The Skyraider was a part of the war in Southeast Asia from the start and soldiered on until the war ended in 1975. This volume looks at Skyraiders operated by US pilots in Vietnamese markings, as well as those operated by both USAF and Vietnamese pilots. From the early days when the US was extremely secretive about it’s involvement until the end, the Skyraider was there.

Scale Aircraft Conversions is a maker of metal landing gear to replace kit parts. This landing gear set is for the Hasegawa 1/48th SH-3 Sea King. Included in the set you get two main landing gear struts, two retraction actuators, two torque links (scissors), and the tail wheel.

After comparing the kit parts to SAC’s parts this is what I have come up with. SAC’s gear will give your model a firm base to sit on. However, there are also some shortcomings. The SAC gear appears to be a tad bit smaller (see the photos below). This may not be an issue because who can say that the kit gear is correct? One area that will be an issue is the retraction actuators. As you can see in the kit and SAC comparison photo, the SAC actuator is just short of contacting the gear strut.

The April issue of SAM features some inspiring work, as well as provides some significant reference material. A regular contributor to SAM, Pete Mossong, along with fellow contributors Dave Wilson and Damon Edwards, provides an “Aviation in Profile” article covering the BAC 167 Strikemaster in RNZAF service. Filled with color images of the BAC 167 and supplemented with scale drawings and data, this 10-page article provides excellent reference material to the modeler wishing to build a Strikemaster.

Featured in this issue are articles by Ioannis Giavasis and Massimo Santarossa. Giavasis tackles a classic Airfix kit, the Saab Viggen in 1/48th scale, while Santarossa builds the Great Wall P-61A, the second variant of the Black Widow by Great Wall. Both are fantastic builds and provide much in the way of detailed imaging that will greatly aid anyone building these models.