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Review Author
Paul R. Brown
Published on
January 22, 2021
Company
Scale Aircraft Conversions
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$17.95

This set is designed to provide replacement parts for Italeri’s 1/32 two-seat F-104 kits. As with most of SAC’s landing gear sets, the metal parts are intended to be one-for-one replacements for the kit parts. The centerpiece of the set is a new single piece main gear section including both left and right main gear struts with attached retraction arms and gear door actuators. The set also provides white metal replacements for the hydraulic lines on the main gear struts.

There are four parts to the nose gear – the strut, two retraction arms and what I assume is the nose gear steering unit.

Review Author
David Horn
Published on
January 21, 2021
Company
AOA Decals
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$15.00

AOA Decals is a relatively new aviation decal with an impressive variety in 1/32, 1/35, 1/48, 1/72 and 1/144 scale. Their product line primary focus is Vietnam era aircraft. Although a relatively young company, their quality and attention to detail rivals all other decal companies on the market. The decal set comes with one large decal sheet and a four-page, full color instruction sheet.

This decal set covers three (Vertical lift) US Marine aircraft, two helicopters and one jet. All three aircraft are assigned to HMM-264 (REIN) “Black Knights which are elements of the 26th Marine Expeditionary unit (MEU) USS Bataan (LHD-5) between the years 2006 to 2007. There are options for seven different aircraft, one AV-8B Night Attack, AV-8B+, Three choices CH-53E and two choices on the CH-46E.

Review Author
David Horn
Published on
January 21, 2021
Company
Scale Aircraft Conversions
Scale
1/144
MSRP
$16.95

Scale Aircraft Conversions (SAC) manufactures white metal landing gear that is a direct replacement for the kits plastic landing gear. The metal landing gear offer greater strength over the kit parts as well as having most of the mold lines removed. At times, the metal will be bent out of shape but that is easily corrected by bending it back to the correct shape.

This set includes six parts, the two main gear assemblies, bracing arms for the main gear and nose gear with separate bracing arm. All the parts are exact copies of the kit parts with a small amount of mold lines or “flash”. The Main gear still has the kits sprue, with identifying number. Note that the kit part F5 has been moved to the same sprue as part F2. The main gear bracing struts are free from the sprue and not numbered.

Review Author
Paul R. Brown
Published on
January 21, 2021
Company
Quickboost
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$5.60

This set is designed to be used on Academy’s new F-14Tomcat kits. The set consists of a pair of drop-in replacements for kit parts F15/F17 and F17/F18 which make up the rear part of the intake trunks immediately in front of the engines. Academy did a nice job in trying to reduce the seam between the upper and lower parts, however, the Quickboost parts eliminate the seam completely.

Both intakes are nicely molded and as the intakes are handed the pour stubs clearly indicate which the left intake is and which is the right one. I marked “L” and “R” on the resin parts with a Sharpie before removing them from the pour stubs under the KISS principal, even though I know that they will not fit if swapped, having just completed building the kit.

The parts are easily removed with razor saw and I used some 600-grit sandpaper to clean up the cut ends. The cast parts include the indentations for mounting the kit engine faces, so installation will be easy.