alpinestar

For the gear doors, I first made the doors themselves by laying several layers of glass over the completely sheeted wings. then you have a fiberglass panel with the exact contour you need. I used polyester stinky resin for this since it seems to be stiffer. Be sure to let it cure long enough before peeling off the wing as it will take a set to a different shape if you remove it too early..... I hinged with Robart hinge points with the hinge pockets in the wing so the doors are removable. The mechanism is made from 1/16" music wire, with brass sheet tabs to connect the springs and the very short "connecting rods" (goldberg mini snap on one end, ball link on the other). The mini-snap end attaches to the mechanism bar, the ball link attaches to the control horn epoxied to the door itself. Springs are from a $2.00 assortment kit I found at TSC.

The strut door was a bit of a challenge as almost the entire leg of the sierra retracts rotate. There are also steps in the OD of legs at locations that mean a standard "strap around the leg" approach would have to slide over one of these transitions.... Didn't work too well so approach & 2 came into play. The very root of the retract leg does not rotate, so i made a brass collar & silver soldered a rod to it. The collar is epoxied to the non-rotating part of the leg, and a very short nylon tube mounted to the gear door slides along the rod to open/close the door and allow the movement necessary due to the distance between hinge lines of the retract & door.

Bigger corsairs seem to have retracts where a significant part of the gear leg does not rotate, making the mounting of this door a bit easier.