I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t used a lot of Brengun products over the years. This has nothing to do with their quality – more like modeling inertia. Often by the time I see a need for additional detail on an aircraft kit, I’ve reached the point of impatience where I simply want to get the thing done. This has not always worked in my favor.

An area where 1/32^nd scale kits, especially older ones, often let the modeler down is in the area of the gun sight – one of the most visible aspects of any cockpit from the era. Due to the limitations of injection molding, these are often represented by little more than lumps of plastic with only the faintest resemblance to the real article. Brengun has done something to fix this problem.

Scale Aircraft Conversions (SAC) is a Texas based company that makes white metal landing gear for a vast number of model aircraft in all scales.

The idea behind the use of metal over the kit supplied plastic landing gear is strength. Over time plastic can give way under the weight of heavy aircraft models.

The metal parts are contained in a clear plastic tray with an attractive color backing showing product details.

Examining each item, it was apparent that masters of the original plastic parts were copied and molded into white metal. Corrections or improvements were also made, such as removing the brake lines molded over the oleo struts.

The general molding was quite clean, but seams would need to be cleaned up. Working with the white metal and cleaning up mold seam lines is detailed on SAC’s comprehensive website.

With the major fuselage and wing assemblies completed in Part 1, I continued on with Part 2 of the 1/24 Airfix Hellcat F6F-5 build.

The tail planes, elevators, rudder and ailerons with their respective, movable, trim tabs were glued together with minimal problems. Make sure the elevator hinges are inserted the correct way… I got it wrong…twice!!! Luckily, the glue was still wet so I could pry the elevators open and correct my mistake….twice!!!! The instructions clearly show the correct way to install these.