Small Scale Military Headquarters

A friend of mine gave his kids an Avenger model to share. Well that plane did not last long. I took the wheels off of it, and I put them on my BBI Marines Dream Corsair. The tires are the same height as the original on the corsair, but they are fatter. I really liked how they look on the Corsair. It was quite a bit of work, but I the result looks cool. I used Testors metalic silver to paint the hubs, it was a perfect match to the BBI silver. VMF115 will post some pictures for me as I still am not so good at posting pictures. I hope you guys like how the Corsair looks.

Paul that is a real nice mod that every one should do, in fact I think bbi should make a bunch of new wheels for us die hard folks.

Thanks Patrick for posting the pictures. I also painted the prop hub with the same silver paint I used for the hubs. I could not get over how that silver matched the silver on the gear struts.

Now if I could just get another set of Avenger wheels and tires for the Hellcat model.

Paul can you retract the new wheels into the bbi Corsair?

Do you have any model shops in your area? If not, grab a magazine like Aeromodeller or similar from your local newsstand - there's always the stuff made for flying models that can be adapted fairly easily...

Yes you can retract the new wheels on the Corsair.

Sabrefan wrote:Yes you can retract the new wheels on the Corsair.

Cool

This is a good idea but again I have yet to take them out of the box.

how do you get the Avenger wheels off??
I dont want to brake it.

I cut the Avenger wheels off with a pair of strong cutting pliers. The axle is made of tough metal. I did the same getting the original wheels off of the Corsair.

so the wheels on the corsair doesnt roll?? correct me if im wrong, or is it in like a static display kinda thing

No the wheels I put on the Corsair don't roll. I kind of wanted it that way. I have some of my planes high up on my shelves, and I don't want them to roll off.

It would not take much work to make them role.

That LOOKS a lot better one thing that realy stands out on these aircraft are the underscale tyres and on the Mustang how short the undercarrage spats are they should be level with the axel

Damn that looks sweet. HOWEVER I dont have a spare Avenger to take the tires off to put on my Marines Dream. Thats the only thing that sucks about 1/18th aircraft and thats that the tires look to thin.


But nice job and a good idea.

Thanks guys. I have two other BBI Corsairs just waiting for a wheel and tire conversion. I wish 21st Century would sell the Avenger tires. I wish I could replace the tires on my 21st Century P-51s. They are way to skinny. I wonder why they make the tires so skinny. The best tires I have seen are the ones on the Admiral ME262 model. The thread pattern on the mains are awesome. Why can't all wheels and tires be that nice?

Sabrefan wrote:Thanks guys. I have two other BBI Corsairs just waiting for a wheel and tire conversion. I wish 21st Century would sell the Avenger tires. I wish I could replace the tires on my 21st Century P-51s. They are way to skinny. I wonder why they make the tires so skinny. The best tires I have seen are the ones on the Admiral ME262 model. The thread pattern on the mains are awesome. Why can't all wheels and tires be that nice?

The tread pattern on my BBI P-51D HHH is accurate except once again the tire is to thin. Its a good question as to why they make the tires thin as they are.

MightyMustang wrote:Its a good question as to why they make the tires thin as they are.

Perhaps not The manufacturers make the tires thin so that they fit easily in the landing gear bay. Remember these planes are ultimately designed to be detailed, functional toys, not precision models. Thus, some inaccuracies result so that the part can function easily.

That is true, but look at the wheels and tires one the Admiral ME262. The main gear tires are nice and fat and they retract.

Sabrefan wrote:That is true, but look at the wheels and tires one the Admiral ME262. The main gear tires are nice and fat and they retract.

I agree the Me-262 broke new ground in that area....

I also like the main gear tires on the BBI Zero.

Sabrefan wrote:I also like the main gear tires on the BBI Zero.

The also look good.

Also the tires on the f-18 are not all that bad.

Almost forgot, I really like the wheels and tires on the 21st Century Spitfire model. That is the first thing I noticed when I got the Spitfire.