My thanks, up front, to Eduard for sending this set for review. It’s a significant investment, and I’ll try to do it justice.

Eduard’s Big Ed set for the Trumpeter 1/48 scale A3D-2 Skywarrior arrives in a really heavy envelope containing seven individual sets:

• EX410 A3D-2 1/48 Canopy Masks (Pre-Cut Kabuki Tape)
• 48764 A3D-2 Bomb Bay 1/48
• 48791 A3D-2 Undercarriage 1/48
• 49665 A3D-2 Interior S.A. 1/48
• 49677 A3D-2 Seatbelts 1/48
• 48793 A3D-2 Exterior 1/48
• 49009 Remove Before Flight Flags 1/48

Our fearless leader, Dave Morrissette, recently reviewed the individual Eduard A3D-2 cockpit and seatbealt sets that are also provided in this Bid Ed package. I’ll be reviewing these same details in this first installment on the Big Ed set, but there is no disagreement here; I echo Dave’s observations.

The interior and seatbelt packages are the first sets to be used in the build. The interior is a combination of boxes, box mounts with details, instrument faces, radio and control box faces, and seat upgrades. Each add-on requires kit parts to be modified, existing detail removed (in the case of the instrument panel and aft bulkhead panel faces), or the replacement of many of the radar and radio boxes themselves.

The preparation and installation of the parts is relatively simple. I installed the sound insulation sidewall details using the Mark 1 eyeball to judge the amount of room needed to install the floor and aft bulkhead between the mounting strips on the fuselage and these added sidewall details. You can also place the floor and back bulkhead into place and mark the edge with a pencil if you are so inclined; either method will work.

The top of sidewall details snuggle right up against the canopy sill. Adding a slight curve to the photo etch sidewalls helped reduce the load on the glue joint when they are attached to the interior of the fuselage. To curve the pieces, I used my finger to press on the interior part of the panel while it’s sitting on a piece of cardboard, which allows the photo etch to take on a bit of curve.

The cockpit floorboard and back bulkhead required a few bits to be removed by chisel. Careful work will result in less pain later. I initially chose to leave the floor-mounting guides for kit’s aft-right control boxes intact, and then I simply installed the Eduard boxes over them. This prevented the floor from mounting correctly, and I had to remove the Eduard boxes and chisel off the guides anyway. Follow the instructions!

The instrument panel and various other control panels, including the side panels, have the usual gorgeous details. Eduard has this process locked in. The Trumpeter kit doesn’t have any leg room between the forward pilot seat and the rudder pedals; they are tight against the seat. This is probably wrong, but I didn’t do the engineering on the kit.

The seatbelt set includes parts to detail the kit’s plastic seats. Once various details and a front panel are installed, a seatback pad is added. The pad can be textured with a ballpoint pen relief method, as shown on the instructions. However, I opted not to do so, as I thought applying the technique might interfere with the pad’s installation. With the seats completed, the belts then simple go over them. The pre-painted color photo-etch belts look great when installed. I absolutely hate building seat harnesses, so a single-piece photo-etch belt assembly with the buckles in place made me happy.

The end result, as you can see in the accompanying pictures, is very nice. Part two of the Eduard 1/48 scale A3D-2 Big Ed review will cover the bomb bay. Now, where did I put that 1/48 scale model nuke?

My thanks, once again, to Eduard for supplying another great product, and my thanks to the IPMS/USA leadership for trusting me to review another really cool set.