[aki]

Hello guys! I'm a newbie of this forum and not sure it's the proper place to post these pics. So sorry if these piss you all off...
I hope you all would enjoy the pics and post your impressions/opinions. I'll post the other pics in progress and my explanations if you're interesting in.

[hworth18]

Welcome to the forum Aki!!
I take it that this is a customized prototype of the Moonlighters version due here in November??

Looks VERY nice and you did a fine job on it, if only the production piece had al the small details..

[flyXwire]

Awesome is all can say. Thanks for sharing!

[STARMAN 352ND]

That is my next bird right there........
I love the way you have the front & rear landing gears.
Cool pilots too.
Nice pictures.
JP

[Louie]

Hey man I'm not too sure why you think those great pics would upset anyone. You did a great job on the nose gear and main gear as well. Those details set the model apart even more. Welcome to the forum please keep us up to date on your other modifications great work thanks!

[bandit95]

We love pics!!!! Thanks for sharing and nice work!!

[planenutsfrog]

Great job and MAGNIFICENT pictures !!!

And welcome btw...

[David Hingtgen]

You should see his 1/400 work. Yup, steering nosewheels there too. Truly amazing. 1/72 should be relatively easy for him due to the size.

[aki]

Originally Posted by Louie

Hey man I'm not too sure why you think those great pics would upset anyone.

I got so many negative responses/PMs when I posted pics of my modified DW 1/400 AA B738 which had rolling tires with the steerable nose gear several years ago.... That's why I thought so,.... but

Thanks guys for your positive response! I'll post the pics in progress. BTW anyone have already got this model? I got both KA-6D which was one of the first two models and this A-6E. Judging from my models, the later A-6E has a few improvements, which are the size of a nose tire and the blackout (painted in black) lower frame of the windshield. Regarding the former, the KA-6D's OD of the nose tire looks too big, the one of A-6E looks better (smaller). and regarding the later, KA-6D has a grey frame though, A-6E has a black one (the black painted area is not good enough though)

Well, here's the original nose gear. You'll see the forward nose gear door has been installed on the gear strut and the aft doors has been a simple straight plate. As those were beyond my allowance, I decided to modify them.


Cut the forward door from the strut.


Added the tab which was made from 0.3mm thickness plastic board to install on a nose gear well and the landing light.


Removed the aft doors from gear well and modified to be an angled door.


Modified to be steerable. The steering pivot is a 0.5mm OD stainless steel rod and the hole for the pivot can be seen on the second photo. The black line on the gear is an electricl wire harness(?) which was made from a 0.3mm OD plastic rod. The installation of the strut to the nose gear well also has been modified to get a better look and the spacer was added at the bottom of the strut.



The OD of the original nose tire (the RH in the pic) is 7.5mm though, a true to scale size is approx. 7.0mm. So I gave it a go..... the LH in the pic is the ground one.


The electrical wire harness has been added to the main gear.


The original forward main gear doors should be positioned outerboard. That was why I decided to modify though,...........
I dropped the ball!!!!! My Moonlighters cannot loaded anything on the inner pylons since the doors interfere....


Two pilot figures are steerable, too!!

[Merlin G.C.]

That's real work Oki....

Hope that CW note your alterations and take them up on future models; should not cost them too much to implement in future