History

The Supermarine Walrus (originally known as the Supermarine Seagull V) was a British single-engine amphibious biplane reconnaissance aircraft designed by R.J. Mitchell and first flown in 1933. Designed for use as a fleet spotter to be catapult launched from cruisers or battleships, the Walrus was later employed in other roles, notably as a rescue aircraft for aircrew in the sea.

I used this instrument panel and seat belt set in conjunction with a full build review of the latest release of Eduard’s 1/48 scale F6F-3 Hellcat, Kit # 8227.

I applaud Eduard for their innovation and the thought of simplifying build cockpits. They are pre-painted and ready to install in your cockpit.

While the instrument panel is very nice, compared to their photo etch equivalents I find the pre-painted markings are a little thick, and make some instruments look like mostly white circles.

The steel seat belts are wonderful and bend easily around the seat edges to conform naturally like the real belts would.

Both the instrument pane and belts make a great addition to the Hellcat cockpit.

Thank you Eduard and IPMS for the opportunity to review this great product.

IPMS/USA again thanks Eduard for supporting the IPMS USA reviewer corps with one more of many monthly releases, in this case a new PE instrument panel for Revell’s 1/32 FW-190A8/R11 NachtJager.

If you have never used these panels, I recommend you try them and become hooked like me. I cannot paint to this level of detail. The kit provides impressive instrument panel and bezel detail, and the lower cockpit side panels can be painted for a realistic look; but they will never have the fine details and legible numbers, placards, and detail work exhibited by Eduard PE sets.

In this scale the overall colors and additions add so much to the panel areas that it truly impresses even the jaded flashlight and mirror contest lovers out there.