1/32 21C Mustang landing gear correction

cs51762 · Post by **cs51762** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 3:06 pm

I'm getting tired of looking at my 21C P-51 Mustangs sitting on those stilts they have for landing gear, so I decided to try to shorten them to the proper length on my test subject, "Shangri-La".

I removed the wing section from the fuselage and measured how far the struts needed to be shortend so that the gear door would be just above the wheel hub. Using a small screwdriver, I separated the gear door from the lower part of the strut, but left it attached to the upper part. I then marked the strut and using a razor saw, cut out 5/16" of the lower section of the upper part of the strut. Tenax-7R liquid plastic cement was used to join the two strut pieces back together. After letting the glue set overnight, I then touched-up the joint with Testors silver. Total time was about 1-1/12 hours.

Before:

After:

USCGSARdog · Post by **USCGSARdog** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 3:44 pm

Wow......... easy mod, but what a difference. Looks good.

-Rob

nooker21 · Post by **nooker21** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 8:36 pm

But do the wheels still fold up properly into the wells?

cs51762 · Post by **cs51762** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 11:46 am

nooker21 wrote:But do the wheels still fold up properly into the wells?

No. But that's OK with me since I plan only to display it with the wheels down. Anyone wanting the option of both positions shouldn't make this modification. I'm glad you asked, as I should have mentioned this in my first post. Thanks.