So in my quest for
details that really make no sense but are really cool, I decided that my P-51
will have not only retractable landing gear, but also working suspension. This
would require an entire rebuilt of most of the landing and after looking at the
detail on the kit parts, I figured I was going to end up modifying it anyway.
The torque links in the model are made of a single piece of plastic with a
photo-etched detail piece glued over it. The photo etched part looks pretty
good, but it is much too flat to be used by itself, plus there would be no way
to make it move. Basically it served as a reference for dimensions to make new
parts. I tried several different methods of making torque links from assembling
small strips of plastic to actually carving the entire piece from a chunk of
plastic. Both failed of course. Then I tried gluing together small pieces of
metal. That also didn't work. I had seen other modelers make torque links by
soldering pieces of metal or even by forging metal somehow. Well I haven't
gotten to the point where I've installed a forge in my apartment so I had to
think of another way. Plus all these other models make the two torque links
into a single piece and mine needed to move. So I had to figure out how to make
really small axle points as well. Not only that, it had to look like the
Mustang's landing gear strut. Whew, did I get all that out! Yeah, many
headaches to come. However, I had a moment of inspiration by looking in my bag
of Evergreen styrene shapes. I happened to have I-beams that were the right
width and these happened to be the best base for making torque links. Here's
what I did:
First I had to do
some math. I know, you said you'd never need math in life, but suck it up, you
do, especially is model building. I knew what the link length was from
measuring the kit piece and I knew I was going to need to make pivot tubes. I
decided one tube would be made from what is called an application tip,
basically an industrial syringe needle. These are available in many very small
sizes and are made from steel so they are thin-walled, but really strong. The
smaller axle was going to be the tricky one. I took a piece of .040"
plastic rod and drilled a .015" hole down the length of the rod until I
had enough to make a pivot.
After knowing what
dimensions the pivots would be, I subtracted from the total length of the part
and I knew how long the I-beam piece needed to be. In this picture, the short
side is the required length. Note the longer side and the angle of the cut.
This will come into play later.
After knowing what
dimensions the pivots would be, I subtracted from the total length of the part
and I knew how long the I-beam piece needed to be. In this picture, the short
side is the required length. Note the longer side and the angle of the cut.
This will come into play later. Making parts like this is where research comes
into play. I was constantly checking and double checking the actual torque
links on the Mustang to make sure I got this right. I drilled some small holes
to corner out the cutaway and then carefully chipped out the hole with an X-Acto
knife. It took me a couple tries to get the hole right. There is a fine balance
between how much material is left between the hole and the vertical side wall
and you have to be careful, but it can be done.
Carefully cut away
the long vertical side and file down any raised area. This might interfere with
placement when you re-glue it on later. I used my Vernier caliper to hold the
piece in place while I cut the angle.
Carefully re-glue the cutoff side piece
so that it is centered on the horizontal flange. Use plastic cement for this
instead of CA as it will give you the ability to move the piece around to make
sure it is aligned properly. Also, this joint will need to be strong as you
will be filing it down later. Plastic cement melts the plastic together while
CA just sticks them together.
As you can see, the torgue link is coming along.
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