The Little World

You can google that one up to read the full horror of Australian vernacular, but for now just concentrate on the landing gear of scale model aircraft.

Landing gear on real aircraft are the structures that allow the aircraft to land safely, supporting it as it rolls down the runway. On scale aircraft they are the structures that collapse and let the model sit at an angle on the shelf.

The reason is simple – the material of which the plastic model is made hasn’t enough strength to hold up the whole structure when it is formed into spindly scale structures. When the model designers crib a little from scale dimensions and add some more cross-section to the parts, the chance of them proving sufficient rises dramatically.

If the kit makers make metal parts for the landing gear legs and mould sufficient points into which you can attach these metal parts, the problem doesn’t exist. But metal parts and multi-media kits are more expensive to make.

The classic answer to the sagging gear has been to support the plane with fake cables and hoses made from metal or to put the fuselage or wings on service supports. Recently Phil Flory encountered terminally sagging gear on a Revell 1:32 Hornet and resorted to a clear perspex rod from the underside of the fuselage to the shelf top to bear the weight of the model. It was positioned in the least conspicuous place under the fuselage and doesn’t detract in any way from the presentation of this big model.

As a solution, it is clever, and I think it should become more of a convention of art when we have these potential problems. No serious modeller could fail to recognise the circumstances and be sympathetic. I suspect, as well, that some larger vehicle kits with scale suspensions would also benefit from it.