This set includes the main gear struts & axle, tail skid, "N" struts and rear cabane struts.
As you can see in one of the images accompanying this review, SAC has numbered its parts with the same number as used by WNW to identify the kit parts.
This review came about because of a very unfortunate "hard landing" by my WNW D.VII as it was being prepared to travel to a local model contest. The model was being removed from its Display Case when it was dropped. The free fall was only about 3 or 4 inches but, as you can see by the accompanying images, the upper wing came off, the undercarriage broke away from the fuselage, and several of the struts were snapped, either somewhere alone their length or at the locating pin which, unfortunately, remained embedding in the wing and fuselage. To tell the truth, at the time of the "hard landing" I did not assess the damage in detail simply because I thought it to be a catastrophic crash with no hope of survivability. The damaged model remained in its display case in a dark and seldom visited corner of the Man Cave, that is it was seldom visited until I heard that SAC had marketed a replacement package for the WNW D.VII. I jumped at the opportunity to review the SAC product in the hope that my D.VII would live to fly again.
Viewing the contents of the SAC product, # 32008, I was pleased to see that the parts that I needed were provided, so I began the repair process.
My experience with this product is a bit different than that which many modelers will experience. They will use the SAC product to replace all of the WNW parts for which the SAC product was designed to replace. My experience was to use those parts, not as replacements during the build process, but to use them as replacement during the repair process.
The metal SAC parts are, for all intents and purposes, exact duplicates of the WNW parts in length, thickness, and detail. Like the WNW parts, the SAC parts will bend! Do not freak out when this happens! The SAC parts are very easy to straighten out by using tweezers or finger pressure. This feature was actually quite an advantage during the repair process. There was, of course, some misalignment of the wings and fuselage and I found it to be very helpful to be able to bend the "N" strut to fit properly, even though there was an alignment issue.
If I were to build a D.VII again I'd use the SAC parts in place of the WNW parts. I found them easy to use and the casual observer will not notice the difference between the kit parts and the SAC parts.
If your D.VII experiences a "hard landing" then I recommend that you use the SAC parts to repair the damage.
Thanks to SAC for the opportunity to see my D.VII back on its "feet" once again!
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