Ross at SAC just keeps cranking these things out. THANKS VERY MUCH for sending IPMS USA another of your expansive line of metal landing gear, and thanks also to IPMS USA leadership for sending it on to me to review.

This is the now-expected, much improved upgrade to the kit plastic. The real SU-24 has a complex landing gear which is, per Russian standard, designed to allow the aircraft to operate from less-than-optimal runways. Trumpeter has done a great job in emulating their design engineering, but due to the limitations of injection molding, has turned the already complex gear into a more complex assembly. The main gear consists of one core (either metal or plastic, builder’s choice), two strut halves, two gear swing arm halves with axles, and detail parts and struts. To their credit, they include metal gear in the basic kit, which, when complete, does a great job of holding up this large aircraft (It’s the size of an F-111… that’s pretty big for a figher bomber).

SO If Trumpeter has metal in their gear, why buy SAC? Well, SAC has taken the aforementioned main gear multiple bits (see the photo) and turned it into a cast, one-part assembly with most of the details incorporated. No seams to fill or file down, with a robust finished appearance! I also opted to use “Komplet ZIP” resin improved nose, intakes, and engines/aerodynamic tail section to this build, so the weight went up a bit with the resin.

SAC has also improved the nose gear by using the plastic gear with it’s shrink strut being a cleaner molding, and focusing on that. The kit’s cast metal gear has the shrink strut just cast against the main strut, which looks ok but is not as good as the plastic strut. The SAC nose gear is a much stronger metal version of the plastic, with better detail, including the down-lock brace and “A” frame, and a metal actuator.

On my SU-24, I had already reviewed and installed the AIRES gear well set about four years ago with a second kit I purchased. I had other things to do, and just set the model aside, as I had previously built the basic kit for review. The AIRES gear wells incorporated the gear mounting trunnion, which is added to the SAC metal gear set for use with the kit plastic. It worked as advertised, and after adding some VERY tiny SAC details which were included for the set, it looked good and was very strong.

The photos tell the story; the SAC gear fits perfectly into place, and I know have a rough-field gear that will shrug off my attempts to break it. The other benefit is I can bend the gear into place to make all the tires sit on the ground. VERY nice.

SAC gear makes the difference for many kits like this. An easy “10” rating, thanks again SAC for taking care of this modeling niche and IPMS USA for the forum to review such items.