pulls the gear into the well; in this case it pushes it in.  Brightening some of the pictures of the upper side of the strut taken from the front doesn’t show anything obvious behind it that can be associated with the link on the aft end of the door, leading me to conclude that it’s somehow pulled by a mechanism connected to the back side of the actuator or the strut so that when the landing gear rotates forward, that link pulls the door closed. The link might not be connected directly to the actuator or strut since it doesn’t look like there is enough freedom of movement of the fitting at the door end of the link for it to rotate forward with the strut/actuator.

[Ade H]

I've found instructions for the 1/32nd Trumpy kit which, it turns out, does have actuator parts (see pic). I wonder why the HB people left them off, as I thought that the 1/48th kit was basically scaled down and slightly simplified (e.g. no engine detail).

 

My initial assumption that it attaches on the gear bay wall seems correct, although maybe it should be a little further inward.

 

 

Not that I want to take Trumpeter as a reliable reference, but in the absence of photos, this is probably a decent enough basis for an interpretation.

 

Thanks for your replies, everyone.