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White Metal Replacement Undercarriages

Scale Aircraft Conversions, 1/72 scale

S u m m a r y :

Catalogue No & Description:

72039 – P-39 Airacobra (Academy)

72040 – RQ-4B Global Hawk (Platz)

72041 – E-2C Hawkeye (Hasegawa)

Scale:

1/72

Contents & Media

White metal with varying quantities of pieces, please refer to accompanying images for a parts count.

Price:

Available on-line from these and other retailers (click on price to go to the item):

Part No

SAC

Squadron

72039 (P-39)

US$12.95

US$11.68

72040 (RQ-4B)

US$12.95

US$11.68

72041 (E-2C)

US$16.95

US$15.29

Review Type:

First Look.

Advantages:

Good quality production and presumably more robust than styrene. The added nose weight provided by the P-39 set seems beneficial.

Disadvantages:

In the majority of cases the need for white metal undercarriages is hard to justify on technical grounds as their strength is not required. They also appear to offer no detail or scale correctness advantages over the kit parts they are intended to replace.

Conclusion:

Good quality production and presumably robust, but none of the intended kits really need whatever extra strength is offered. Nor do the metal undercarriages seem to have a superior appearance to the kit parts. Despite these views, I think that there are modellers who like white metal undercarriages for more emotive reasons.

Reviewed by Mark Davies


 HyperScale is proudly sponsored by Squadron.com

FirstLook


Scale Aircraft Conversion’s (SAC) range of white metal replacement undercarriage legs, and occasionally with wheels, is well established and should be at least familiar to many through reviews and advertising. Each set comes well packaged on a card header with clear bubble plastic pack.

 

 

In my first review of SAC products on HyperScale in June 2011 I outlined the case for and against white metal replacement undercarriages. My overall assessment was that they have no failings compared to kit parts, but with a few exceptions, offer no significant benefits either. However I could see that they had an emotive appeal that for some would justify their purchase.

 

 

I have all three kits the sets reviewed here are intended for, and have built the Academy P-39. After examining the three sets I see no reason to change from my previous assessment. However the added weight offered by the P-39’s metal cockpit floor and nose ballast be beneficial, but adding lead shot is a much cheaper way to keep the nose-wheel on the ground.

 

 

Conclusion

 

The three sets reviewed here are all nicely produced and well packaged. But I consider that none are required for added strength by their intended recipient kits, and that they do not offer any particular benefits aside from the P-39 set’s ballast.

Thanks to Scale Aircraft Conversions for the review samples..

Review Text & Images Copyright © 2012 by Mark Davies
Page Created 5 April, 2012
Last updated 5 April, 2012

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