F-14D Tomcat 3D Print Landing Gear For Tamiya

Detail & Wonder, 1/48 scale

Reviewed by David Couche

Detail & Wonder (D&W) is another new Chinese company that specializes in highly detailed 3D printed replacement parts for aircraft. They came into the marketplace later in 2021 and have expanded their range greatly over the last couple of years. This is the first of several D & W products I will review. Previous to receiving these review products, I had not come across nor heard of Detail and Wonder mentioned in Australia, or online the many modelling groups I am in. I will certainly keep an eye out for their products now.

On now, onto the set. The set comes in a sturdy cardboard box with foam cut with 2 holes for the snug packing of the 3D resin printed sets in their cradles. My set had no damage at all so the packaging obviously works well. The metal rods are packed on the bottom of the box under the foam.

This landing gear set is nearly a kit, in its own right. The more difficult part is the removal of the super detailed parts safely from the print cradle and base. There is a detailed small instruction booklet, 15 x 10cm, which gives detailed, sequential instruction/diagrams for this process with all printing supports etc on red. I have supplied a couple of sample pages to show the level of detail in the instruction.

The front gear consists of 8 3D resin printed parts, including 3 parts for the leg, the hydraulic arm for gear retraction, 3 metal rods for reinforcement and the oleo cover, and 4, wheel hub sections. You will also use the 2 smaller front wheel that have been cast in resin. These have raised manufacturer lettering and are very detailed. The degree of detail on these parts is the best I have ever seen. The 3D resin printed parts are extremely fine and show no signs of any layers in the printing process. The details with the hydraulic and electrical cables are printed in place. This is where the instruction book is a must as without following it, the likelihood of removing some of this detail would be reasonably high.

The main gear each consist of 5 3D resin printed parts, 1 cast resin, the tyre, and 2 metal rods for their reinforcement. The leg is a one-piece print with incredible detail again. If you thought the Tamiya landing gear had good detail for an injection moulded kit, I’ve put a couple of photos, above and below, from D&W showing the comparison between the kit and 3D print parts.

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When these sub sections are together, they are a drop-in replacement for the kit parts. No modification to the kit parts is a real bonus.

Detail and Wonder Studio have certainly produced the goods here, ultra-high details and print quality, and while Tamiya F-14 kits have well detailed parts compared to other manufacturers, these have less parts and the detail surpasses all else. These will most definitely raise the quality of your build to master type levels visually. I can’t wait to use them on my Tamiya F-14D and will probably be chasing the F-14A version of this set (which they do produce).

A little pricey but comparable with any of the Reskit set of comparable quality.

Highly Recommended.

Many thanks to FabScale Studio for the review sample.

Text Copyright © 2024 by David Couche
Images Copyright © 2024 by David Couche and Brett Green
Page Created 4 July, 2024
Last updated 4 July, 2024

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