IPMS/USA thanks Ross and his Team at SAC for supporting the IPMS USA reviewer corps with one more of many monthly releases, with extremely useful and well-thought out landing gear additions for the modeling crowd out here in the modeling world. And thanks to IPMS leadership for sending it to me to be reviewed.

This review is for the SAC landing gear released for the Hasegawa or Eduard Re-release of the Hasegawa P-47D. This set replaces SAC’s previous release of a set #32015 for the same base kit.

Another simple strengthening opportunity for a heavy kit, with my usual admonition to use metal gear for larger models. Larger models put more stress on plastic than metal.

This kit is still, in my opinion, the best P-47 on the market in this scale. When done it looks like the real bird. SAC’s gear consists of 10 metal direct replacement parts for the kit item. The main gear are sturdy and clean with no flash or pitting. Same for all the other parts; the oleo scissiors fit tightly into their mounting sockets, and the shrink rod at the back of the gear is well done and cleans up easily when cut off the mold sprue.

The P-47 gear is unique in that the gear is too long at full extension to fit into the gear well on retraction. The rod at the back pulls the gear into a compressed position during retraction, which shortens the gear and facilitates clearance within the well. Pretty cool…

All parts fit well and within their respective mounting sockets. The tail wheel is a one-part item that can be bent to simulate a turn condition. Just don’t bend the tail gear door follow-up retraction arms at the same time.

As usual the strength of the gear makes their acquisition worth the extra cost for kit longevity; the metal takes the place of the kit plastic gear with ease, and it holds up the model in the correct stance. Thanks again to Ross and his crew for working with us at IPMS USA!