ICM has lately really gotten into making combo kits, and this one, which combines their excellent CR. 42 Night Raider with their equally excellent German pilots set, is one of the latest. I will review each item separately, so let’s start with the airplane.

As most of you already know, the Italian CR. 42 biplane was perhaps one of the most elegant aircraft of its day. Late in the war, however, its obsolescence as a front-line fighter was painfully obvious, and both the Italians and Germans saw its potential as a night intruder for harassing the enemy under conditions where it was unlikely to encounter much, if any, aerial resistance. This involved some modifications, such as adding bomb racks, extending the engine exhausts and cutting down the landing gear spats to deal with rough field conditions.

The Author

Andy Evans is a full-time author who has contributed to several magazines including Aircraft Illustrated, Air World International and Military Magazine. His previous books include BAe/McDonnell Douglas Harrier [Crowood 1998].

The Publication Contents

Glossary

Here the author begins with a page of terms associated with the F-15. Many are familiar, while other are new to me.

Introduction

The intro pages are essentially a recap of the F-15 features, series, weapons and brief combat history.

Chapter 1 Flight of the Eagle

This chapter reviews the developmental history of the F-15 beginning with the F-X (Flighter-Experimental) Project. Several in-flight images of the First F-15A model and included. It was interesting to note the F-15 project included no prototype aircraft: The F-15 was ordered off the drawing board.

Scale Aircraft Conversions (SAC) is a Texas based company that has been marketing resin and white metal parts for scale model aircraft for over 20 years. They endeavor to be accurate in their moldings, claiming to correct inaccuracies if found. I have bought about a half dozen of their metal landing gear sets in the past, all of which have turned out to be excellent replacements for the plastic kit parts.

SAC’s two-piece landing gear set #72180 is labeled for the ‘60s vintage 1/72-scale Hasegawa F-104G/J, CF-104 kit but I find that the set matches the more recent 1990-issued F-104G/S landing gear as well. A comparison photo of the metal SAC main gear with the F-104G/S gear is shown herewith.

The SAC replacement gear seems to be an exact replica of the parts from the Hobby Boss A-26 Invader kit. The metal is soft but easy to clean and file. The set consists of main gear, nose gear, and nose wheel well. I decided to use the nose gear and its well to help balance the model since I have never tolerated tail sitters.

The nose gear well needs a little filing to fit. Even after adding more weight, the airplane barely stood on its nose, so I am glad I used it. I don’t believe you could get enough weight in the nose without it. The SAC set claims it weighs 42 grams and the kit recommends 150 grams, so the builder has to make up the 108 gram difference.

After finishing the model, because of its weight I might’ve been better off using the metal main gear also.

I want to thank Scale Aircraft Conversions and IPMS/USA for the opportunity to review this accessory.

This set is designed to provide replacement parts for the landing gear on the Tarangus/Special Hobby SAAB Viggen kits. The set includes replacement parts for the nose gear and both main gear assemblies and as with most of SAC’s landing gear sets, the metal parts are intended to be one-for-one replacements for the kit parts.

The nose strut assembly includes the gear strut, the scissor link and the retraction/extension actuator. The parts in my set were very well cast and after just a little clean-up of the casting seam where the casting plugs attach, the parts will be ready to go.