Mushroom Model Publications released a new book in their “White Series”, devoted to the Argentinean designed and manufactured “Pucará” (“Stone Fortress” in the Quichua native-american language).

The Pucara is an indigenous design of a twin ending light attack/COIN airplane. It has seen service in Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, Sri Lanka and the UK (captured). The list of countries that explored –and even placed orders- for them is much larger, but for different reasons the export orders never materialized.

Scale Aircraft Conversions produces metal replacement parts for hundreds of kits in a wide variety of scales. Some of the landing gear sets are generic while others are designed to fit a specific kit. I’ve had some luck with cross-purposing some of the SAC gear, and having a Revell UH-34 in my stash I decided to compare this gear set, engineered for the Gallery kit, with the parts contained in my Revell kit.

The Parts

The SAC product is designed for an H-34, and my Revell kit is a UH-34. Googling images, I came to the conclusion that while there are some differences between the strut braces between the “H” and “UH”, I found enough similarity in appearance to assuage my concerns about significant differences in the appearance of the struts and bracing.

This accessory is for the Airfix, Hasegawa, and Heller Draken kits. The parts are replacement pitot tubes and an Angle of Attack sensor.

The Kit

You get three finely done brass parts in a plastic envelope, which is inside another plastic envelope. I found that the pitot tubes were in a separate tube-like pouch, with the AOA probe in a separated part of the inner plastic bag. I had to cut the bag twice to get the parts out.

I liked the instruction sheet, it was simple, and showed you exactly where to put the pitots and the AOA.

Assembly

This particular model had the tail pitot intact, but the nose one had been broken off long ago. I cut off the tail pitot and drilled a small shallow hole. The nose pitot required a little cutting to get the taper of the pitot to match the nose part.

This accessory is designed to be used with the Airfix, Hasegawa, Heller or Matchbox kits. The parts are a replacement for the pitot tube, angle of attack probe (AOA) and secondary pitot, located on the vertical stabilizer. I used a Heller Viggen which was previously used for a paint mask review. The sensor and pitots are silver on this aircraft. I found a great shot of a Viggen on airliners.net which showed this color nicely.

The Kit

You get three finely done brass parts in a plastic envelope, which is inside another plastic envelope. This is done to prevent losing these tiny parts during shipping, handling or storage.

Assembly

I painted the brass parts with Testors Aluminum Metalizer.

Review

Italeri’s P-47D in 1/48 scale is re-boxing the well-known Academy P-47D. If you visit different websites (including Italeri’s), you will see “Photo-etch parts” listed as a part of the kit; however in my review sample the photoetch part was not included. I actually think it is an error on the websites, as there is no reference to the photoetch fret neither in the box nor in the instructions.

Once you open the box, you’ll find 5 sprues, plus an extra sprue for the clear parts. There are several options for underwing stores: bombs, drop tanks, bazooka rockets, and HVAR rockets. Just be aware that some of them are for the P-47N and not applicable to the –D mark. You also get an excellent decal sheet with a great selection of markings, two USAAF NMF, plus French and Brazilian markings in Olive Drab over neutral grey, all of them serving in the Italian Front from 1944-45. Stencils are provided for one model.