I’d like to express my ongoing appreciation to Ross at SAC for continuing to provide us with review items; I know that everyone at IPMS/USA sincerely appreciates your contributions.

This is another in a series of “drop fit and direct replacement” metal gear for your models. In this case, the set is for the Kinetic-series of Alpha jets in 1/48. In my case, it is being used on my “Wingman” German aftermarket release of the kit, and as such, the weight of the resin cockpit, seats, and more make use of metal gear almost mandatory if you don’t want the “failed plastic gear” effect on your model. As an aside, the Wingman release is fantastic too, but that’s not the point of the review.

As you can see by the pictures, 11 parts are provided for this set, totally replacing the plastic parts in the kit. I will say that the metal parts have a bit more “crisp” look to them, and with no mold seam, you can install and paint with confidence.

The main gear is sandwiched between the wheel well upper floor and the lower fuselage pan; all the parts fit perfectly. There are four parts per main strut, including two actuators, and all slip right into place

The nose gear is a single strut, with a miniscule retraction arm and the gear fork. This part by itself is worth the upgrade cost of the SAC gear. In plastic it will assuredly fail over time, but not so with the upgraded metal gear!

SAC gear continues to be a great investment. With the cost of kits these days, the gear is almost a mandatory outlay.

Thanks again to Ross and SAC for producing one more upgrade in a long line of fantastic metal gear for our modeling fun! My thanks as well to the IPMS Review Corps for sending it my way to review!