CB Model Products 

Landing Gear Alignment Jig

Price $40.00

Product Article by Steve Bamford May 19 2011

 

This new tool from CB Model Products is a very creative and useful tool.  I must admit when I heard of this tool, I was skeptical that it was needed or that it would be useful......the whole idea seemed like more effort than it was worth....oh how wrong I was.  Now that I've tested it, I can honestly say it is a very useful and valuable tool that I plan to use every chance I get.

For this review I grabbed a variety of different models from my kit stash and taped them together to show the versatile nature of this tool.

This landing gear alignment tool will hold your model precisely to permit the glue on your landing gear to dry thus giving you flawless results every time.  It will fit the tiniest model all the way up to models with slightly over 23" wingspans if you use the additional rod you can install to double the length of the wingspan rod to permit you to work with larger models.  I tried a 1/24 Airfix Spitfire and this tool was easily able to hold that size of model, although I would consider drilling a hole in the centre beam of this tool towards the rear where the tail wheel rest as I found an extra hole was needed to properly hold the tail planes of the 1/24 Spitfire.  For the photos, I secured the rear of the 1/24 Spitfire with the braces holding the rear of the fuselage....which is fine provided you cover the braces with tape to protect the paint on your model and avoid leaving marks on your painted model's fuselage side.  But one extra hole on the main beam of this tool will permit it to hold the bigger kits, which is important when you ponder the number of 1/32 kits being released.

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So...the tool works like this.

1)  Attached landing gear to aircraft including the tail wheel.

2)  Brace the main gear legs (without wheels) in the jig and check the alignment of the tail wheel.

3)  Once you are satisfied with the alignment of the tail wheel....remove the model from the jig and apply slow setting glue to the tail gear.

4)  Install the model into the jig and secure it and let the glue on the tail gear dry.

5)  Drill holes in bottom of the main wheels/tires.  

6)  Secure the wheels to the jig using the tiny brass screws that are included with the jig.

7)  Insert the main landing gear legs into the main wheel without glue.  

8)  Lower the model on to the jig and connect your model to the main landing gear legs.

9)  Adjust the 4 arms of the jig to hold the model in the correct position.

10)  Adjust the wheels from left to right to get the correct position for the landing gear.

11)  Now look from the top of your model to make sure your wheels appear in the correct spot in relation to the wing......thus making sure the left and right main gear are correct relative to each other.

12)  Check the height of each wing tip to make sure the model is sitting level from wing tip to wingtip.

13)  Once you are satisfied that everything lines up perfectly.....remove the model from the jig......apply slow setting glue and re-install the model in the jig.  Make final adjustments and let the glue dry fully.

If you have landing gear that sit on an angle such as the Bf-109, then you would have to adjust the holes in your wheels so the wheel will sit at the correct tilted angle when attached to the jig.  But the vast majority of aircraft have wheels that sit squarely on the ground.

If you're building an aircraft with tricycle landing gear......simply rotate the model 180° and follow the same procedure as above but the "tail wheel" in the instructions will be the "nose wheel".

Below is the 1/48 Revell F-15E in the jig, but it can also be used for such aircraft is the P-61.  I was also able to fit this jig to the massive 1/32 Tamiya F-14 as you can see in the photos further below, so this tool does have quite a bit of flexibility.  

Why this tool wasn't thought of long ago is a mystery to me, but I'm sure glad it is available now.

CB Model Products is new to the market with this being their second tool, but I am very impressed with the high quality of their metal tools and the versatile nature of their tools.  This is not a tool designed for a kid slapping a kit together on a rainy afternoon, but for experienced modellers that want to improve the quality of their finished model, then this tool will be a valuable and asset that will be used for each and every model.  It will give you exacting results each and every time you use it and remove the uncertainty we all experience when attaching our landing gear. 

I’d like to thank CB Model Products for the review copy. The price is $40 USD plus shipping. You can obtain your copy by contacting them at cbmodelproducts@hotmail.com .

Steve Bamford

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Photos and text © by Steve Bamford