Need a little advice. I'm scratch building this entire interior of a folded wing of an A-6 TRAM Intruder, but I can't figure out how to scratch build the folding mechanism:-? . It's the W-shaped thing in the pic. Any ideas?



Remember, there are no bad ideas so gimme whatever you got.

Thanks!

what scale?
The first thing that comes to mind is vehicle suspension parts

1/48

tell me more about these suspension parts

I would recommend looking at some of the Plastruct and Evergreen offerings. They have some beam material that makes "w" shaped parts, in various scales. Two of these sandwiched together, with plastic rod between should be acceptable for 1:48.

For the hydrolic part a 1/48th shock absorber from a jeep or truck might work. Imagination is your best friend when it comes to scratch building, next best friend is plastruct.

In my gallery is a close up of a helo rotor with similar parts, but at that scale, the hydraulic actuators can just be varying thicknesses of styrene rod with a disc cemented on the end at 90 degrees. I would build from that central pivot point outward to the hydraulic bushings. It looks as if .020 x .020 styrene would work well for most of the project.

Some good advice up here.
The automobile suspension I was thinking about was from Formula 1 kits like from Tamiya. But your project at 1/48, it would be too big.

Mark;
Because of the location, and the delicate nature of the part,
I would use brass parts sodered together. But it's gonna be a tuff one. Todd

Thanks everyone. Going to combine a few ideas. I bought some styrene tressels from Plastruct. They have V shaped parts that I will cut off and shave, then use some other styrene to construct the part as apart of the plane. Will let you know how it goes. Wish me luck!

I would make each V shaped piece in thin brass, then solder together with the hydraulic legs trapped between. To cut out the V-shaped pieces you just need a pin chuck and a piercing saw. Both available very cheaply.
In plastic, the same approach by cutting the triangular shape out of two small sheets of styrene, then solvent gluing to the hydraulic components made from plastic rod. Fiddly but perfectly doable.

Martin

It looks to be 3-4 mm tall so I'd make the two triangles form .010 x .020 strip and add the fittings at apexes of the triangles for the hinge rod. Once you have two mirror image triangles add the 4 pieces that bridge the two triangles and then add the fittings for the two hydraulic jacks.

Then do it again for the other wing...

3D printing