The Product

This set comes on a single photo-etch fret and offers several worthwhile enhancements. The list of items include: brake lines, a complete set of landing gear doors, radiator faces, radiator exit door, engine shutters, cowling flaps, canopy lever, canopy mirror, ring & bead gun sight, throttle, several cockpit levers and trim wheels. A great feature about this brass fret is the delicate attach points. The instructions are clearly printed with Eduard’s easy to understand pictorials.

The Build

First, I added the brake lines to the landing gear legs and they fit great. Then I made up the landing gear doors. Starting with upper section of the out board doors, I created the bumps by using a ball point pen and the card stock from the package and carefully made a reversed relief. Then I added three small brass brackets to the doors and I attached each one to their gear leg. The lower out board sections are laminations making up the outer skin and inner structures. These doors were then added. The tail gear doors are easily rolled to the correct shape and attached. The radiator faces were easily added and so was the new exit door. The two large exhaust/cowling flaps located on each side of the fuselage fit great but needed to be tweaked into shape. The two large engine shutter discs are simply stacked under the prop hub. Since I have been using this kit as a basis for aftermarket IPMS reviews a cockpit had already been installed so I did not use those related items from this set. However they are very nicely done and would really spruce up the stock cockpit.

The Bottom Line

It is a great set and well worth the investment and I highly recommend it. My thanks go Eduard and IPMS for the opportunity to use and present this nice piece of brass.