Good afternoon @fiveten - just been working on the DHC6 after this, keeping it a Greenlandic themed day. fingers crossed for the Me-261!

George, I understand your concern! I have measured the tipping-point to be just shy of the mains, and hopefully that should ensure the weight on these are just a gram or three above the unladen weight. So far they hold fine, but time will tell. Actually the nosegear does not have that much weight and is looking rather sturdy. I may have to keep a fueldrum handy to put under it in the cabinet 🙂

Spiros, that is planning ahead. That's not allowed. I always tell people the plane had a hard landing. I only had one plane (an O-1 Bird Dog) have the gear spread farther, but the jury is out about whether it was thin gear or perhaps the join was incomplete at the fuselage.

@gblair, @fiveten thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences. I recently saw a new set of legs for a 109 that employed some steel rod (smartly representing the chromed part) with the non-chrome parts cast in resin over it - just like the ones I tried for my Mölders 109 (must get some mottling done on that one soon). Of course they are expensive, and not available for Cessna 172's, so fingers crossed, support at the ready! (Cessnas do have hard landings - witnessed a few at my airport yesterday, but mostly come out OK - one managed to hit the asphalt with the propeller saturday though - after having a new engine a few weeks earlier after having the propeller hit the ground. . . .)

That would be my choice, Erik. Putting piano wire or brass wire into the strut would really add support for the gear. But the rear strut is fairly flat and thin, so not much of a chance there. I even considered cutting a slot or trough on the underside of the strut and hiding it with putty, but I think the chances for destroying the strut are fairly high. On my last 172 I didn't use any additional weight for the nose, but chose to keep it light. When the model was done, I build a wooden base, painted it like a airport ramp, and glued the wheels down. It didn't survive the move to my current house after I retired from the military.

Seeing red

After some masking, the fuselage turned red

I painted the majority of the fuselage today, Humbrol 19 Gloss Red

Now some more work needs to be done to the wingtips before next post.

Getting closer – really looking forward to decals, but that is still somewhat distant

That is a great shade of red. Biplane and high-wing planes always create a dilemma if there are different colors on the wing and fuselage, or if there is a strut that is a different color. Wingtips look great.

@gblair, @fiveten, Thanks gents - yet another post comin' up