Yet again Master Model has hit a home run with this with this very affordable upgrade to your existing 1/32 P-40 E through N aircraft kits. Master Model has released a detail set that addresses the Browning 50 caliber blast tubes, iron gun sights, and the pitot tubes. Included in the set are six beautiful brass blast tubes, a photo etch sight ring (and spare), one iron sight post and a brass pitot tube with two pitot probe variants. Available kits in the P-40 (E – N) range included Hasegawa (Eduard), Revell and Trumpeter. For earlier P-40 (B – C) models, Master Model produces details sets AM-032-097 and AM-032-098

Installation is very straight forward. With the iron sights and pitot, it will be a very simple matter of pre-painting the parts and drilling two appropriate holes on the top surface of the nose. My preference will be to add these two accessories at the very end of the build. Be aware as you are working with mixed material types, model cement will not work. Super glue (C/A), PVA (white) glue or epoxy will be necessary. For the iron sights, the instructions call for a .4mm drill bit (#78) and for the pitot tube a 1mm drill. (between #60 & #61 drill bit).

For the blast tubes installation was a smidge trickier. Obviously, the kit molded tubes will need to be drilled out prior to installation. I chose to clip most of the molded tubes leaving just enough plastic so you can get a pilot hole started in the correct location. I then started with a small bit, then enlarge the hole a bit more prior to finishing off with the 3mm bit as specified by the instructions. But alas, 3mm bits are hard to come by in the states without going online to purchase one. (Be thankful I’m not going to start on my pro-metric system tirade that my family and friends have heard so many times now.) The two bits nearest 3mm are #31 & #32. For the first blast tube I tried the slightly larger bit and although it worked, the remaining tubes were drilled out with the #32. My experience from drilling out the blast tubes I needed to remove a bit more plastic on the part interior to get the tubes to sit at the correct inclination. The blast tubes were attached with some medium C/A glue, then I surrounded it with a little C/A glue mixed with micro-balloons. Another helpful suggestion is to complete one tube at a time. It very easy to set each of the tubes in the correct position using the other two as guides.

Overall this inexpensive set will add some very nice detail to any 1/32 P-40 E to N variant model kit. I am very pleased with this set and I want to thank Master Model for these details to spiff up my Eduard / Hasegawa P-40N kit build. Additionally, I would like to thank the IPMS USA review corps for allowing me the honor of reviewing this fine product.