Scale Aircraft Conversions produces white metal replacement parts for kit details such as landing gear. This set provides metal landing gear, plow brake, upper & lower cable support struts, and outside wing cable supports for the WingNut Wings 1/32 Jeannin Stahltube plastic kit. These detail parts come in a 2 1/2”x 3 1/2”x 1” blister pack containing eight sprues with 12 parts. Parts include the main landing gear, plow brake, and the upper and lower struts and turnbuckles for the wing rigging cables.

Some of the parts were slightly bent coming out of the package, but one of the advantages of metal castings is their ability to be bent back into shape. The detail on the metal parts slightly softer than the comparable kit plastic parts, although still good. There is some evidence of the mold flash and sprue connections from the original plastic parts used to make the molds for the metal pieces. These can all be cleaned up by scraping with an X-Acto, small jewelers files, and fine grit sandpaper. The metal parts have a slight texture which can easily be cleaned up with fine grit sandpaper. I found it to be easier to do most of the part cleanup while they were still on the sprue to avoid bending the parts. It worked well to scrape the mold seems with an X-Acto blade.

Upper Struts & Cable Turnbuckles

The holes for the turnbuckles were mostly open, but I drilled them out to remove any flash. I had to clean up the connection between the two struts by filing down the pin to get them to fit together. Otherwise the struts fit together well.

Lower Struts and Turnbuckles

The lower cable struts were more challenging to remove from the sprues due to the notched anchors and the extreme thinness of the struts. I used the plastic kit parts to set the angle for the plow brake.

Landing Gear

The detail on the metal fittings for the struts was not quite as good as the original kit parts. After a little cleanup the fit of the parts was very good. The metal gear will help to support the weight of this large kit.

The cleanup of the parts and the soft, thin white metal requires some experience working with metal parts. The landing gear, cable struts and turnbuckles should add strength for support of the aircraft and cabling.

Thanks to Scale Aircraft Conversions for producing these nice parts and providing review samples to IPMS.