This set includes two complete sets of landing gear for Eduard’s recent Spitfire Mk. IXe and Mk. XVI kits. Each set is comprised of 5 pieces: two main struts, two scissor links, and a tailwheel with the strut. The parts are drop-in replacements for the kit parts.

As the struts are small and space around them on the casting tree is pretty tight, the first thing I did was to use a razor saw to separate the parts from the casting tree. To keep myself from getting confused, I removed one set only so that I could match the parts up with the ones left on the casting tree and keep left and right straight.

After the parts were removed, the next step is to remove the casting seams of each of the parts. I scraped off the seams with a Xacto blade and then used a small wire brush in my portable Dremel tool at low speed, to polish up the parts and remove the remainder of the seams. Next, I attached the scissor links, referencing the kit instructions to ensure proper orientation. Then I painted the main gear structs aluminum per the kit instructions with chrome silver for the oleo section.

On the tailwheel, I first painted the tire NATO Black, then I painted the strut medium grey to match the lower surface color of the airplane I am modeling. I also painted both the inside and outside of the two main gear doors the same color and attached the struts to the gear doors, then added the painted tires.

As with all of SAC’s gear sets, this set can be a nice addition to the base kit and this set is easy to use as long as you keep it straight which is left, and which is right.

Thank you to Scale Aircraft Conversions for the review sample.