Academy F/A-18 kit Landing gear

[Dave Williams]

I know there have been stories about how you need the G-factor gear for the kit because the kit gear isn’t strong enough, but would like to get some real life experiences from those who have built the kit using the kit gear on how it holds up in the long term.  TIA.

[thowardjr]

I've built 2 so far - C & D version.   It's been about 5 years now and they are still holding up without any noticeable sag.

[Adrian]

Had no problems with the landing gear on mine, from what I remember I glued everything together into the wheel bays and then painted to get the strongest joint possible. The delicacy of the folded wings, well that's a different story........

Edited January 3, 2019 by Adrian
spelling

[red Dog]

never had a problem with mine  

 

[Madelf75]

I have built a few of them they will do the job at holding their own up 

[Marcel111]

Dave, I finished my D using the kit gear and there is no sagging, that's after about 9 years in the display cabinet. So I don't believe the gear deformation stories at all.

 

I will say that the kit gear leaves the finished model sitting a little low in the tail imo, have a close look at that as you build the model... when I do my next Hornet I will either be lowering the front gear or somehow raising the main gear.

 

Cheers,

Marcel

[Dave Roof]

One of the local modelers here built one several years ago and hasn't had an issue with the kit gear. 

 

[Jack]

Just as a reminder: at the time the only game concerning Hornets was coming from Hasegawa.....and....Revell, and between these two, positioning and strength the Revell issue came out better and more realistically but eventually Academy got it right both ways.

I wouldn't worry about the gear............

 

J.

[chrish]

Agreed, I’ve got a D on the shelf that’s travelled about 1600 km to model shows and back with no problem...it is slightly low on one side but, that’s down to me messing up the install which, if I remember correctly was tricky to get right (for me)

[Grizly]

Since I used the Aires resin wheel well set in my build I was somewhat concerned that the plastic/resin gear joint might not hold the weight so, to be on the safe side I added a piano wire support between the main gear aft of the center line tank. While it can be seen with close examination of the attached, it is virtually invisible when the model is sitting on the gear on display. As an aside, should you wonder, the pylon bombs are interchangeable on my model.

[Jax77]

Did the D kit loaded out about seven years ago. No problem at all.

[Durangokid]

I've built two and the first one did sag slightly.  I used two part epoxy glue on the 2nd one and it didn't sag.  Just make sure you build them up solid and I used epoxy on the attachment to the fuselage.   Where the shock attaches to the leg is another important join.

 

It also may depend on how much aftermarket you use.  

 

 

 

[ringleheim]

22 hours ago, Durangokid said:

I've built two and the first one did sag slightly.  I used two part epoxy glue on the 2nd one and it didn't sag.  Just make sure you build them up solid and I used epoxy on the attachment to the fuselage.   Where the shock attaches to the leg is another important join.

 

It also may depend on how much aftermarket you use.  

 

 

 

To the OP:  I have this kit in my stash as well and in fact, started a thread identical to this one a few years ago, asking about the landing gear.

 

I reached the conclusion that the kit landing gear is just fine, as long as you "pack" the plastic landing gear parts solid with the metal re-enforcing parts plus resin glue or resin epoxy or something that will fill all the voids in there and cure hard and solid.  I.E., don't leave space in the cavity inside the plastic.

 

This is what Durangokid is mentioning; this is great advice and sounds like the right way to proceed.

 

Glad to hear a bunch of others not having sag issues with the kit gear as I'd rather use it myself when I finally do get around to tackling this big kit!