Thanks again to Ross at SAC for providing IPMS USA this review set. As usual, we are more than grateful for your support. And thanks to IPMS USA for providing it to me.

This set is one which fits a real need for a kit upgrade. First, the Trumpeter Skyraider is an excellent kit for an early SPAD…the requirement to remove the later-in-life” armor plating on the external forward skin is not there, so if it is an early blue Skyraider you want to build, here’ s your starting point.

The one thing that needs to be replaced in this otherwise excellent, well-fitting kit is the main landing gear. Some odd shortcuts have been used, and the SAC gear addresses those. As you can see, the follow-up struts on the upper portion of the gear are molded as a solid item on the kit gear. SAC corrects this by providing separate A-frame items and retraction cylinders for the main gear. Take your time, pull out your references, and build on.

The only difficulty I had was the “shrink link” which is on the front of the gear; these are very thin, and the soft metal links were destroyed by mister ham-fists (that’s me). I reverted to modified kit links which, being styrene, promptly broke when I tried to remove them from the runner. A bit of Weld-On 3, some choice blue air words (no kids around), and I was back in business.

Also included is a full-metal replacement for the tail wheel. Both the kit item and the SAC item have about the same amount of detail, but I chose to use the metal SAC version for the added strength and the ability to bend the gear to facilitate installation of the tail wheel after I slather Gloss Sea Blue paint all over everything. (Be careful, though, as some early blue SPADS had white-painted gear later in their career).

As usual, I was impressed with this addition to an already excellent kit. I was an early skeptic of metal cast gear, but SAC has provided us with strong, detailed, and perfectly cast replacements which are almost imperative; in this case, the improved detail makes the difference. SAC gear earns 10 of 10 for all the aforementioned reasons once again!