ORIGINAL: Evil_Merlin

To clarify.

Please note I do not know this info for a fact, but just by reading SGS's web site and taking common sized gear into consideration that he makes for other planes:

1.) What is included? Ask Darrell. I'm willing to bet a nose gear, and two mains. His air system (tank, tubes and valves) will run you about 85 bucks for the large tank set (that is what Meister Scale charges anyways). I will tell you 100% that the tank, airlines and valves for the ESM stuff will more than likely need to be replaced as I have had a set of ESM gear for the Bf 109 and the P-51 and both were total wastes of money.

2.) Materials being used... again ask Darrell, but most are aluminum upper strut with stainless steel lower struts. THe forks would probably be machined 6061-T6. I would guess the mains would be using a 5/8" pneumatic cylinder.

3.) Why is it priced that way? Because Darrell's shop is a small shop and he doesn't have the resources to have 1000 copies of said gears on the shelf. I'm willing to bet a good number of the parts, if not all of them are not just punched out, but probably hand machined.

4.) As for reviews of SGS's products... think about this, almost ALL the retracts used by the large scale builders come from one of two sources, Sierra Giant Scale or Shindin Machine. At Top Gun 2009, out of all the builders for the WW2 birds, I would say a good 60-70% of them were using SGS gear. He supports his stuff and when things are not right, he fixes it and continues to refine his gear. Which is a lot more than I can say about ESM.


If you want a cheap set of retracts that may or may not work, that looks average and not very much like the real thing, but save $100-$150 bucks, by all means go ESM.

If you want quality retracts that work reliably, that are tough enough to take a bad landing without bending, or snapping, save up the few extra bucks. It is worth it.


Here is an example, compare ESM's 109 gear to Sierras:

ESM (Cost as shown (from KMP): $275.00)


SGS (Cost as shown: $230.00)