Scale Aircraft Conversions provides a nice set of metal landing gear for a number of aircraft. I jumped at the chance to get the SAC gear for the C-119 because it looks spindly, and I need all the help I can get to keep my models intact.

The SAC parts are very good copies of the kit gear. The other wonderful thing about the metal gear is that if you have a little trouble getting alignment as you install the parts, you can tweak the metal parts into alignment without breaking them.

Installation was just like the kit instructions say, and the wheels fit onto the SAC gear legs perfectly.

Overall Assessment.

Highly recommended. The parts fit nicely, they are stronger than the kit parts, and you don’t have to paint the SAC metal parts to make them look like metal parts.

Many thanks to Scale Aircraft Conversions for the review item and to IPMS USA for the chance to add strength to my Dollar Nineteen.

Brengun has produced a photoetch improvement set for Eduard’s 1/144 scale MiG-15. There are parts to redo the cockpit interior, new landing gear doors, wing fences, a pitot, and antennas.

The project begins with the cockpit. The Eduard cockpit front is cut away, and the rest is thrown away. The PE kit contains the cockpit floor and sides, consoles, a seat and instrument panel. Also, you get seat belts. Wow. And there are two extra panels which are inserted on the cockpit sides after the fuselage is assembled.

I made a mistake here. I thought I should carve the plastic wing fences off and install the PE parts at this point in the assembly, before doing the landing gear. It turns out that the wing fences are much more susceptible to being knocked off than the gear doors or the landing gear. I had to put the surviving wing fences in the envelope and hold them after I knocked all of them off. The instructions are wise here, follow them.

The Kit

This was my first F-Rsin kit. Probably won’t be my last, though. Their catalog is just full of airliners that don’t make the cut for the major manufacturers. This isn’t F-Rsin’s first Martin 202/404 either. They have a resin version of this aircraft too, but it costs about twice as much. I hope they produce their NORD 262 in plastic. Or I may just buy the resin kit anyway. I may be the only IPMS USA member ever to get a ride in a NORD 262. Yeah, that’s a war story.

The kit is very simple. Two fuselage halves, wings are 4 pieces: left/right, upper/lower, with separate nacelles. Cockpit and passenger windows are done with decals.

Hauler has been around for a few years now. I mostly thought they produced resin items in the 1/48 scale arena. I was surprised to see this 1/35 item offered in the review area and since I had requested the Bronco Loyd Carrier and I figured I could knock this nifty looking item out as well.

The items come packed in a cellophane bag with a hard paper backing. Included are a small instruction sheet and three resin parts. The resin parts are the stove, the stove pipe and a small pile of wood. The parts are beautiful castings. The only thing I would have changed is the pipe attachment. The kit has you gluing the pipe to the stove. I think the stove should have had a depression that the stove pipe actually fit into. This would have provided a far more secure join.

This is a small photo etch sheet with numerous details intended for the Eduard Avia B.534 fighter kit that has been issued in 1/72 scale. The kit already has excellent detail, but the photo etch parts will enhance the appearance of the model, adding things that would be very difficult to scratchbuild.

A very detailed instruction sheet is included, with drawings large and clear enough to be useful under any conditions.