A newer addition to Scale Aircraft Conversions ever-expanding line of metal landing gear is this set for the Zoukei-Mura 1/48 scale Focke Wulf Ta 152.

Like most of SAC’s sets, this is meant as a drop-fit replacement for the kit’s plastic landing gear. The set comprises of both main gear legs, the tail gear (with molded-in wheel/tire), and the accompanying actuators. All are made out of sturdy, white metal.

I could see no appreciable difference in the detail between the kit items and those in this set. They look to be almost exactly the same. All the brake lines and other details present on SAC’s gear are there on the original kit items as well. The kit and SAC both include the tail wheel molded onto its strut, something I am not a fan of.

The long awaited Kinetic Mirage IIIE was released a few months ago. It is a full package meal as with the parts in the box you can build the IIIE/OE/EE/EA/R/RD/ and very likely the RS version too, although the last one is not listed in the instructions.

The box is full with parts (15 sprues) including a fair amount of offensive ordinance (bombs and missiles) plus different drop tanks. The markings include French, Spanish and Australian airframes. Among the French markings there is the option of finishing your model as the airplane flown by Jaqueline Auriol when she broke the feminine speed record.

If you never heard of Jaqueline Auriol, you should read about her. She was a female French aviator and test pilot. She set 5 speed records and won the Harmon International Trophy 4 times among other professional achievements, not to mention having been the daughter-in-law of a French president, with all the political and State duties that it implies.

The set consists of two finely cast reproductions of the F-16’s speed brakes in the extended position. Installation of the speed brakes is very straight forward once they are removed from their respective casting blocks. I labeled the gluing edge of mine with a ‘L’ and a ‘R’ as they are not interchangeable. To install each one, you will need to cut off the molded speed brakes once the fuselage halves are together. As the actuator housing for each speed brake is on the bottom of the aircraft, I removed the kit part from the bottom up by cutting at the seam on the actuator housing. As a result the top is cut off just forward of the top hinge, which is good as it gives you some space to blend in the new piece without interfering with the top hinge.

While most pictures show the speed brakes fully retracted when the jet is parked, the set looks great and will help your F-16 stand out from the crowd.

Highly recommended.

The Hermes Program was a post WW-II American program which utilized German missile designs. Best known of this series was the Hermes A2, which was the A-4 (V-2) copy. The Hermes A1 was based on the Wasserfall, a surface to air missile developed at Peenemunde in 1942, but which never reached production. General Electric developed an built the Hermes A1, which was about ¼ the size of the Hermes A2.

The other big difference between the A1 and A2 was that the A1 had 4 extra fins on the sides of the rocket body. This was to allow greater maneuverability when the rocket was being guided to a target aircraft. The guidance was done visually during daylight and with radar assist at night. Steering from the ground was done with a joystick.

Five A1s were successfully tested at White Sands Range in New Mexico in 1950 and 51. The entire Hermes program was canceled in 1954.

Scale Aircraft Conversions, or SAC, make replacement landing gear for a wide variety of aircraft, in all the major scales. They are cast in white metal, which is stronger than the kit’s plastic pieces. To quote the company’s website, “Some sets consist of the main gear only while others include the nose gear, tail gear and/or adjacent related components. Some inaccuracies in the original kit gear have been corrected but the mounting points remain identical to the factory parts.”