Flying vs gear down-What is your preference?

Always wheels down for me

It depends on the aircraft, level of detail on the model, size of the kit, and space to display it. Another important consideration is the intended vision of the end result, specifically if the cockpit is hyper detailed with no pilot and access panels are open to show additional detail, then gear down is a must. However, if it is a classic kit of a sleek aircraft but lacking detail then seeing her in flight might be the better option.

Ben

For me it depends on the airplane. Generally, propeller airplanes I pose sitting on their landing gear. As for jets, I generally pose them in flight. Jets just look better posed in flight. I do have a Bandai Star Wars A-Wing and an X-Wing on the shelf and they are definitely posed in flight.

Wheels down.  Otherwise, my arms get tired.  

That being said, I was mulling this very subject when I was looking at my unbuilt sci-fi and Japanese anime aircraft.  Some of them have dumb looking landing gear that detracts from the sleek flying form.  I had built a police helo from the anime "Bubblegum Crisis", and it's landing gear design was really impractical, both in terms of visual aesthetics as well as actual strength.  So I finished it gear up and stuck it on a pole.

For me, a stand should be simple and not distract attention away from the model.  But again, sci-fi/anime subjects can be enhanced by stands with some relevant detail (like the Bandai Star Wars kits with the Death Star tiles).  I used a dressed up Fine Molds Y-Wing stand for the anime helo, the "AIC" being a homage to Artmic, the outfit that did the animation for Bubblegum Crisis.

It depends what I'm trying to show. An Ospray for example looks better in flight, or say a P-40 in the process of retracting it's gear. Otherwise it's gear down. Ships and seaplanes on the other hand, almost always on the water and not on a stand or gear.

I prefer gear down, cockpit open. But, as many have already stated, it depends on the subject. 

There are a few factors in play for me:  1) Subject matter, 2) Size of kit, 3) Available space for display, and 4) My mood.  Generally, 1/48 4-engine heavies are automatically wheels up since those are going to hang from the ceiling of my work room.  Most builds will be wheels down, but for #4, my recent XF5U-1 Flying Flapjack is a good example of how my mood came into play.  The kit definitely fits for wheels down per #s2-3, but I just didn't feel like dealing with the gear (adding detail to the bays, stuff like that, because there weren't a lot of photos that I could find that showed off those areas on the very few of those airplanes that were actually built) - so now that small disc-airplane hangs along side a couple of 1/48 medium bombers (A-20 and B-25).

Sometimes both 

I like airliners in flight, but still do 1/2 of them on the ground.

Gear down and opened up to show all of the internal details.

As all my aircraft are on bases, and usually in diorama's, its always wheels down.

I personally like both some jets look better than others with the gear down in my opinion I don't have a preference so I intend to do another Tornado but on a stand and the other Tomact I have on wheels. If it's a cheap kit without much detail like my Italeri Tomcat then wheels up canopy down and still looks good I think.

These are the only model aircraft I have and so I'm almost 50/50 stand to wheels. I'm doing an F-16 at the moment which will be gear down.

Always wheels down unless the landing gear is broken.

Jim 

Stay Safe.

Once upon a time, I did nearly all of my aircraft builds wheels up and in some sort of inflight mode. Nowadays I prefer the wheels down, open cockpit look, armed up, and ready for the pilot. On carrier based aircraft, if the kit offers the option for folded wings, I like that look. But I've seen some great in flight stuff with jets, especially on some sort of clear rod coming from the exhaust as a support stand, that are quite tempting to try.

Kind of like, "Ginger or Maryanne?".

Whats not to like either way?

Bill

I do both, though 90% gear down.  If I do go gear up, I find a likely geographic spot, and use Google Earth to download an image of the scenery.  I make a decal of that, apply it to the top of the base, and mount the model on a clear plastic rod.

For prop planes I have found a way to scan the kit prop, run the image through a rotational blur filter, and print it as a decal.  I then apply the decal to a disk of clear plastic and mount that to the kit hub or spinner.

I like that idea of the scenery Don. I really don't care for the PE prop blur but don't mind too much making my own. I'm still working a realistig way og making it look like the prop is spinning. Using nothing at all like on the P 40 above actually looks prety convencing to my eyes.

Out of all my currently done builds on display, which I think is around 50, only one has the gear doors closed.  I suppose it depends how I plan to display it.  Most of my builds are either hung from the wall by their tail, or they are on a shelf, or in a cabinet.  Which requires wheels down.  I try if I can to display them in "static" mode.  Wheel chocks, remove before flight tags, or the like.  I do have the plan of doing an flight C-47 Skytrain one of these days.  It will be gear up with LED's and spinning props. 

modelcrazy

I like that idea of the scenery Don. I really don't care for the PE prop blur but don't mind too much making my own. I'm still working a realistig way og making it look like the prop is spinning. Using nothing at all like on the P 40 above actually looks prety convencing to my eyes.

 

Do you have a decent graphics program on your computer?  If so, check whether it has a rotational blur filter.

I love the P-40, that looks great