Metal Landing Gear for the Tamiya Mosquito

Published on
November 28, 2015
Review Author(s)
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$22.95
Product / Stock #
32099
Base Kit
Tamiya Mosquito
Provided by: Scale Aircraft Conversions - Website: Visit Site
Package

Many thanks to Mr. Ross MacMillan of Scale Aircraft Conversions and the IPMS Reviewer Corps for allowing me to try this neat substitute and replacement set for the Tamiya Mosquito FB. I am delighted to report on another sweet add-on and upgrade.

The white-metal parts arrived in a blister pack, backed by the distinctive SAC company logo. The weight of the parts is very noticeable. All parts are free of sprues with the exception of some main mount bracing. The parts require very little buffing, cleanup and polishing. I did use a Dremel tool to buff some of the parts and brought a very nice natural metal tone to them.

The SAC gear struts directly replace equivalent Mosquito kit parts. SAC provides load-bearing parts, so some of the kit material will still be used. The metal part tolerances are not quite as tight as the kit parts. The main strut halves required a little bit of “truing” or straightening. Gentle squeezing with needle-nose pliers did the trick. There are many small tabs that mesh with kit parts, e.g., J33, 34. I accidentally bent many of these tabs by indelicate handling, so be careful. SAC combined some kit parts into a single piece, which makes for easier positioning and gluing. SAC also improved the kit’s tail-wheel strut design by replacing kit parts V14 and V15 with a 1-piece fork. The kit strut is in halves, but the SAC opted for a top and bottom design with a “fork.” The strut is compressed for a load-bearing configuration, but could easily be extended slightly to show the tailwheel hanging beneath a flying aircraft. All of the kit brake line parts meshed well with the SAC main gear struts.

This SAC conversion set is essentially a part replacement for the load-bearing kit materials. Other than polishing, tweaking alignments and fixing my mistakes, the parts are ready to drop in and fit with the kit. I recommend this add-on, and the polish looks great!

Again, my sincerest gratitude to both Mr. Ross MacMillan of Scale Aircraft Conversions and the IPMS Reviewer Corps for providing me this conversion set for review. It is a great privilege, thank you!

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