NOTE: All the photos on this page are of the first, 'rounded' gear bay. The new bays are more angled (as they were on the movie miniature). I'll be putting pictures up soon (I hope), but these give you a good idea of what things look like.
The Landing Gear Detail Set - 82 pieces
The latest kit we have released is the full landing gear detail set. It can be purchased as a bay kit only for in-flight or with the full five gear set for landed display. The parts included in this kit include:
Detailed instructions - Now Online Only
Two landing gear bays with four matched gear doors
Two landing gear wells
Two hull plates
Seven Accurate Landing Gear Feet
Twelve resin lifters
Thirty-one pre-cut aluminum tubes, as well as accurate resin replacement parts to accurately replicate all five landing gear legs
One photo-etched metal sheet containing the following parts:
- Seven sets of "heat baffles" for the landing gear
Engine grill
Below you will find some photos of the new Landing Gear parts.
What you see here is the Landing Gear Bays with the bay doors installed (they are separate pieces).
What you see here is the Bay set with the doors not installed (for comparison). The full gear set will also come with "gear well housings" that will fit inside the openings.
This is a closer photo of one of the gear bays, to better show the detail in the "hull plating". Great care was taken to try to match the thickness and definition of the kit's existing hull plate pattern.
This is the underside of the newer, more accurate landing pads. As we will show in later photos, this is very close to the actual studio miniature model's pads.
A close-up view of the top of one of the new landing pads. This photo shows a section of the aluminum tubing that will be supplied for making the gear legs. The small oddly-shaped box above the pad is one of the hydraulic lifter boxes. The picture is not complete, as there will be a smaller set of rods supplied for the opening seen directly in front of the larger tubing.
Another, more clear view of the upper surface of the new landing pad.
And this, THIS is what took so long. This little shot is of some quickly and crudely assembled pieces of photoetched brass that make up that landing "baffle". There are two pieces, a round top piece, and a lower angled piece that must be rolled into a circle to match and glued to the top piece. As we said, this will be that hardest part of the kit to assemble.