This kit is a direct replacement of parts for the Trumpeter Super Cobra. The parts have some very nice details on them. They were also well contained in the packaging, resulting in them arriving without even the long skids being bent. The overall level of cleanup is very minimal, and the molds are set along the designed weld lines or oriented with elements of the skids or supports so they don’t require cleanup. For instance, on the skid mount, the parting line on the white metal matches a weld line on the full-size component, so no cleanup was required due to the minimal flash present. I applied some white primer to help show the lines of the SAC gear so that the detail was more evident in the picture.

Many thanks to SAC and IPMS for making this kit available to me for review.

This accessory kit contains three direct replacement pieces for the Monogram Catalina kit. There’s one piece of the breaching gear that isn’t included with the kit. That is the strut for the rear tail wheels. You will have to use the kit part for this.

The level of detail is nice and representative for a 1/48 scale kit. The gear itself in real life is relatively simple, meant to be attached in the water. There was a little bit of cleanup to be done and two pieces of long, thin flash from the molding process had to be cut off.

General flash on the parts was minimal and they cleaned up easily. I didn’t note that the tail wheel support was extremely soft until after I started working on it. Just scraping flash off with the #11 Blade caused it to bend.

Scale Aircraft Conversions (SAC) has provided the IPMS reviewer corps a set of 1/48^th scale metal landing gear for Clear Props F-86A Sabre. These parts are drop-in replacements and provide a more robust landing gear set given its metal properties.

In the Package

The metal pieces are packed in a clear blister package with cardboard backing. No instructions are provided.

However, my review sample did not come with the nose landing gear and came with an extra RHS strut, part H19 (a quality control slip).

The metal landing gear set is used as drop-in replacements for parts H19 & H15 (RHS & LHS struts) and the K2 oleo arms are molded with the strut. The nose strut, part K22, was missing from my sample review, but it too should have the oleo arms, part K27, molded with the strut. Also, the nose gear extension arm, part K9, is included.

Real Weathering Volume 2 is a reference book with photos of military vehicles showing various conditions of wear and exposure to different environmental conditions. This volume features military armor and land vehicles. The book is the second in a series and is intended for military modelers who want to weather their scale models to better replicate actual vehicles.

The book is not an instruction manual that describes how to model the effects shown in the photos. The value in this book shows examples of vehicles that can be used by the modeler to replicate various effects on actual vehicles. The photos are large and many are zoomed in on particular details.

The only text in the book is in the Introduction and captions on some photos in the Introduction. The main chapters of the book are strictly photographs with no descriptions and are as follows:.

Scale Aircraft Conversions has developed a set of metal landing gear for the relatively new Airfix 1/72 B-24s. Airfix first released the B-24 H in 2024 and followed by the B-24D in 2025. The kit parts are stout but these metal replacements provide the opportunity for final adjustments and alignment of the gear and wheels. Airfix have addressed the shortcomings of previous B-24 designs by improving the front gear and arranging for solid mounting with 3 contact points. The old Minicraft and Academy kits have only one contact point and the Hasegawa only two. I have included photos of the parts without primer but this is only for clarity and to make it easier to differentiate the SAC gear from the necessary plastic parts. The casting blocks will need to be carefully clipped off and mold part lines cleaned up. Also test fit and adjust for the wheels you intend to use since this can be very awkward after the gear parts are mounted to the kit.