According to Wikipedia, the Albatros D.II was a German fighter aircraft used during WWI. After a successful combat career in the early Jagdstaffein, it was gradually superseded by the Albatros D.III.

To assist the scale modeler with reliving the exploits of the early days of WWI and the air war, Wingnut Wings has released a 1/32nd scale, injected molded aircraft kit of the Albatros II.

Wingnut Wings’ fidelity to both detail and scale is widely known. So much so that even armor modelers are aware of the quality of these kits. But their fidelity to scale can come at a price. Reviewers have all sung the praises of these kits, but with the occasional provision: the landing gear struts, on some kits, are so true to scale that they may not carry the weight of the model. Enter Scale Aircraft Conversions, who have been manufacturing resin and white metal parts for scale model aircraft since 1990. They manufacture a line of white metal landing gear for 1/18th to 1/144th scale aircraft. Some landing gear sets consist of the main gear only while others include the nose gear, tail gear and/or adjacent related components. Some inaccuracies in the original kit gear have been corrected but the mounting points remain identical to the factory parts. With numerous sets, we have not sought to duplicate non-load bearing component parts where the factory plastic parts are reasonably accurate.

On a side note: Scale Aircraft Conversions is located in Royse, Texas and hosts a free ice cream social on August 33 each year (think about it). They look forward to seeing you at this event, soon.

While these white metal sets are billed as conversions it might be safer to call them replacements. The parts supplied by Scale Aircraft Conversions are white metal replacements of the kit parts. Just take them out of the packaging, straighten any abnormalities(slight bends, mold line, etc. ) and use them instead of the kit part. How much easier can it be?

The subject of this review is the landing gear set for Wingnut Wings Albatros II (early) kit. Scale Aircraft Conversions provides both undercarriage struts, the two axle spreader bars, and a tail skid. On my review example the only correction that needed attention was to straighten one of the undercarriage struts. These are white metal replacement parts, after all, and can warp a bit during handling and shipping. You'll probably spend more time removing the mold lines than I did straightening the slight warp on this particular part.

If you have any concerns about working with white metal parts there is a convenient tab on Scale Aircraft Conversions website about working with white metal parts. The only way using these sets gets any easier is for someone else to do the work for you.

One caution that you need to concern yourself with when ordering one of these sets is making certain that you're ordering the right one. All of these conversions sets are kit specific. Just make sure that you have the correct item number for the kit you'll be working on.

This addition of any of Scale Aircraft Conversions sets to your project will not detract from the models appearance and will alleviate any concern you might have about the plastic under carriage buckling from the weight of the completed kit.

My thanks to Scale Aircraft Conversions for the review copy.

P.S. Don't forget to save the date for the ice cream social.