Adam,
That first photo inspired me to get the model onto its wheels just so that I could try and re-create it. See the bottom photo on the following update.
Another challenge with the kit is getting the main wheel bays into the fuselage. Having conquered the challenge of getting the fiberglass gear doors cut out of the fuselage in a neat and orderly fashion, the modeler is now faced with shoehorning the resin wheel bays, unassembled, into the resulting holes (that they don't fit through)and then re-assembling them through the open hole. Have I told you guys how much I am enjoying this project yet????
Here is the wheel bay, dry fitted together. The instructions call for foam to be fitted into the wheel bays so that there is something to push back and hold it against the inside skins whilst the glue dries. Lovely idea in theory. As can be seen in the picture, there is some grinding that I have done to the roof area of where the wheel bay will sit. The reason for this is that the bay will not fit in otherwise, so throw the foam idea out of the window! (it does however work quite nicely for the nose gear bay).
Note: to get the large part of the wheel bay through the hole, some of the corners of the part need to be taken off for it to fit inside.
Here can be seen the wall of the wheel bay and how much it needs to be sunk into the hole (no roam for foam here!)
Once the bay fits, it is a simple matter of sliding it around and then positioning it so that the walls can be glued into place followed by moving it around so that 30 minute epoxy can be applied to the inside of the wing and then allowed to set. Its important not to mess this part up as there really isn't any turning back!
The upside to getting the bays in is that the model now sits on its undercarriage and it looks quite the beast. In the following two pics you can see the effect that extending the nose oleo has had on the sit of the model.
Now I can play around with refining the way the model sits..... still undecided... HELP!