Upfront, I want to thank Scale Aircraft Conversions for providing outstanding aftermarket bits for our beloved model kits, and to IPMS USA a big thank you for allowing me to review the Scale Aircraft Conversions (SAC) metal gear. Today’s review represents a direct drop-in replacement for the 1/72 Hasegawa Avenger TDM/TDF line of kits. This set includes five (5) parts to include: both main gear legs and their accompanying pistons, and the tail wheel for the Hasegawa kit.

SAC specializes in white metal replacement landing gear parts. In my humble opinion, their landing gear is the only way to go to both provide strength for larger heavier kits and dealing with spindly, fiddly smaller kit gear legs. The SAC gear is far more forgiving than plastic gear legs and has the wonderful ability to be gently adjusted, unlike their polystyrene relatives.

Tamiya’s new 1/35th scale figure kit “U.S. Infantry Scout Set” includes plastic parts for making five U.S. army WWII infantry figures. The kit comes in a 10” by 6” by 1 1/2” top-opening box. The box contains four sprues of plastic parts, a double-sided instruction sheet, and water-slide decals. Sprue CA and sprue CB provide the weapons and accessories. The weapons included are: an M1918 BAR with choice of open or closed bipod, an M1 carbine, two M1 garand rifles, an M1A1 thompson, two bayonets, three knives, and six hand grenades. There are enough entrenching tools, canteens, and helmets for each figure. The helmets are molded with the straps pulled up over the brims. Two of the helmets have mesh coverings molded on. Sprues X and Z provide the parts for the meaty bits and figure-specific accessories. The instructions provide a list of recommended Tamiya paints, assembly instructions, and a description of the ranks depicted by the markings on the decal sheet.

Bottom Line

Volume 2 of the WW2 German Kriegsmarine battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau focuses on the career and appearance of DKM Gneisenau. Volume I gives more info on Gneisenau than anything previous – an extensive narrative history along with many B&W photos, a section of high-quality, large-scale photographs, stunning 3D graphic “visualizations” of her various fits, two large foldout sheets of 1/200 line drawings (four sides), a foldout sheet in 1/72 scale for the floatplanes and 3D glasses for the 3D photos. A modeler and historian could not ask for better references.