From Ross McMillan and Scale Aircraft Conversions comes this nice little set of replacement landing gear from Tamiya’s 1/48 He-162 Salamander. The set consists of two main gear struts, two torque links, one nose gear strut, one lower half of the nose gear strut, and one retraction strut for the main landing gear. Each of the parts is well cast in white metal.

The parts are a direct replacement for the kit parts. They fit well and provide more strength. I have included shots of the kit parts and SAC gears they duplicate.

If you want to add more strength, these are perfect. Recommended. My thanks to Ross McMillan at Scale Aircraft Conversions and IPMS/USA for the chance to review this great gear.

Master Model continues their new releases with a replacement pitot tube for the Trumpeter range of F-8 Crusader kits. This particular piece fits either the E or J models.

The part is a finely milled, one-piece pitot tube that directly replaces the kit part. As you can see from the pictures, it is light years beyond the kits plastic part, having the correct shape and size. Adding it to the kit is simple – drop it in with no cutting and you’re done. For a mere $4.00, this is needed. It corrects the kit part and adds strength to the piece.

If you are building one of the Trumpeter F-8's, you need to add this piece. Recommended! My thanks to Master Models and IPMS/USA for the chance to review this item.

A while back (a couple of years?), I built ICM’s 1/72 Su-27 for a review. I can’t remember the reason, but I wound up using a cut-off straight pin for the pitot on the kit. Well, here’s the fix for that.

I had to pull the pin out of the nose of the ICM kit, then clean up the end of the nose where some CA had built up. Then, all that was necessary was to insert the new pitot, check its fit, remove it, put some gel-type CA on the pitot, and insert it. I kinda lucked out here, as the hole for the straight pin was as large as I needed for the new pitot. Master Model also gives the correct angle for the pitot, which is lacking in the kits.

After the CA had set, a matter of minutes, I painted the new pitot. DONE!!

Overall Evaluation

Highly recommended. It’s an easy fix, it fits nicely, and I had zero problems with this add-on. I’ll have to pick up another one of these to fix the Hasegawa Su-27 on the shelf next to the ICM kit.

I recently built and reviewed ICM’s 1/144 Tupolev Tu-144 "Charger". When the opportunity came to review the SAC metal landing gear for this plane, I jumped at the chance.

The white metal landing gear is obviously far stronger and better suited to large models than the injection molded parts you get in a kit. I have a number of finished models on the shelf or in storage which could use a new set of gear legs. And I thought I’d save the Tu-144 from this fate. There’s only so much you can do with CA and sprue to fix broken gear, especially with missing parts.

I first took photos of the landing gear on the model as it was. There might be a set of instructions for the kit somewhere in my workroom. Or not. I bet on the latter, and took reference photos to show where the parts went.

Windsock Datafiles from Albatros Productions are very familiar to most of those who have been building WW I aircraft models for some time. And, a number of those who have been awakened to that era by the recent introduction of 1/32 scale kits from Wingnut Wings, Roden, Special Hobby, and others have discovering the value of collecting these publications. Number 156 in the series has just been published and it is the second Datafile about the AVRO 504. However, it is a companion to the earlier title because, unlike Datafile 28, this volume focuses attention on the types that preceded the 504K.