Trumpeter 1/32 A-6 landing gear.

[VIPER0177]

When did Trumpeter stop putting metal landing gear in the kits? I just got my order of the A-6A and it has plastic landing gear. The instructions list them as undercarriage parts 1,2,3. I checked scalemates and they are listed as metal parts. 

[Tony T]

A few years ago. All of the latest editions seem to be plastic only.

 

Tony

[Bill Cross]

I am about 2/3 through a build and the landing gear are the LEAST of your problems. 

 

Fit issues abound unless you plan on having all the doors open. I was very disappointed in the kit. BTW, the landing gear are a very hard plastic and are not a problem.

[Mark P]

Sad to read this Bill. OOB the kit looks impressive!

 

Mark Proulx

[VIPER0177]

Bill, Thanks for the heads up. What are the biggest issues you are having?

[Zola25]

You could also consider this set of 3D printed landing gear. Its quite nice and plenty strong to carry the finished model (The plastic landing gear in the kit is also strong enough)

 

[CRAZY IVAN5]

USAF A-6 Intruder? Um ok roger that.

[Tony T]

 

14 hours ago, VIPER0177 said:

Bill, Thanks for the heads up. What are the biggest issues you are having?

 

yes, as he ^ says.

 

Good to know it'll sit on the plastic legs.

Am looking forward to building this one day. Have been gathering goodies for a 1972-73 VA-52 A-6B PAT/ARM from USS Kitty Hawk, and am slightly alarmed at the bad fit Bill suggests: is this around the engine compartment? Or the wing flaps (or both?) 

 

Tony 

[red Dog]

Well, it's not meant to be built gear up for sure

But if you build it gear down, the issues are quite less problematic and IMHO the plastic gears should be IMHO much stronger than 3D printed ones if you ask me.

 

Anyway, the problem when you built it gear up is that all the main gear doors are too large for their openings. All they need is a bit of careful trimming.

In my humble opinion, you shouldn't be distracted by this issue from an otherwise great kit 

 

Here's my build log and it's also available somewhere on this very forum:

https://reddogsmodels.wordpress.com/2018/10/29/ka-6d-va-35-1-32-ready-to-give-fuel-part-1-assembly/

 

The big engine door is about 1mm too long and if you build it gear up, you have to place the main gear doors first as the engine doors rest on them. 
If you do the opposite you won't be able to squeeze the long main gear door in position

 

That multiple angle gear door is the hardest issue to fix as it doesn't follow any fuselage curve.
It has to be shorthened, opened wider and sanded intensively to give a great result. But again, gear down and you don't need to modify as you hardly see the issue with the door hanging.

 

 

In the end, with a bit of work, all is well  

Edited June 27 by red Dog

[Bill Cross]

On 6/26/2025 at 8:35 PM, VIPER0177 said:

Bill, Thanks for the heads up. What are the biggest issues you are having?

See @red Dog's post above.

 

 

I wanted gear down to show a plane on the ground in Vietnam for the fantastic AoA decal sets "Intruders from the Beach." I boxed it up as it's too much "mafan" (麻煩) as the Chinese would say. 

Edited June 29 by Bill Cross

[Mark P]

Well, I saw some very positive OOB reviews on utube of the Trumpeter kit. Just goes to show that they are rather meaningless as the actual build provides the real review.

 

Sad to see the results posted on this thread...

 

Mark Proulx

[Zola25]

I built my A-6E gear down and it went together quite well. I found it to be one of the very best Trumpeter kits I have built in fact.

My biggest issue was that the nose, if assembled separately as per instructions, will not fit the fuselage without a bad step. This will result in a lot of sanding and lost detail. I decided to glue each half of the nose to the corresponding fuselage halfs before closing  them. This leaves a gap down the middle of the nose which is much easier to deal with.

The large panels shown above are a bit tricky to fit but with a lot of dry fitting and sanding they will go together fine..

 

[CRAZY IVAN5]

1 hour ago, Zola25 said:

I built my A-6E gear down and it went together quite well. I found it to be one of the very best Trumpeter kits I have built in fact.

My biggest issue was that the nose, if assembled separately as per instructions, will not fit the fuselage without a bad step. This will result in a lot of sanding and lost detail. I decided to glue each half of the nose to the corresponding fuselage halfs before closing  them. This leaves a gap down the middle of the nose which is much easier to deal with.

The large panels shown above are a bit tricky to fit but with a lot of dry fitting and sanding they will go together fine..

 

Very nice  job!

[Bill Cross]

@Zola25 I wish I had known that. I followed the instructions, and as you say, it goes together poorly at the nose.

 

But I also found a lot of fit problems amidships. I may get back to it someday, however life is too short to spend time fixing manufacturers' issues if I don't have to.

[jeroen_R90S]

I didn't really like the metal gear, mould seams, pin marks etc were hard to clean up and it even though I used metal primer I had issues with paint not sticking well. 

If I hadn't already detailed mine up I'd happily have swapped it for yours! I had a 2018 issue and it still had the metal gear. IIRC the original was from 2013 and that too had the metal gear. There should be a copyright date on the box somewhere. 

 

 

FWIW, here's my WIP to which I really should go back to...