I have the Mavis from cafero, it came preassembled and painted but the tail wheel assembly is missing. I've looked for pics of it but can't seem to find any good pics. Does anyone one have some pics that might help. I know sometimes they set a frame rig to support the tail but I would like it to be complete. Thanks for your time and effort
I don't know if it retracts or bolts in but it like has a housing the extends down about midway between the wing trailing edge and the tail in the picture just about the back edge of the roundel on the fuselage. It's small so I think it should be hard to make matching the paint will be the big thing
Got it looks pretty good , lol, thought I'd be coy and use my trumpeter kit but they decided to not included the wheels at all. Saved that one so I could build it in the green military colors as the cafero is in a transport silver finish plus if I can find a suitable gun a add the gun tub in the nose. I like that model just makes it look like it can put up a little more fight thought lots of pics of the going down in flames. She had great range for recon but was slow and a big target.
Did the planes always come up on land? Or would it have been okay for some birds to share a set of wheels?
It's called "beaching gear". Use to bring flying boats that are not true "amphibians", out of the water. It consists of the wheel and a float.
I'm thinking they were attached by handlers for land use,as most pics on water or flying you don't see wheels unless that was a late modification. One of the things I liked about the goose and Catalina they had retracting wheels and were truly amphibious. I'm trying to look up hasagawa build ups as it has the wheel set and see if I can copy that. I'm a little disappointed that trumpeter decided not to do the wheel set for there model the did two but not sure what the differences are need to do some research on that.
I was wondering because it's always seemed to me that the Japanese built things "just good enough" while the US added the small things that made life easier for the grunts.
Yes, they were attached when the plane was in the water, then wheeled up on land. When the plane was returned to the water, they were removed. No, this was not a late-war modification, as stated, they were removable. The Grumman Goose began life in the civilian market, and was always amphibious. The PBY did not become amphibious until the PBY-5A, when landing gear were standardized. Until the -5A, the Catalina used beaching gear to get out of the water. PBY beaching gear