geedubelyer Posted February 3 Share Posted February 3 (edited) Hello peeps, May I pick your collective brains again please? I have a couple of questions to help lessen my confusion. The first one is what colour should the insides of the gear door and the main gear legs be on a WWII era Mk IX when the undersides are medium sea grey? Are they cammo colour or silver? Most warbirds seem to be silver but before I paint mine that colour I thought it prudent to ask. Next questions relate to a pipe or hose (or maybe a wire) the appears along the length of the gear leg. It can be seen from the LSP walkaround by Dave Robbins in the pic above, running down the leg between the S and the I of "PSI" and again in the image below to the rear of the leg. This pic from LSP's walkaround by Pete Roberts shows an alternative style Can anyone enlighten me as to what it is please? Also, is the style random or do earlier airframes have the curved style and later airframes the straight version? Thanks for your help folks. Edited February 3 by geedubelyer Dpgsbody55 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Ron Posted February 3 Share Posted February 3 The way I understand it regarding colors is that it depends on the airframe and time. I've seen three variants. Everything in silver. Gear leg silver, doors and wells in underside color Everything underside color As for the line, I believe you are referring to the brake air line. geedubelyer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
denders Posted February 3 Share Posted February 3 I think the brakes are hydraulic instead of air. geedubelyer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Ron Posted February 3 Share Posted February 3 5 hours ago, denders said: I think the brakes are hydraulic instead of air. They are air. They operate by sqeezing the hand lever on the spade hand grip on the control column, moving the rudder peddles created differential pressure to either wheel. MikeC 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Ron Posted February 3 Share Posted February 3 Edgar and I had a conversation here at LSP about 15 years ago regarding gear color. I'll see if I can find that when I get a free minute. You may also find info on some of his online documents. MikeC, geedubelyer, Christa and 1 other 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Ron Posted February 3 Share Posted February 3 I found Edgar's notes. Click on wheel wells and undercarriage. It appears I missed a forth option, interior green for wheel wells. HTH https://jonbius4.files.wordpress.com/2023/03/8b7be-spitfire-notes-from-edgar-brooks-version-201804031428.pdf Archimedes, Dpgsbody55, Christa and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dpgsbody55 Posted February 4 Share Posted February 4 Very glad someone has asked this very question, as I'm not far off asking it in relation to my present Spitfire build. Thanks for the replies. Cheers, Michael geedubelyer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geedubelyer Posted February 4 Author Share Posted February 4 Thanks for the link Ron. From what Edgar wrote it would appear that I can go with what I want. Since the I painted the wheel bay in the underside colour I think I'll go with silver gear legs purely to add visual interest. Now all that's left to decide is whether I add a straight or curved pipe down each leg. I don't suppose anyone has stumbled across close-up and detailed photos showing the brake lines have they? Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeC Posted February 4 Share Posted February 4 (edited) I may be wrong, but I seem to think they were flexible pipes, and the route - straight or curved - varied somewhat within the limits of the structure and how the undercarriage operated. Others may know more. However, here's a pic of AR501, the airworthy Vc at the Shuttleworth COllection. Edited February 4 by MikeC Dpgsbody55, geedubelyer, mozart and 1 other 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geedubelyer Posted February 4 Author Share Posted February 4 Thanks Mike. Great photo. What it does show is the curved pipe wrapping around the leg from inside the gear door and apparently stopping at a height just above the tyre. It doesn't appear to be connected to anything? Also, there appears to be another flexible line running from behind the leg to the hub of the wheel? Very interestink.......The plot thickens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeC Posted February 4 Share Posted February 4 (edited) 6 hours ago, geedubelyer said: Thanks Mike. Great photo. What it does show is the curved pipe wrapping around the leg from inside the gear door and apparently stopping at a height just above the tyre. It doesn't appear to be connected to anything? Also, there appears to be another flexible line running from behind the leg to the hub of the wheel? Very interestink.......The plot thickens. You're right. I've just been to the PR exhibition at Duxford and got up close and personal with a couple of PRXIs. The curved pipe seems to be, in fact, wire rather then pipe and you're right, it goes nowhere either end. The flexible line running to the hub is the brake line. Photos later when I'm back home and have uploaded them. Edited February 4 by MikeC geedubelyer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19squadron Posted February 4 Share Posted February 4 (edited) 21 hours ago, geedubelyer said: Hello peeps, May I pick your collective brains again please? I have a couple of questions to help lessen my confusion. The first one is what colour should the insides of the gear door and the main gear legs be on a WWII era Mk IX when the undersides are medium sea grey? Are they cammo colour or silver? Most warbirds seem to be silver but before I paint mine that colour I thought it prudent to ask. Next questions relate to a pipe or hose (or maybe a wire) the appears along the length of the gear leg. It can be seen from the LSP walkaround by Dave Robbins in the pic above, running down the leg between the S and the I of "PSI" and again in the image below to the rear of the leg. This pic from LSP's walkaround by Pete Roberts shows an alternative style Can anyone enlighten me as to what it is please? Also, is the style random or do earlier airframes have the curved style and later airframes the straight version? Thanks for your help folks. Aircraft when built had wheel wells and oleos, oleo door insides painted aluminium silver, Aircraft however were often repainted at MU's or at their squadrons, and that was very often the cause for wing underside colour to be used instead of masking it up. I have never seen any evidence for undercarriage or wheel wells being painted interior green, and I believe that is an error. The line running down the oleo is the brake air line, which would have been painted silver in wartime service unless repainted by a MU or squadron. see below a pic, actually of a MkVII, built alongside MkIX's. Edited February 4 by 19squadron addition of pic geedubelyer and rsanz 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeC Posted February 4 Share Posted February 4 (edited) 2 hours ago, MikeC said: You're right. I've just been to the PR exhibition at Duxford and got up close and personal with a couple of PRXIs. The curved pipe seems to be, in fact, wire rather then pipe and you're right, it goes nowhere either end. The flexible line running to the hub is the brake line. Photos later when I'm back home and have uploaded them. And here we are. First, an overview, showing a number of the exhibits. The two PR XIs - the one with the stripes and "R" to the right of shot - are the two we'll be looking at in more detail. Both are currently flying on the airshow circuit. (Incidentally, if you think the cowling of the pink PR Type G looks odd, it looks even odder irl: it's a replica.) Firstly, the one with stripes, where I was allowed to get very close. This is PRXI G-PRXI, which is marked as PL983. This has the straight wire down the leg. It seems to go nowhere either end. The top: And the bottom: Note that behind this is what I think is the brake pipe. It starts at the wing inside the wheel well and is attached to and fed the airframe via a flexible section, as you can see in the photos above. The section on the undercarriage door seems to be metal pipe, which is then attached to another flexible section. In the next one you can see this second flexible section going behind the wheel (forgive the poor-quality of the next couple of shots, I was holding the camera at arms length and couldn't use the viewfinder) ... ... and into the hub: yes, it's clearly the brake pipe. (Incidentally, istr that these are supplied as vinyl parts in the Tamiya 1/32 kits.) This seems to be the standard brake configuration on all the SPit photos I've seen. I don't know about them being painted, it seems unlikely as it is clearly flexible hose when viewed in reality. The port undercarriage of the aircraft was similarly configured, a mirror image. The other PR XI is G-MKXI, painted as PL965/R. I wasn't permitted as close to this one, unfortunately. But from what I could see the brake lines were in the same configuartion as PL983. However, the mysterious "wire" is in the curved configuration ... ... on the starboard leg. However ... ... on the port leg, you can just see that it's the straight configuration. So to sum up, the brake pipes appear standard, at the rear of the leg. On the other hand, the other pipe/wire has no obvious function, but it must be there for a reason. I think that on my next visit to Shuttleworth I shall go and chat up the engineers who work on AR501. Hope this is useful. Edited February 4 by MikeC Shoggz, geedubelyer and Dpgsbody55 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19squadron Posted February 4 Share Posted February 4 (edited) 2 hours ago, MikeC said: And here we are. First, an overview, showing a number of the exhibits. The two PR XIs - the one with the stripes and "R" to the right of shot - are the two we'll be looking at in more detail. Both are currently flying on the airshow circuit. (Incidentally, if you think the cowling of the pink PR Type G looks odd, it looks even odder irl: it's a replica.) Firstly, the one with stripes, where I was allowed to get very close. This is PRXI G-PRXI, which is marked as PL983. This has the straight wire down the leg. It seems to go nowhere either end. The top: And the bottom: Note that behind this is what I think is the brake pipe. It starts at the wing inside the wheel well and is attached to and fed the airframe via a flexible section, as you can see in the photos above. The section on the undercarriage door seems to be metal pipe, which is then attached to another flexible section. In the next one you can see this second flexible section going behind the wheel (forgive the poor-quality of the next couple of shots, I was holding the camera at arms length and couldn't use the viewfinder) ... ... and into the hub: yes, it's clearly the brake pipe. (Incidentally, istr that these are supplied as vinyl parts in the Tamiya 1/32 kits.) This seems to be the standard brake configuration on all the SPit photos I've seen. I don't know about them being painted, it seems unlikely as it is clearly flexible hose when viewed in reality. The port undercarriage of the aircraft was similarly configured, a mirror image. The other PR XI is G-MKXI, painted as PL965/R. I wasn't permitted as close to this one, unfortunately. But from what I could see the brake lines were in the same configuartion as PL983. However, the mysterious "wire" is in the curved configuration ... ... on the starboard leg. However ... ... on the port leg, you can just see that it's the straight configuration. So to sum up, the brake pipes appear standard, at the rear of the leg. On the other hand, the other pipe/wire has no obvious function, but it must be there for a reason. I think that on my next visit to Shuttleworth I shall go and chat up the engineers who work on AR501. Hope this is useful. With regard to the, "unattached wire" in your pics above ;- They are venting pressure lines that are attached to a valve at the top of the oleo alongside the large charging valve for the oleo. They are used to relieve and drain the oleo of the hydraulic charge. The relief valve line can either run straight down to oleo, or depending on the length of the line wind around the oleo before being held in a bracket at the bottom of the oleo. Edited February 4 by 19squadron addition of pic geedubelyer and Dpgsbody55 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19squadron Posted February 4 Share Posted February 4 (edited) The line would around the oleo is exactly the same but used when the threaded line is longer , they both connect to the relief tap at the top. Edited February 4 by 19squadron addition of pic Pete Roberts, Dpgsbody55, MikeC and 1 other 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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