Panda B737-400 custom gear modification

[LeoMuse747]

A few weeks ago, I got my Transbrasil B737-400 made by Panda Models.




The model is impressive, the mould is really nice, but two things were bothering me:

1) The nose gear doors were too big. It seems Panda have much better shaped gear doors for their B737-300 variant (See here!!!), but the same doesn't seem to apply for their B737-400s. The doors are too long and they also shouldn't extend too much behind the nose gear position.

2) The gears (all of them) are too long and give the model more ground clearance than it should have. In other words: the model sits too high and should be lower. The B737-400 is a quite low rider and this Panda version seems to have a ground clearance similar to a B737-800.


Check out this comparison between the Panda model and the real B737-400:



The shape of the nose gear doors is really weird in the original model. Here's a closeup comparison with the model and the real machine. The wheels are very slightly oversized but IMO this is acceptable in this case, specially due to the small scale.



So, I decided to do a slight modification in my model. Landing gears removed... time to sand things down!
BTW I wasn't the one who removed the gears. My friend Alexandre, who is a custom maker here in my city, gave me a little help and removed them without much difficulty. He's much more skilled than me and he has the correct tools for it
However, the rest of the job was totally made by me.



After sanding down the nose gear doors, this was the result:



I also had to break (yes!) and sand down the base of the main gears and chop off part of the nose gear to have the correct height.
Wasn't as easy as I wanted, but all ended up well. Tweezers, very little drops of glue, nail files, steady hands, patience... and here's the result!



Here's a comparison:



(the top antenna fell off during the process... uh oh!)

I'm very happy with the result. To be honest, I wanted the nose gear to be even lower, but think it's enough, I might end up causing an unwanted mess.
Nose gear doors now look much better to my eyes. The engines are now very slightly closer to the ground.
I wish Panda could enhance their B737-400s with these mods I did.

Hope you enjoy!

 

[planes_on_a_shelf]

Thanks for sharing this haha! Definitely looks more 734-ey wrt the ground clearance - and agree that the nlg could be shorter but surely you've pushed the modification on that little cast piece to its limits! Unfortunate to see the antenna got knocked off - is there any way to reinstate it?

It's often difficult to visualise how small these models actually are - and what a great job at printing PM has done on the model. Although, I'm not too sure here - but the cockpit could have extended aft ever so little. I'm really hoping for more TRs soon - that filigree striped rainbow tail is one of my favourites!

 

[LeoMuse747]

Thanks for sharing this haha! Definitely looks more 734-ey wrt the ground clearance - and agree that the nlg could be shorter but surely you've pushed the modification on that little cast piece to its limits! Unfortunate to see the antenna got knocked off - is there any way to reinstate it?

It's often difficult to visualise how small these models actually are - and what a great job at printing PM has done on the model. Although, I'm not too sure here - but the cockpit could have extended aft ever so little. I'm really hoping for more TRs soon - that filigree striped rainbow tail is one of my favourites!

And I must say Panda did a good job on the landing gears. They are very sturdy! I had a hard time sanding them down
This is a great little model and Panda have a wonderful printing quality. The livery looks beaautiful!
The top antenna was sadly lost It was quite loose at first. It fell off when the model arrived and I had to place it back. This time it fell during themaintenance and now is nowhere to be found. But honestly I don't mind that much. Most of my models don't have antennas either lol

 

[LiveryCollector]

Nice, looks way better indeed!

What would annoy me as well is the way one of those engines is angled upwards. Once I see that I can't unsee it haha, one of the reasons I now buy my models at a physical shop.

 

[LeoMuse747]

Nice, looks way better indeed!

What would annoy me as well is the way one of those engines is angled upwards. Once I see that I can't unsee it haha, one of the reasons I now buy my models at a physical shop.

Thanks! Do you think the engines are wrongly angled here? I think they look fine actually...