Short History

As we all know the Spitfire should not need an introduction, after all there were over 24 versions or Mks that existed throughout its illustrious history.

What’s in the Box?

The box comes with a total of 6 white metal pieces to replicate the kit parts very accurately and adding some needed strength to support the aircraft especially with larger 32^nd scale aircraft as we tend to do a lot of scratch building and the use of “goodies”. The Landing gear comes packaged in the typical SAC cardboard and bubble blister packaging we are all accustomed to seeing.

The Build

This is a pain free operation and only required a little time along with TLC using couple of sanding sticks, a fine diamond file I also use for PE and my battery powered dremel with a 280-grit abrasive buff wheel.

The SAC parts build up almost exactly like the kit parts would with the exception the main gear/struts are one solid piece and not 2 pieces per as the kit part (121B+122A, 122B+121B) which the way the kit parts build up just made me nervous knowing if anything father time would eventually cause them to collapse. The rear tail gear is one solid piece and no assembly required just the cleanup and polishing as usual.

Another sticking point while white metal is sturdier than the plastic parts its replacing it is prone to being soft and easily bent which in my case I had both struts that needed to be bent straight as with both of mine and also the undercarriage torque links need to be removed from there metal ‘Sprue” and bent to shape.

Finishing

I decided to go ahead and paint both set of the landing gears for a more detailed comparison. After cleaning up the parts I primed them all with Mr. Surfacer 1500 Black primer and let it dry for a few hours. After the primer dried I used Tamiya XF-16 Flat Aluminum as the instructions called for the struts to be painted aluminum and the flat paint saved me from using Dullcote as well.

I also used a fine brush to paint the pistons on the struts Model Master chrome silver however I can say it was barely noticeable seeing as the metallics kinda blended together, maybe I’ll use bare metal foil next time.

Once the painting dried and I sealed the gear I used a little Tamiya Black panel line Accent, please be mindful this stuff is strong if you know what I mean, ventilation required!

Conclusion

It was great to see this new set added to my goodies for my Spitfire, for sure I was excited to have them. My thanks to IPMS for allowing me to review this item and having continued faith in me and SAC for the opportunity to enjoy another newly released quality product.