I recently built and reviewed Brengun’s USN Tow Tractor (BRL 144025) used on aircraft carriers. One thing that I said was missing was the tow bar to allow the tractor to move the planes around the deck. So here it is.

The entire kit is a single resin cast and a single PE fret. The resin parts are the bars for the tow bar. The PE is the connectors to hook the assembly to the tractor at one end and the aircraft at the other.

Assembly Preparation

The assembly is both easy and difficult. The easy part is that there aren’t a lot of parts, and they are logically set up. The difficult part is that the PE parts are all very small and easy to lose. One way I overcome this difficulty is using a jeweler’s apron, which anchors to my workbench at one end, and the other end has a loop which is around my neck. This way if I drop a part, it usually falls into the apron, where it can be recovered. The carpet monster is bereft.

First, THANKS SAC and IPMS USA for another review opportunity! SAC has been around for a few years, and to my mind fills a serious need for models. As kits get more expensive, they have more detail, weigh more, and you have more invested in it.

Enter SAC. This set adds structural strength to the fragile gear on a 1/144 scale airliner-sized model, in this case the Minicraft C-54. The C-54 has a fork nose gear with one tire; the kit requires about ½ ounce of nose weight, so there is added stress to the nose gear. The gear is also scale in size, meaning it’s very fragile. Metal makes the difference between gear snapping off on provocation, or gear that withstands handling.

Use of this SAC gear is simple, four parts: two main gear, the nose gear (the fragile part of the kit), and the nose gear retraction strut. Just swap the SAC gear for kit items, and you are done!

Thanks ahead of time to Tamiya USA for providing IPMS USA this review kit, and thanks also to the reviewer corps leadership for sending it to me to build and review!

This kit was originally released by Tamiya back in 2006 as the “Yukikaze”, which was the only survivor of the Japanese Kagero-class “A” of Destroyers in World war II. This new release of the kit is the lead ship Kagero itself. Kagero definied in English translates to “Mirage” or “Heat haze”. The net has a lot on it; I just found it interesting to read the history.

Tamiya has, to my mind, an excellent sales process. The kit box captures your attention; a professionally-painted rendering of the actual ship in action, side-view diagrams of the craft, pictures of the assembled model with or without full hull, photographs of the metal parts, and a feeling that “you really want to buy this model” ensues. It works…