Tail wheel on profile fuse

[fred cesquim]

finally came up with a light and neat method to attach tail wheel wire to a profile fuselage:
bend an 3/4" U and then bend the remaining wire to conform the plan drawing. i do a 90 degree bend 1/16 past fuselage and then bent backwards, so when landing the forces will not crack paint. cut lamination of 1/16 ply and glue with epoxy. (pic one shows the pattern. cut a notch on the fuselage, and a recess of 1/8" bigger than the needed notch for the assembly. Glue with epoxy, and add a cover of 1/8 balsa to finish. this way you can sand the shape properly and have no plywood showing.

[fred cesquim]

glad that may be helpful
other option is removable gear, but itīs more tricky to do it, this is the simplest solution so far (at least for me)

[Ken Culbertson]

Neat and clean. I'm going to do my next profile like that. Thanks for the presentation.

Me2

[Steve Berry]

Even easier, 1-piece solution I've done in the past, is simply drill a 1/4" hole approximately 1" deep into the bottom of the fuse. Then, get some 1/4" dowel, cut to depth of drilled hole, and file/cut a notch on 1 side for the tail wheel wire. Wire is 1/16" with a very short "L" bend at the end (to hook over end of dowel - you did make the notch on the end of the dowel, too, didn't you?) and however long it needs to be for forming the rest of the gear.

When ready, simply mix up some 5 or 10 minute epoxy, smear it all over the dowel and shove some in the hole, place gear in the notch, and shove the whole thing into the hole. Make sure the tail wheel is oriented properly, and let the epoxy cure. Takes longer to explain than to do. Super simple, easy, & cheap. Only drawback is that it is permanent.

Edit:
Can also use furniture dowel pins. Can get them from McMaster-Carr, 100 for $4.20. https://www.mcmaster.com/97195a416

[ericrule]

Great idea Fred. Thanks for sharing it. It is these things that makes working with model airplane folks so great!

I also agree with what Steve described. In fact I included that in every drawing of a profile we ever kitted at RSM. Simple, easy to do and worked like a charm.

Whatever works best for you is the important issue.