Eduard has released a great Brassin Cockpit set for its new tooled Tempest Mk.V which in its self is a great kit. This Brassin set is full of Resin parts, a Photoetch sheet, and Decals.

In the box is:

• Approx. 55 resin parts
• 1 film sheet
• 1 small decal sheet
• 1 photoetch detail set
• 1 instruction booklet

Construction

First is the assembly of the side frames of the cockpit and the detail controls. I did find the removal of the side frames from the pour stub to be a bit hard and the frames are very thin and fragile. Apart from that, no issues were encountered during the stages on page 2 of the instructions.

Next is the assembly of the structure that joint the two side frames, now to say this was was very friddly and frustrating would be an understatement. The parts R 44 and R 45 both broke during assembly and had to be glued. I must state that I assembled and disassembled the page 3 parts at least four times before I was happy and it looked square and correct. You have to be patient with this part of the build and I did walk away for a break. A small jig would be a great help for this assembly.

Page 4 brings us to the assembly of the control column, pedals and floor. A nice touch is you get the choice of two different control sticks. I found that part R 57 was broken in the box but soon fixed it. You must be extra careful when removing the pedals R37 and R38 as they are complex shapes. Now you install this assembly into the cockpit frame structure which was easy.

On page 5 you first have to assemble the very nicely detailed seat structure., This is then installed into the cockpit structure assembly which again was easy and not fit issues. Now the cockpit structure has the rear frame and supports added, Here I did find that part R80 was broken in the bag of parts but still repairable.

The cockpit structure is now completed with the instrument panel and details. Now to be honest I was very torn between uses the Brassin parts and the kit supplied instruments as both very very good but each had a better finish. I did, in the end, go with the Brassin parts and they look very good once painted and detailed.

Now the cockpit top frame has the armored plate added. The part R77 was missing so I modified the kit part and used that.

The Compass is now added along with the details parts for the sides of the fuselages.

I painted the various stages as I built the cockpit.

Summary

This was a great addition to the fantastic Tempest kit and apart from the frustration of the cockpit structure assembly, it adds some great details to the kit. I highly recommend it to experienced modelers with a lot of patience.

Thanks go to Eduard for providing this kit to review and IPMS USA for allowing me to review it for them.