*NOTE: I will update with images tonight*


Yesterday I recieved my set of retracts for my CMP Bf 109. I'll be using the set from KMP.

We all know I've had issues with KMP it the past (with the Fw 190), but letting by-gones be just that, I ordered my set of gear on November 28th. My credit card was charged on Dec. 3rd and my retracts showed up yesterday via UPS.

The retracts were double boxed.

The retract set contains:

2x retract mechanisms. The brackets seem to be beefy and strong. The gear mechanisms are solid machined aluminum. The piston is of decent quality. The nipples are OK. A little soft, but not too bad.

2x Oleo struts. They appear to be machined aluminum. They are similar to the struts older style Shindin machine offered in overal shape and design. Heavy and decent. Wheel axles are screws on both sides with flat surface in the middle. Compression is fairly tight and has about 3/4" of an inch of compression travel. It looks to be a bit adustable via hex wrench similar to how Shindin's struts are. Wheels are kept on via a lock nut.

2x aluminum hubbed main wheels. Tires are hard foam, wheels are narrow. The hub looks nothing like anything the Luftwaffee has ever used but I think there is enough there to work with and do something a bit more scale. Hubs are held together by a total of eight hex screws, four from either side. They seem well balanced.

1x alumumum hub tail wheel. Rubber like wheel, with tread. Honestly I would have liked to see this on the main wheels. Hub is much like the main wheel hubs.

Bag of connectors, piping, air tank, valvles, air connectors, screws and hex wrenches. THROW the HEX WRENCHES OUT. They are not, or they are improperly hardened. I used one wrench to tighten two screws, on the 2nd screw it was totally stripped the wrench and screw. I did have spares from my massive screw and nut stock.

I'm tempted to replace the major screws just in case. Stripping the main screws that tighten the oleo socket does not appeal to me at all.

I'm going to pressurize the system tonight to check the functionality and I'll update then with images.


If anyone has any requests for images or questions, please post them and I will do my best to answer.