Considered by many to be the backbone of the United States Air Force (USAF), crew chiefs oversee the care and combat readiness of the service’s fleet of aircraft. Without the dedication and skill of the crew chiefs and other maintenance specialists, nothing would fly – let alone fight. Regardless of location, season, or time of day, Air Force crew chiefs keep their aircraft combat ready.

This excellent figure from VideoAviation depicts a current-day USAF Crew Chief in Cold Weather Dress. Crisply cast in cream-colored resin, the review sample required little clean up or filling. Detail and features for the uniform are accurate to current-issue USAF clothing and were validated by online photos and comparison to actual “live” samples. Accompanied by a folding aluminum ladder, consolidated tool kit (CTK), and a speed handle, this crew dog is ready to compliment any 1/32 model of a modern USAF aircraft.

Construction

Opening the box you’ll notice that this is the original 1970s’ mold Neptune, and the molds are starting to show their age. Many of the parts had some bit of flash to them. Thankfully though they were very easy to clean up. The second thing you’ll notice is that the directions have many photos of Neptune’s, but they are of the Japanese version of the aircraft. The build though is the same no matter what version you are doing so no need to worry that the photos don’t match the exact aircraft.

This is a white metal landing gear set is to for the Modelcollect 1/72 B2-2A Spirit aircraft.

The white metal parts are good but I found that the kit parts had a better defined details. They are an acceptable replacement for the already well details kit parts. The advantage is these white metal parts will provide more strength and last longer than the kit parts.

The parts include the main two gear struts which replace part numberA27, Front strut which replaces part number C29 and support strut which replaces part number C32.

The parts are well cast; you do need to sand off the few cast seams and metal pour points. The main struts were a little twisted and needed strengthening to allow the correct installation. The parts were a perfect fit to the existing mount and were easy to assemble. The only issue I did have, was getting the main landing gear lights part number A21 to adhere to the white metal.