White Metal Replacement Undercarriages

Scale Aircraft Conversions
1/48 & 1/72 scales

Reviewed by Phil Parsons

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There are many reasons why you may choose to go down the path of using SAC metal replacement products, the main reasons will be to provide extra strength or if there are errors SAC will occasionally correct errors or provide additional detail over the original plastic items.

These are all dropfit replacement parts that will require some clean up prior to painting. Most are a direct replacement for the kit plastic, with the exception of the Nesher set that provides an improved nose gear set. The Italeri kit has the nose strut split vertically in half. The SAC nose gear is produced as a single piece strut with a separate fork for the wheel moulded again as a single piece. So the nose gear is made up in both cases of two parts, they have just approached the design method differently.

I do have an Italeri A-10 and I certainly would opt for the SAC landing gear as it is one very heavy model once built and this is where the SAC gear has the edge over plastic.

The individual reviewed kits

72070 F-89D/J Scorpion (Revell)

Direct replacement

72071 PBM-5A Mariner  (Minicraft)

Direct replacement

48234 A-10 (Italeri)       

Direct replacement

48238 Nesher/Mirage (Italeri)  

Nesher improved nose gear

48240 F-80 (Hobby Boss)

Direct replacement

As with a lot of aftermarket, they all have their niches and Scale Aircraft Conversion aims to provide white metal replacements for the kit supplied plastic. The reasons for going down this path are varied and up to the individual modeller.

I highly recommend these for modellers with a minimum of a moderate level of ability.

Thanks to Scale Aircraft Conversions for the review samples..

Review Text & Images Copyright © 2014 by Phil Parsons
Page Created 24 February, 2014
Last updated 24 February, 2014

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