Thanks to Ross at SAC for sending us improved metal landing gear for the massive Boeing 777, and thanks also to IPMS USA leadership for sending it to me….

This is ‘du rigeur’ SAC white metal upgrade to the basic kit plastic! The set consists of 9 parts: Two main struts, two strut retraction cylinders, the nose gear, retraction arm, and a drag brace, and two centering and leveling cylinder assemblies for the main trucks.

The landing gear on the 777 is a monster in real life; it has six wheel/tire assemblies on each wing, and is quite a piece of kit for supporting this highly-successful airliner and cargo hauler. On the kit, it makes sense to have similar strength. For 1/144 scale, it’s a big model. Zvezda’s plastic is pretty strong, but the SAC gear makes it better…

Big sprue attachment points and soft plastic are not a good combination for small parts. The KP/Smer kits have just his problem. They are great kits and the most accurate Su-25K available, but there are some things that you can do better.

Enter Quickboost. This two-piece resin upgrade is for the cockpit. Perfectly cast in light grey resin this set has a control lever and pedals. The detail that is on the control lever alone is beautiful. Every switch is there and they are all perfectly cast. The pedals are beautifully done on the control yoke. The pedals are so nice that they have the anti-slid surface. A good paint and dry brush bring out all the detail. These parts are simple replacement for the kit parts.

Easy to remove parts with far superior detail and an inexpensive price tag makes this another winner from Quickboost.

Highly recommended

Initial Impressions

With the popularity of the MENG F-102 kit, it was a given that a 106 would be coming down the pike soon. When it was announced, there was a lot of fanfare and anticipation in the new offering. Being a fan of the century series, it was also natural that I would pick one up to see what it offered. The 102 was far from a “perfect” build for me and I was hoping that MENG learned their lessons from the past and integrated improvements into the “six”.

Upon inspecting the sprues I found a lot of improvements over the previous 102 offering. Cockpits had a much greater detail (molded in seatbelts, etc.) as well as parts to build both types of panel and ejection seats. A PE fret was added with some detail items, and a crew ladder. The radome was now an option, as the radar and front maintenance panels could be displayed open, providing a great static display. These items were well-cast with little flash.

Eduard continues its recent trend of providing realistic seat belts for a wide variety of aircraft. This set is advertised as providing seat belts for Imperial Japanese Army Air Force aircraft from World War II and boy does it!

The set provides two types of seat belts for Nakajima aircraft, one leather and the other cloth, and a different type for Kawaski aircraft. There enough sets to make 9 sets of Kawaski belts, 9 sets of leather Nakajima belts and 13 sets of cloth Nakajima belts! The belts are in full color and assembly is easy as all you have to do is glue the part representing the leather back pad behind the buckle on the left belt and then you are ready to install the belts.

Recently I was given the opportunity by IPMS USA to review Eduard’s STEEL Belt line for the new 1/32 Revell Me262B-1 kit. I waited and waited for the new 1/32 Revell Me262B-1 to be released in the States and that day has not come yet so I bought one from Germany. One of the first things to notice with this product is the excellent presentation of the packaging with the sealed flap on the back of package to allow for easy access to parts.

Upon removal of the photoetch from the package you will notice the great level of detail on the pre-painted belts which include a little bit of weathering. These belts are only 0.04 mm thick and are very easy to position on the seat and they hold their shape well.

You can apply these to the seats using a spot of superglue and you will have a great representation of the Me262 belts and harnesses.