Editor's note: Eduard M.A. has requested that the following information be included in this review: The product reviewed "..that it's actually prototype product, and that there might be differences/enhancements when compared to the final, publicly released deck.." The item as given was not intended for review. Oct. 10, 2011

The Product

This was presented to IPMS President Dick Montgomery by Eduard at the 2011 IPMS convention held in August in Omaha as a not yet released item to be submitted for review. I told Dick, “I will do my best to give a complete and honest review.”

The base appears to be made of some type of hard plastic with very nice engravings and has what looks to be a date ‘2001’ embossed on the hollowed backside. Measuring 11 5/8” x 15 5/8”, this thing is big. It depicts an elevator centered in the wooden deck. The coloring is eye-catching, to say the least, and looks great from a couple feet away.

The Contents

You get a heavy duty envelope with 4 plastic sleeves inside. You get:

• 73355 PE, one self-adhesive mostly cockpit, and two really big PE frets for interior and exterior detail
• CX257 Canopy and Wheel mask
• 73008 Remove Before Flight Tags

You also get 2 full pages of instructions, folded so that you have 8 separate half pages of instructions, plus a half page instruction for the masks.

The Aircraft

The F/A-18 Hornet has been around for a while, and it looks to be almost as big a winner as its predecessor, the F-4 Phantom. One of the stories going around St. Louis in the 90s was that the plant wanted to build 5058 Hornets, one more than the production run for the Phantom. Well, the production line is still open, and they’re past 1100 now.

Eduard continues to lead the pack in taking older kits and upgrading them with PE and resin upgrades. In this case, we have the Academy MiG-29A, which in its own right is an excellent kit, with several items added to bring the basic kit to the next level. In this case, Eduard’s own PE instrument panel and detail set, combined with their in-house “Brassin” resin upgrades. Oh yeah, there is also one outstanding decal sheet included with no less than five variants to finish your model; Two Soviet, one Polish, one Czech Republic, and one Iranian. All are in register, and make for quite a variety of color schemes. The decals also include a comprehensive stencil suite, including missile and launch rail details. Outstanding!

Background

I'll not spend much time here. Google for "Jane Russell", when you're done reading that, click any link to "Howard Hughes", and when done with that click the link to the "Hughes H-4 Hercules" to find out all you need to know about this aircraft.

I will add that SWMBO and I had a trip planned that would allow her to go to a big quilt show in Sisters, OR, and allow me to stop off in McMinnville and see the 'Spruce Goose' -- it didn't happen but is still in the back of our minds. Unfortunately, we'll never hear the sound of 8 R-4360's cranking over and running -- that's 224 cylinders generating 28,000 h.p. …. and 448 spark plugs to change ….

Eduard is planning to release a pre-painted injected plastic PSP base. The base has a copyright of 1999 in the back, so I think it is the “old” PSP base which now gets a pre-painted treatment.

What about the pre-painting? It is great. Deep browns and grey shades, with a touch of lighter spots and rusty shades. This is not just pre-painted, it is weathered, too!! Now, be aware that the sides of the base are left in bare plastic (white). You might want to consider painting the sides to match the colors of the top and maybe to apply a wash to the overall base to bring out detail.

What is the quality and detail of the plastic? It is outstanding as we became used from Eduard. No flash or molding flaws. Clean and crisp details. The dimensions are 164 mm x 234 mm. It will fit a P-51 just fine, but it might be a bit tight for a P-47, as it is shown in the pictures.