Occasionally, you need to get out of your comfort zone and see what else is out there. I was intrigued to read about the Royal Air Force’s reconnaissance and support projects as I didn’t know much about them. When the 336-page, hardcover book arrived, I questioned why I wanted to get out of my comfort zone and figured I could skim the pages. Wow, I was wrong and ended up reading every single word and devoured the book. Author Chris Gibson is an amazing writer, who writes from a position of knowledge born of passion and engages the writer with his great story telling ability.

Initially I had an issue with the title of the book, as it lends itself to self-pity and relegation to a subordinate role. As I mentioned above, the author didn’t have this problem and explained the title right away,

Scale Aircraft Conversions (SAC) has provided the IPMS reviewer corps a set of 1/48^th scale metal landing gear for Arma Hobby’s P-39 Airacobra kits. These parts are drop-in replacements and provide a more robust landing gear set given its metal properties.

In The Package

The metal pieces are packaged in a clear blister package with cardboard backing. There are no instructions.

Review Process

The metal landing gear set is used as a drop-in replacement for parts A13, A20, A21, and B66. You will need to use plastic kit parts A33 (nose strut) and B48 (oleo torsion arms) to complete the landing gear assembly.

The metal used is malleable and has some give to allow for any minor bending that may be needed since there is some slight deformation when coming out of the molds. Also, seam lines will need to be cleaned up before painting, just like the plastic kit parts.