Scale Aircraft Conversions has released a set of main and rear landing gear parts for Hobby Boss Fw 190s in 1/48 scale. The set includes four parts: two main landing gear struts and a two-part rear landing gear (which proves to be a godsend—more on that later).

The two main gear are drop in replacements. However, you’ll want to compare them to the kit struts to make sure you install each gear leg on the correct side of the aircraft; you could easily install them in reverse, which would give you an incorrect stance. The easiest way to make sure they are correctly installed, is to ensure that the torque link is facing back, towards the tail. Before painting, I removed the faint seam lines and polished the retraction strut parts to a shiny silver. This was left in natural metal by masking the area off. Polishing the gear is a great way to replicate the shiny look, and although its a little hard to see behind the wheel and gear flap once assembled, it looks great.

When I started building my Hobby Boss Fw 190, I had elected to use the kit’s rear landing gear since it is trapped between the fuselage halves when they are glued together. However, it only took about an hour before I had broken it off. Fortunately, I had this set to review, and it was easy enough to fit the much stronger white-metal SAC rear landing gear into place. The SAC pieces fit like a glove, and with minimal touch up, I had the rear gear in place.

One important note I want to make, the SAC gear is slightly shorter that the kit gear. This lowers the stance by about 1–2 mm. I don't know if the change in the SAC gear was intentional to correct the kit’s mistake, but the difference is very small at any rate. In the end, between the tail wheel going on a trip and the excellent chance to polish the strut, this set worked out well. I highly recommend it. The fit is excellent and the ability to reinforce the tail wheel helped immensely.

My thanks to Ross MacMillan and SAC for the chance to review the gear and to IPMS/USA for the chance to review this great set of replacement gear.