The Aircraft

The IL-76 has the NATO reporting name “Candid”. It came out about 2 years after the Lockheed C-141, and has the same mission, of strategic and tactical airlift. The aircraft are pretty similar in appearance. The IL-76 can haul about 60 tons of cargo, a C-141 can manage about 90.

The Scale Aircraft Conversions Set

The SAC set for the IL-76 consists of 5 parts, all in white metal. There are four main gear legs, with oleo scissors which use the kit wheels, and a nose gear leg. These parts closely match the kit parts.

Painting

I painted the parts light gray, and left the oleos metal. This was probably the easiest part of the whole thing.

Assembly

Once I had the plane assembled to where the instructions told me to put the kit gear in, I installed the SAC gear. The fit was great. I was concerned that after I put in 4 sets of main gear, the plane wouldn’t sit on all four correctly. I shouldn’t have worried. All of the wheels sit nicely. I had to slightly “form” one leg to get both wheels of one of the pairs on the ground, but otherwise it was as close to a drop in as I’ve had in a long time.

Overall Evaluation

Highly Recommended. The metal parts are more robust than the plastic ones, they fit quite nicely. I am just about positive that sooner or later one of the plastic gear legs would have broken. Not a worry with SAC metal gear.

Thanks to Scale Aircraft Conversions for providing the aftermarket parts and IPMS/USA for giving me a chance to use them on my latest project.