April 9-10, 2019
The original PT-19 did not have retractable landing gear, which is nice because I can keep this model close to scale and not have to fool with retracts. The plan came with trapezoidal shaped coverings for the wire gear. While not exactly scale, they look better than the bare wire. I had a couple of plastic tubes that just happened to fit one inside the other so I used some small pieces of these to cover the wire that extended from the balsa mounts. I marked the center-line of the mounts and channeled them with a Dremel tool.
I then glued them onto the wire using epoxy. I left an eighth-inch gap between the mount and the wing to (hopefully) prevent the wooden mount from punching a hole in the covering during a hard landing.
Once dry, they were ready for shaping.
April 20-21, 2019
I rounded the mounts using sandpaper and a Dremel tool. I also painted the structure with watered down spackling (like I did in prepping the cowl) and fine sanded them when they dried. I wanted it to look as if it were made of metal.
I painted the mounts and the gear “legs”.
I discovered that a brass grommet which came with some servos fit perfectly on the inside part of the wheel mount so I glued these on. This way, I will only need one collar per wheel and each wheel will stay true on the gear.
