Hasagawa P2V Neptune Kit

The Hasegawa 1/72 P2V Neptune kit was issued many years ago and has subsequently been reissued with different markings several times.

It is still a fine basis for a very nice model of this venerable airplane and accurate in shape but there are two landing gear errors that are obvious when pointed out.

The first is that the nose landing gear well, from the first Neptune to the last*, was offset to the right, not located on the center line as in the Hasegawa kit. The one I measured was about 36 inches wide, and extended 12 inches to the left of the centerline and 24 inches to the right. This appears to be correct for P2V-1 through -6. The P2V-7's nose wheel well, in addition to be located farther forward and shorter, is narrower, still 12 inches to the left of the centerline but only 18 inches to the right.

The landing gear itself, however, was configured so that the nose wheel and strut were located on the center line of the airplane.

It's hard to see in the above, which is a picture of the nose wheel of the P2V-1 Truculent Turtle located at the excellent Naval Aviation museum at Pensacola, Florida, but the side brace on the nose landing gear is located on the right side, hence the asymmetry. (The configuration allowed for a crew entryway on the aft left side of the wheel well and a crawl way forward to the nose on the left side of the wheel well.)

* However, the fore and aft location of the nose wheel well changed between the -6 and -7 configurations. The -6 (and earlier) nose wheel well was farther aft. See http://tailhooktopics.blogspot.com/2016/02/early-p2vs.html

Second, the main landing gear strut was located on the inboard side of the nacelle wheel well, not centered in it as in the kit, so the wheel and strut combination, not the strut itself, was positioned on the center line of the wheel well.

Again, the above is a picture of the P2V-1 at Pensacola. However, the basic configuration of the main landing gear did not change. This is a picture taken from the front of the port AP-2H main landing gear:

Crop from a Bill Spidle photo*

* http://www.primeportal.net/hangar/bill_spidle4/ap-2h_135620/

Nose gear steering actuator:

 The nose gear steering actuator swiveled on a post that was attached to the front of the nose wheel fork. Its piston was attached to the bottom of the nose gear strut. When the piston extended or retracted, the fork swiveled with respect to the strut, turning the nose wheel. Later P2V nose gear steering actuators were mounted above the scissors.