Aargh - broken landing gear

       I was told here at the Airshow in New Braunfels that the plane was re-painted because the artwork was to hard to keep pristine and a resto artist would've been too expensive.

        You know that's not impossible. You hear Foundation and you don't think Public Support in this country unless it's medical. There-fore you worry that you cannot take an exemption on your taxes if you support them. The Rail Museum is Obvious. Everyone knows we get a Share of local Tax money. Hotel and Motel Occupancy Tax or H.O.T. Money.

        We do subsist On Donations. We are the only Museum in town that doesn't have an admission charge. We request if they wish to Donate that they at least consider Three Bucks. Nothing for kids! We had a new roof installed and it cost a bunch, Fifty Grand! Then Covid happened. This means no H.O.T money and No Train Show for spring-We had to cancel! It's worse for planes. They cost mucho bucks just to maintain static.

       A Train Museum can get by with Static Displays of the real thing. Less maintenance that way. Besides Planes require more room too. There isn't a plane that would fit in the space we have.

When I finished the B-24, I would always show it with the "plain" side out at first. Just looks like a ho-hum bomber that way. Then I'd turn it around to show the Dragon side and suddenly there'd be a gaggle of people around it.

Never understood why the Collings Foundation repainted their B-24, seeing the Dragon on a real plane was something.

WillysMB

Well, the strut broke right at the pivot point, so couldn't do the sleeve idea. I use Tenex for most of my assembly stuff, so decided to try that before going the scratch route. Put a drop on both ends and let it soften the plastic a bit, then pressed them together and held them for a few more seconds. Once I was confident it wasn't going to move, I waited a couple hours then coated the joint again. On coating the joint the Tenex dissolved the silver paint a bit and coated the joint. This morning I held my breath and flipped it over to set on its gear - success, it held! I'm not going to be moving it around much though.

I have a 1/72 B-24 (Dragon and his tail) the cat knocked off the shelf a year ago that also broke a main gear strut, and numerous other bits. I've now gotten motivated to try my luck at him - problem there is going to finding all the bits.

 

 

Im glad the Tenax worked out. It has for me every time. 
I also have the 1/72 Dragon and his Tail in the stash and it's the Minicraft one that's supposed to have the correct decal colors. That is one unique aircraft art indeed.

WillysMB

...I have a 1/72 B-24 (Dragon and his tail) the cat knocked off the shelf a year ago that also broke a main gear strut, and numerous other bits. I've now gotten motivated to try my luck at him - problem there is going to finding all the bits.

Glad the fix worked. Next, get rid of the cat!

boB 

Well, the strut broke right at the pivot point, so couldn't do the sleeve idea. I use Tenex for most of my assembly stuff, so decided to try that before going the scratch route. Put a drop on both ends and let it soften the plastic a bit, then pressed them together and held them for a few more seconds. Once I was confident it wasn't going to move, I waited a couple hours then coated the joint again. On coating the joint the Tenex dissolved the silver paint a bit and coated the joint. This morning I held my breath and flipped it over to set on its gear - success, it held! I'm not going to be moving it around much though.

I have a 1/72 B-24 (Dragon and his tail) the cat knocked off the shelf a year ago that also broke a main gear strut, and numerous other bits. I've now gotten motivated to try my luck at him - problem there is going to finding all the bits.

AmpLighter

Locate all of your modeling trees, then locate a section of one of the trees that has a simular size and shape of the landing gear. Save what you can from the orginal gear, but i'd custom build something out of parts of the tree.

 

You can also use brass tubing to replace the strut.  As Alighter says, cut the other parts from the broken pieces and glue them to the brass strut. They come in a variety of sizes.  You will the right size drill to use to drill out the remnents of the old strut.

Plastic Weld or Tenax works pretty good at melting the plastic and making a strong join. I have repaired many busted landing gears this way and has worked every time.

Locate all of your modeling trees, then locate a section of one of the trees that has a simular size and shape of the landing gear. Save what you can from the orginal gear, but i'd custom build something out of parts of the tree.

I used gap-filling crazy glue on a 1/72 T-34B landing gear two, maybe three times with good success. The secret seems to be smearing a tiny bit over and around the broken ends of the landing gear as well as between them. I've even used it twice on the T-34's broken, forward joy stick. In both cases, the repairs are virtually invisible.

When that Happened;

     I was mortified. It happened to my 1/72 B-24! I very carefully cleaned up the other damage and then did this. I got some Thin -Wall brass tubing that required sanding the injured area just a little. Some epoxy, slide the parts together and Good to go. 

Got 2 ideas for what they're worth. 

1 - If you have a piece of tubing that the 1/16" will slide into, a section just a little larger than the joint will help support it. Put together with 5 min. epoxy should come up with a strong joint. If you don't have tubing, try a piece of sprue. Drill it out first and then sand down to as thin as you need and cut to size.

2 - 5 min. epoxy itself would be pretty strong if you leave just a little extra above and below the outside of the joint.

A little creative touchup on either way should hide the joint if you don't go toooooooo heavy on the epoxy.

Hope that this helps.

Jim  

Stay Safe.

Your first inclination was the best one.

If you have the right sized drill, and a way to clamp both parts (I know, one is an airplane), it usually works. Butt joint will most likely fail.

Good question. I broke the landing gear on a 1/72 Mosquito, which has a rather complex landing gear. Picked up an Airfix recovery set to make a "crash landing" diorama, but haven't had the motivation yet to build it. Not sure where I would put it, my space is fairly limited. Also thought about closing the landing gear doors to display it flying, not sure if that is possible with the Mosquito, maybe it is with your B-25.