Brengun is a fairly new company in Brno, Czechoslovakia. They make resin and photoetch kits in various scales. They have some VERY interesting kits and PE detail sets. I recently reviewed their 1/72 shopping cart. It’s got to be part of a street diorama, as soon as I find a 1/72 young lady to go with it.

The Aircraft

In the late 1920s - early 1930s France was very much taken with aviation. If it flew, a lot of people were fans. Henri Mignet decided that he wanted to design and build an airplane that everyone could fly and almost anyone could afford to own. The concept was a “Model T of the Air”. Because the ubiquitous Ford Model T was called “Pou de la Route”, which translated to “Louse of the Road”, his aircraft became the Pou du Ciel, or “Louse of the Air”. The common English translation became “Flying Flea”.

Scale Aircraft Conversions is marking their Silver Anniversary this year, with twenty-five years of supplying resin and white metal parts to model builders. This is the fifth landing gear set from SAC that I have reviewed, and once again, they have provided an excellent metal option for kit-supplied landing gear. This set is intended for the 1/32 scale F4F Wildcat that was released by Trumpeter in 2002. The purpose of this replacement set is to provide stronger landing gear that is adjustable if necessary to obtain proper angles. Even with no previous experience in using white metal parts, this set will provide an upgrade that most modelers will have no issue installing.

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.”

The Revell F/A-18E is a nice kit of the modern Navy fighter. There are ways to improve it though. The F/A-18 exhaust nozzles close down on shutdown. So this detail set is perfect for the Revell kit. The kit engines are small, inaccurate, and shallow completely lacking depth and detail of a modern jet engine.

Thanks to one of our steadfast supporters, Revell, for providing us a copy of this vintage kit… and to IPMS leadership for providing it to me for review. Talk about a time capsule…

This kit was first released by Monogram models back in 1961. A groundbreaking effort at the time, it was the best of all modeling worlds; an accurately shaped P-51D in clear plastic, with plenty of detail and operating features. Retractable landing gear, spinning propeller, sliding canopy, bombs which could be dropped… what else could one ask for? All at the princely sum of $4.98! This model has stood the test of time; the molds have a little bit of flash, but the parts pretty well fit together as designed.