Scale Aircraft Conversions (SAC) has been releasing a large selection of metal replacement landing gear that are essentially metal copies of the kit landing gear. These are helpful when you have a lot of weight bearing down on the plastic landing gear. This set is a direct copy of the detailed landing on the Revell (ex-Monogram) Frogfoot. SAC generously provided a review sample to replace the landing gear in the Eduard Kit (KOPRO/Ex-OEZ Plastic) which is rather under-detailed.

With the SAC set you receive all of the same parts as are provided in the Revell kit and they are a direct copy. I did notice that one pair of actuating rods were not completely molded, missing the attachment point. This was a minor issue and easily fixed. You will need to clean up the mold lines with a fine needle file.

Like most Soviet/Russian designed landing gear, there is a bit of contortion to fold the landing gear in the gear bays. That means that there are a lot of actuating rods required. Unfortunately, the kit instructions are unclear as to the placement of the various rods and actuators so you will need to study available pictures and drawings. In doing so I found that I needed a combination of SAC and KOPRO parts to replicate the landing gear as you can see in the accompanying picture.

To fit this set to the Eduard kit, I had to modify the wheel bays to accept the SAC parts. In the main gear wells, I cut away the locating point for the kit landing gear and then locate where the gear should set in its new location. This was not easy since the SAC gear has a different (and more correct) back side of the main gear leg. I also had to check it against the outer gear door, which is closed unless the gear is cycling. Since the locating pin of the landing gear is half round, I drilled a small hole and used a half round file to enlarge the hole. I glued the main gear doors closed and I then inserted the SAC main landing gear and added the SAC and kit actuating rods. The nose gear was much easier to fit. All I had to do was enlarge the locating hole, fully assemble the nose gear and then close the doors around it. The wheels fit on the hubs with little modification.

I did not paint the landing gear and the wheel wells until I had painted the model underside. Then I masked and sprayed this area. I found that the Eduard resin nose gear mud guard fit the SAC nose gear. The gear was later sealed with MM Glosscote and then washed with Detailer dark brown. The gear was later flat-coated along with the underside.

This set that is a nice aftermarket upgrade for the Eduard/KOPRO/OEZ kit without having to cannibalize the Revell kit. Plus it gives a firm foundation for the model. Highly recommended!

Thank-you to Scale Aircraft Conversions and to IPMS/USA for this sample to review.