Once again, thanks up front to Eduard for sending us this set; It’s been a great upgrade, (as you will be able to see) and a worthy investment. Thanks also to IPMS USA leadership for entrusting such a massive endeavor to my feeble skills…

Here’s the final two sets for the build!

• 48793 - A3D-2 exterior 1/48
• 49009 - Remove Before Flight flags 1/48

The exterior detail set contains more sheet metal upgrades for the interior of the speed brakes, and the slats. Included are detail sheets for the inboard slat wells. These require annealing before you can bend them around the leading edge; I used pliers to hold the sheet, and a long-handled barbecue lighter was used to carefully heat up the sheet . Start at one edge, with the flame about an inch below the parts, and hold until the sheet begins to turn blue (It’s obvious), then slowly but deliberately work the flame under the rest of the parts until they also discolor. DO NOT leave the flame under the part too long; if it begins to glow, get it away from the part, or (due to the thin nature of the metal) it WILL melt and you will have wasted the effort. Once you remove the heat, let the metal air-cool naturally, do not dunk in oil or water baths. Doing so will undo the annealing, and will make the parts more brittle than before.

I used a metal rod as my forming dolly, and rolled the sheet metal on a soft cutting mat until it fit around the leading edge (more or less); CA in place. At this point, I installed the canopy with Tenax (We know how hazardous that can be, but there is nothing pushing up against the clear plastic to wick the cement up into unwanted areas, so it was worth the risk). The Eduard pre-cut Kabuki tape precut masks were used and fit perfectly, and rather than using masking fluid, I cut unused sections from the Mask sheet to fill the areas between the mask outlines. Spray with black primer, use a smidge of filler to clean up the edges, and prepare the model for final painting.

Simple it was; white primer overall, then gloss undersides; don’t forget to include the upper control surfaces, which are white (not the flaps, however). In the case of the white, I used Duplicolor Spray sandable primer and gloss white. Next was airbrush work to get the feathered edge on the lower sections; I was using modelmaster Acrylic, which held tight to the primed plastic. I learned the hard way (again) that acrylics do NOT like to stick to plain plastic when I pulled the masking off the slats. Sheets of paint came off. Preparation is paramount to a durable final product. I know better.

I tried a new technique (for me) on the intake red warning rings; using a cap from Tamiya’s Alcohol thinner, I put Vallejo red in the center, and then carefully dipped and rolled the nose of the engine nacelle in the paint. I then let it have a bit of gravity runoff on the bench, then set them aside. They came out as you see; I was happy!

The decals were from Furball’s whales sheet; The scheme I chose had no air refueling probe, some antennas were not used, and the tail gun WAS used. Resorting to Steel Beach’s solution for the twin 20MM tail stinger guns was a good decision, as the slots for the belt links and spent casings are added where the kit item does not have them.

Final finish, then attach all the slats, doors, and bomb bay doors. The slats were interesting: Eduard provides very detailed slat actuator arms which require careful folding and installation. After buggering up two of them, I resorted to the “Partial deployed” position, where just a touch of red is showing. I don’t have a NATOPS Pilot manual to confirm, but I believe the flaps need to be down if the slats are deployed. I could not find if they were aerodynamically actuated or hydraulic; in the former they would be full out at all times; the latter, maybe, maybe not. Since I had glued the flaps up, well, so many choices.

The final set was the “remove before flight” tags. Honestly, I can’t find pictures of the modern flags being used on the 1958 version of the jet (which I modelled), so I didn’t use these.

Final verdict; 10 for the product, 7 for my lack of skills. Eduard, another magnificent effort; don’t stop making this cool stuff, we AMS lovers appreciate your efforts!