Scale Aircraft Conversions (SAC) has provided the IPMS reviewer corps a set of 1/48th scale metal landing gear for Hobby Boss’s U-2R “Dragon Lady” Senior Span. These parts are drop-in replacements and provide a more robust landing gear set given its metal properties.

In the Package

The metal pieces are packaged in a clear blister package with cardboard backing. No instructions are provided.

Review Process

The metal landing gear set is used as drop-in replacements for parts E8 (tail wheel), E14 & F22 (nose wheel), and E7 (wingtip “pogo” wheels). The metal used is malleable and has some give to allow for any minor bending if needed. Also, seam lines will need to be cleaned up prior to painting just like the plastic kit parts.

Founded a little more than 10 years ago by modelers, Reskit has set the standard for aftermarket accessories. Reskit’s product line keep expanding exponentially and no end in sight for what they keep offering. The CH-54A (S-64E) Tarhe pilot seats are no exception. The ICM kit seats are extremely basic and almost look more like a lawn chair than an aircraft seat. The real Tarhe seats are not as complex as other helicopters but they do have notable details that need to be represented in a model.

Packaged in a sturdy box, the contents include one 3D printed set of 3 seats (pilots and rear seat) and instructions. The resin print includes a protective structure or cage around the printed parts. There are plenty of print supports and the print detail is extremely fine with build layers barely noticeable.

This kit is a direct replacement of parts for the Trumpeter Super Cobra. The parts have some very nice details on them. They were also well contained in the packaging, resulting in them arriving without even the long skids being bent. The overall level of cleanup is very minimal, and the molds are set along the designed weld lines or oriented with elements of the skids or supports so they don’t require cleanup. For instance, on the skid mount, the parting line on the white metal matches a weld line on the full-size component, so no cleanup was required due to the minimal flash present. I applied some white primer to help show the lines of the SAC gear so that the detail was more evident in the picture.

Many thanks to SAC and IPMS for making this kit available to me for review.

Scale Aircraft Conversions (SAC) has provided the IPMS reviewer corps a set of 1/48^th scale metal landing gear for the Academy F4F-3/4 Wildcat. These parts are drop-in replacements and provide a more robust landing gear set given its metal properties.

In the Package

The metal pieces are packed in a clear blister package with cardboard backing. No instructions are provided.

The metal landing gear set is used as drop-in replacements for parts B4, B17, B23, B33, and B50 and can be referenced in the instructions on step 2.

The metal used is malleable and has some give to allow for any minor bending if needed. Also, seam lines will need to be cleaned up prior to painting just like the plastic kit parts.

ResKit has obviously spent some time designing their packaging to make a visual impact both from the outside of the box and then when opening it. The parts are capped on top and bottom with foam and each resin print has a cage around it in addition to major pieces also being in small plastic baggies. I assume the baggies are to catch any parts that might inadvertently come off during shipping. All the parts are finely detailed, and the only place I could find layer lines was on the very ends of the cargo platform, and they barely showed up under primer. It took me roughly 2 hours to detach all the parts from the print supports. The main cargo bed was definitely tricky to detach. I worked from the outside, meaning the longest supports, to the inside one layer at a time. I was able to cut the lower base plate in between the layers of supports. By doing that I was able to pry the layer up and twist it off without any damage to the cargo bed.