Scissor links on I-16 undercarriage?

[VelvetFrog66]

Hi.

I'm busy building the 1:48 Eduard kit and hit a bit of a snag with the undercarriage. When attempting to fit the scissor links at the top of the main leg it became apparent that the exposed portion of the oleo was too long for the links to fit in the correct place. The only way they will go on is if they are glued to the exposed oleo which is obviously wrong.

When searching for pics of this area I noticed on two occasions where there were no scissor links fitted and the exposed oleo was very long. About the same length as Eduard have depicted. Makes me wonder if the scissor links were fitted to all aircraft.

Any opinions on this?

Thanks,
Robert

Werer the scissor links always fitted

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi Robert,
the scissor on the leg can be seen here
http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=12028
Please let us know how is the piece of the Eduard kit compared to the real one.
Regards
Massimo

[VelvetFrog66]

Hi Massimo,

thank you for the link to the LSP page. Sadly many of the links there no longer work but one took me to a walkaround with nice photos of the undercarriage which were most useful.

Following a link on a thread here I also came across several pages from the I-16 technical manual which had diagrams of the undercarriage and it's workings. From the photos and the manual diagrams it appears that the Eduard kit does indeed have the oleo extended too far. Interestingly enough, on checking the dimensions in the diagram against the dimensions in the kit it seems the undercarriage legs in the kit are 1mm too long. If that amount is taken from the exposed oleo then the scissor links will fit. Also the model has a sit that not only matches the dimensions but is more realistic. The Eduard kit seemed to sit a bit high.

Cheers,
Robert

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi,
perhaps they had a drawing with uncompressed suspensions. It's not a so rare error.
Regards
Massimo