Scale Aircraft Conversions (SAC) has been producing drop-in white metal landing gear replacements for a growing range of kits since 1990. White metal offers substantially more strength than the styrene kits parts, which is a useful benefit for kits that are heavy or where the gear is especially fiddly. In this case, we are looking at the main gear and tail skid that fit the Eduard 1/48 Fokker D.VII.

Eduard does a nice job making the kit’s landing gear struts to scale, but this also means that they are very thin and fragile. In addition, Eduard’s attachment points are often very shallow and benefit from pinning the struts in place to strengthen the join. Up step the SAC replacement struts.

The D.VII parts come packaged in the standard SAC blister pack, with the parts loose inside of the blister. Some of struts in the package I received were a little less than straight, but being white metal, it was a simple fix to straighten them. Included in the set are the four landing gear struts, the landing gear inner airfoil, and the tail skid. The struts and tail skid are encased in white metal frames, which go a long way towards protecting them from damage. There are no mold lines evident, and the attachment points are at the ends of the struts, so no clean-up is needed along the body of the struts.

Removing the parts from the frame is simple with either a razor saw or a pair of flush cutters. A few swipes with a sanding stick and they are ready. The airfoil will actually be encased inside of two plastic parts, so there is no need to prime it. It is about 1mm shorter than the kit part, but since it will be covered up, there’s no harm in that. The detail on the tail skid was fairly soft compared to the kit part, and it lacked the metal fittings that are evident on the original. Considering how little weight is on it and how simple the tail skid is to install, I would consider keeping the kit part here.

Of course, the SAC parts cannot be installed using normal styrene cement, so the use of some type of CA is in order. The attachment points to the fuselage are small, so drilling and pinning the parts will ensure that they are aligned before they are locked into place.

Pros: Direct drop-drop in replacement of the kit parts. Easily bent into proper shape, and significantly stronger than the original parts

Cons: Soft detail on the tail skid, no instructions, packaging allows the parts to rattle around.

Highly recommended.

Thanks to Scale Aircraft Conversions and IPMS/USA for the opportunity to review this nice aftermarket set.