POST ALL A.T.'s ME-262 DISCUSSION HERE

[VMF115]

This was my inspiration

[Sabrefan]

You guys had mentioned that the nose gear strut was fragile. I have a ME262 coming, and I want to make sure I don't damage the nose gear strut. Can you guys tell me how you lowered the gear? Is there a secret to doing this? Thanks.

[VMF115]

You guys had mentioned that the nose gear strut was fragile. I have a ME262 coming, and I want to make sure I don't damage the nose gear strut. Can you guys tell me how you lowered the gear? Is there a secret to doing this? Thanks.

The entire front landing gear is fragile,

I know some one is going to break theirs.


I grabbed the nose wheels door that is contacted to the front landing gear. I then let the strut fall down if that does not happen on yours I would use long tweezers to pull it down.
There is a cup where it attaches be care full

I hope some one can post some close up pics of the “cup” that the strut goes in to.

[Jason of Admiral Toys]

Here are my suggestions for the front landing gear.

1. We did not want to sacrifice detail and make the strut oversized. The ME 262 had a thin front landing gear, and we think it looks better nice and thin.

2. The door that attaches to the strut is connected by two screws. This is one of the strongest parts of the aircraft. We may have gone overboard with two screws on the front landing gear door, but this is the part we thought people would grab to pull the landing gear down.

3. Therefore grab that front landing gear door and give it a tug. You will not pull the door off. As stated above it is attached to the strut by not one, but two screws.

4. There is a support strut that fits in a cup at the upper two-thirds of the main strut. To put this support bar into position, push the main strut forward towards the top, or pull forward by the landing gear door. Once again there are two screws holding the door in place. I would not consider this fragile design. I would consider it overkill.

I would not recommend reaching in a pulling the landing gear down by the wheel. It was not designed for this.

One thing keeps resonating in my head… instructions… instructions…. Ya… probably a good idea for future releases.

A lot of these models have made their way into the hands of our customers, and not a single front landing gear has been reported broken.

Hope this helps,
Regards,
Jason

Post script
Did I mention the front landing gear is held on by two screws? Grab the door not the wheel! It was designed for this.

[chunks]

Here are my suggestions for the front landing gear.

1. We did not want to sacrifice detail and make the strut oversized. The ME 262 had a thin front landing gear, and we think it looks better nice and thin.

2. The door that attaches to the strut is connected by two screws. This is one of the strongest parts of the aircraft. We may have gone overboard with two screws on the front landing gear door, but this is the part we thought people would grab to pull the landing gear down.

3. Therefore grab that front landing gear door and give it a tug. You will not pull the door off. As stated above it is attached to the strut by not one, but two screws.

4. There is a support strut that fits in a cup at the upper two-thirds of the main strut. To put this support bar into position, push the main strut forward towards the top, or pull forward by the landing gear door. Once again there are two screws holding the door in place. I would not consider this fragile design. I would consider it overkill.

I would not recommend reaching in a pulling the landing gear down by the wheel. It was not designed for this.

One thing keeps resonating in my head… instructions… instructions…. Ya… probably a good idea for future releases.

A lot of these models have made their way into the hands of our customers, and not a single front landing gear has been reported broken.

Hope this helps,
Regards,
Jason

Post script
Did I mention the front landing gear is held on by two screws? Grab the door not the wheel! It was designed for this.

I'd mentioned on an earlier post that the weak nose gear was even more historical accuracy. It was in fact, second only to the engines, the me-262's main weakness. Those two items, (plus modern avionics, etc) were the main improvement made to the newly produced stormbirds built recently. When I made that post, it wasn't sarcastic or negative, I truly believe it to be a result of the efforts you went to in order to make a truly fine represention of this remarkable ship.

[VMF115]

I agree I am truly happy that the me-262 front landing gear is not on the chunky side.

[Jason of Admiral Toys]

Gentlemen,

In no shape or forum was I directing any of the comments towards you. I was not being defensive. I am just kicking myself for not including instructions for the opening of the landing gear door.

Both of you have been more then generous in the support of this model and we greatly appreciate your candor. I just wanted to give some straight forward instructions on why one should not be afraid of the front landing gear.

I have edited by previous post to reflect the levity in my breath through the use of these marvelous smiley faces.

Regards,
Jason

[chunks]

Gentlemen,

In no shape or forum was I directing any of the comments towards you. I was not being defensive. I am just kicking myself for not including instructions for the opening of the landing gear door.

Both of you have been more then generous in the support of this model and we greatly appreciate your candor. I just wanted to give some straight forward instructions on why one should not be afraid of the front landing gear.

I have edited by previous post to reflect the levity in my breath.

Regards,
Jason

Jason, I didn't take it that way. Just adding my little bit. Thanks and keep up the good work.

[VMF115]

Gentlemen,

In no shape or forum was I directing any of the comments towards you. I was not being defensive. I am just kicking myself for not including instructions for the opening of the landing gear door.

Both of you have been more then generous in the support of this model and we greatly appreciate your candor. I just wanted to give some straight forward instructions on why one should not be afraid of the front landing gear.

I have edited by previous post to reflect the levity in my breath.

Regards,
Jason

No, No, Jason I never took it that way at all. Thats one bad thing about the Internet, you don’t get to see the body language of the other person.

When you come on here to tell us about something or explain to us, we are thrilled to have spoken to “some one that gives a dam” it’s a real treat for us.

Jason your a great guy who made one heck of a 1:18 scale me-262

"We are men and men don’t read instructions any way" LOL J/K

[Sabrefan]

Jason, thanks for making the landing gear struts on the ME262 the correct size. To me this really adds to the model.

[tmanthegreat]

I hope I didn't come off too negative or sarcastic about the ME-262 or AT in my last post as that wasn't the intention... Such incidents happen in this hobby and I was just shocked as this time it happened to me! Jason and the AT customer service were very prompt in their communication and will rectify the problem once the new planes arrive in a couple weeks. I have alot of respect for a company that goes to such lengths for its customers

Apart from my box and QC issue, the aircraft is amazing and I appreciate all the work that went into making it both accurate and functional. It is exactly on par with the most current aircraft made by the competition and 21c will have a hard time beating the AT ME-262 with their own, unless they make the engines work

Great job, AT

[Charlemagne]

Jason,

I am certainly not a toy making expert and my apologies to anyone who may have already mentioned this idea previously but how feasible(technically and financially) would it be to place a thin metal pin that ran the length of the strut at the core of the plastic for strength. This certainly would make them stronger and hopefully keep that accurate thiness. Anyway, just a thought for future aircraft landing gear.

Thanks
Dan

[VMF115]

The pilots head is a bit on the tall side and he will not fit properly in the cockpit, so I removed his flight helmet and trimmed it down a bit just above his eyebrows. I then superglued the helmet back on, problem fixed, I then added some gloved hands from one of my bbi hornet Pilots hands and panted them black , his original hands looked a little small. I then gave his gray uniform a coat of light gray ghost.
Over all I improved the appearance of the pilot.

Ok guys if you want a really cool me-262 pilot here is what you do

I swapped heads with the Mig 15 pilot and the me-262 pilot

I had to shave some plastic here and there and use some super glue but the looks is wow! He even has an oxygen mask. I just wish I had a camera.

The new mig-15 pilot definitely looks Russian, and the new Me-262 Pilot looks German.


Here is what I did

I removed both heads and cut off the pegs so they both will fit.
I then had to cut down the neck of the Russian pilot and then super glued his head on the body of the me-262 pilot.


The me-262 pilot head then went on the body of the mig-15 pilot; the look is almost spooky

and the best part is he fits in the cockpit!!!!!!

[Threetoughtrucks]

Did anybody else notice that the front landing gear is attached by two screws?

Nobody better tell AT. or else that Jason guy will make it three screws...I've heard he is big on overkill.



TTT

[der Vogelfänger]

The question isn't where to put them, it's where to hide them...

This is tooooo close to home

LOL, excellent insight grunt1

[Teamski]

The pilots head is a bit on the tall side and he will not fit properly in the cockpit, so I removed his flight helmet and trimmed it down a bit just above his eyebrows. I then superglued the helmet back on, problem fixed, I then added some gloved hands from one of my bbi hornet Pilots hands and panted them black , his original hands looked a little small. I then gave his gray uniform a coat of light gray ghost.
Over all I improved the appearance of the pilot.

Ok guys if you want a really cool me-262 pilot here is what you do

I swapped heads with the Mig 15 pilot and the me-262 pilot

I had to shave some plastic here and there and use some super glue but the looks is wow! He even has an oxygen mask. I just wish I had a camera.

The new mig-15 pilot definitely looks Russian, and the new Me-262 Pilot looks German.


Here is what I did

I removed both heads and cut off the pegs so they both will fit.
I then had to cut down the neck of the Russian pilot and then super glued his head on the body of the me-262 pilot.


The me-262 pilot head then went on the body of the mig-15 pilot; the look is almost spooky

and the best part is he fits in the cockpit!!!!!!

You know what I did?? I simply pulled a 109 pilot from another plane and used him instead, hehehehe.....

-Ski

[Jason of Admiral Toys]

Pilots... uhhhh.... We got into this industry because we like making aircraft, and have a great respect for all aircraft throughout history.

We did not get into this industry to make figures. I guess this is starting to show. But the industry dictates that a pilot accompany ones offering. As much as I think the pilot is an improvement over the F-86 jockey, we admit there is room for improvement.

Hopefully our learning curve will have a steeper slope on the next offering.

Enjoy the "model," humor us with our pilots... for now.

Regards,
Jason

[Dubar1]

I don't think the front landing gear is at all fragile. I really tugged on mine before I realized I needed to take the door off. If I didn't break it then someone is really going to have to give it a SNAP to make it let go

With a little "adjusting" I think I can get mine to raise and lower easily.

Sitting here looking at the plane I realize just how far advanced the German engineers were. What a marvelous looking airplane I can't imagine what our boys thought when they frist encountered them. Actually, most WW2 planes have a certain look to them that says they were more than just machines. Until the F-22 Raptor, most modern planes were just pieces of equipment to me.

[der Vogelfänger]

I assembled MY Me-262 this evening: the wing fit so well it is almost surrealistic (thanks Jason); the nose gear is perfect-in order to keep it realistic it HAD to be slender, check out historic photos and compare; the historic decals went on smoothly although they appear to be a tad larger than they "should" be; the landing gear came down and locked without using "hand tools of any kind". New pictures will be taken tomorrow, Saturday 02Dec06 and posted, hopefully shot with MY CL-13 as a comparison. BTW, the TWO screws holding the main gear doors worked flawlessly.

Boiled down version: WOWWWWWWW...thanks Jason and AT!

dV

[Sabrefan]

I can't wait to get mine. Look like a awesome model.

[scbvideoboy]

one thing I have noticed in my travels visiting toy or scale collecting forums...there are no out of work comedians posing as collectors!

As for overbuilding I say build it for a russian winter.

DH

[grunt1]

lol.. You'll like this then FL..

I found the instructions!! Flip the plane over and look around the nose gear. You have to aufbocken the bugrad! I mean.. sheesh!

[grunt1]

But seriously folks........

[Sabrefan]

Thanks Grunt, those are great close up pictures. Man they sure got that front strut and tire correst. Nice!

[VMF115]

You know what I did?? I simply pulled a 109 pilot from another plane and used him instead, hehehehe.....

-Ski

I thought about doing I thought about doing that but after looking through my Flight Magazines, I noticed that the me-262 pilots and the Korean War Russian pilots had similar head and oxygen gear, not 100 percent but close.

The me-262 Pilot I have is the Seaman with butt ugly Fritz I even added an oxygen mask after my G/F Barbie collection was getting the creeps just looking at him.

Thanks Grunt, those are great close up pictures. Man they sure got that front strut and tire correst. Nice!

Thanks Grunt1