Scale Aircraft Conversions (SAC) produces white metal replacement gear for a variety of popular model kits from a variety of manufacturers. The white metal replacements are normally a one-for-one replacement with the plastic parts provided with the kit. Some landing gear sets consist of the main gear only while others include the nose gear, tail gear and wheels. In some cases, inaccuracies in the original kit gear are corrected, but the mounting points remain identical to the factory parts to ensure ease of use. The quality of the parts is normally spot on, or even better than the kit parts, and since the replacement parts are made of white metal, they provide the additional benefit of improved strength.

The parts provided in this set include replacement landing gear, tail wheel assembly, and actuator arms for the small interior gear doors. No wheels are provided, so you’ll either need to use the kit ones, or a resin replacement set. These parts are intended to be used with Eduard’s 1/48 FW-190A-4/5. The SAC parts are designed to replace the following Eduard kit parts: A36, A37, C26, C27, C37, C64, C65 and C82. It’s important to note that SAC’s replacement parts are kit specific and use the same mounting methods found on the original kit. Therefore, using them on other models generally won’t work without a considerable amount of conversion by the modeler.

The SAC parts require a small amount of cleaning up along the seam lines. This was taken care of pretty quickly with some metal files and the back of an old hobby knife blade. Assembly was easy, and matches up with what’s provided in the Eduard instructions exactly. The SAC parts are not numbered, and don’t come with instructions, so some careful study of the Eduard instructions and kit parts is necessary to make sure you’re using the right parts. The end result is a much sturdier replacement.

The SAC parts are recommended to modelers with experience working with white metal parts, and who are looking for excellent replacement parts that will provide long lasting strength on some of the generally weaker parts of a model.

Thanks to Scale Aircraft Conversions and IPMS/USA for this review item.