Full Metal Jacket

F-100D Super Sabre
Six Eduard detail sets in 1/32 scale

Reviewed by "Bondo" Phil Brandt

Eduard Photoetched Accessories and Masks are available online from Squadron.com

Eduard’s prolific photo-etch releases have deservedly made it the top-ranked aftermarket company extant, and eight new PE sets for the Trumpeter F-100D further extend that title. Just released are:

• 32 181 exterior set U.S. $22.95

• 32 184 weapon bays U.S. $19.95

• 32 185 wheel wells/undercarriage U.S. $22.95

• 32 186 slats U.S. $22.95

• 32 193 speed brake U.S. $22.95

• 32 599 placards (self-adhesive, color ) U.S. $19.95

• 32 607 interior (self-adhesive, color) U.S. $29.95

• 32 612 ejection seat (color) U.S. $24.95

EXTERIOR

This set mainly consists of laminating PE onto many various panels. The Eduard fasteners are, as one might guess, properly understated as opposed to those mastered by the Trumpeter "hole puncher." In addition, Eduard includes delicate burner can and flame holder detail as well as tail bumper and AIM-9 embellishments.

WEAPON BAYS

With this set the modeler gets to re-create the cannon and ammo doors to give a more realistic sheetmetal thinness. Next, one details cannons themselves and the ammo canisters, creating the appearance of 3D linked cannon shells.

WHEEL WELLS / UNDERCARRIAGE

Again, the modeler recreates the nose and maingear doors and adds much structural detail to all wells. Nose and maingear struts undergo the addition of new scissors and other miscellaneous small parts. Mainwheel brake packs get small details.

SLATS

Slat mating surfaces on the slats and wing all come in for laminated metal sheathing. The difficult part will be to fabricate the numerous, delicate, slat extension arms/tracks of which there seem to be twenty (!).

SPEED BRAKE

Eduard eschews the injected Trumpeter parts and has the builder build both the highly detailed speedbrake well and the brake door itself. Both early and late brake doors are included.

PLACARDS

What more can I say; color placards everywhere. I count 156!

INTERIOR

It always seems that after I lay out the righteous bucks for one of Jef’s great Avionix resin interiors, out comes Eduard with color-etch instrument panels/consoles that, in the case of resin, would require an inordinate amount of labor to paint as sharply and accurately. The answer as I see it, is to either go all the way with PE added to the stock Trumpeter cockpit, or to adapt the color-etch instrument panel and consoles to the corresponding aftermarket resin parts.

In any event, the Eduard set enables the builder to detail not only the above-mentioned panels, but to embellish the cockpit floor, sidewalls, gunsight, avionics shelf behind the seatback, the canopy/windscreen framing and canopy/fuselage mating surfaces.

EJECTION SEAT

This color-etch set essentially re-manufactures the relatively plain Trumpeter offering, using only a few basic injected parts such as seat sides, seat pads, headrest and seat rails. Both the far-more-usual non-parachute and rarely seen with-parachute versions can be built. Note: the reviewer inadvertently omitted a pic of the second fret, which comprises the seat bucket and associated details.

GENERAL COMMENTS

This overpowering aggregate of PE detail looks great on the fret, but as experienced PE users know, the petite, intricate details come at not only a relatively high monetary price, but with a serious expenditure of precision labor as well. In my opinion, the sets done in Eduard color-etch are especially worth buying, even if they’re added to resin aftermarket components, as opposed to an all-Eduard scenario. The color lends a degree of sharpness and precision that can usually be equaled in other mediums only by highly skilled modelers.

For some reason, Eduard’s latest instruction sheets have deleted the previously-seen, helpful, orange and blue-colored areas which immediately drew the modeler’s eye to the correct area of a particular assembly sequence. The assembly intricacies of these new F-100 sets make the color deletion action especially hard to fathom.

PROS

PE offers the appearance of sheet metal component "fineness" that simply can’t be equaled by current injected methods, and, in resin is often too delicate. Further, the new color-etch components are a real time-saver, as well as being equaled in appearance by only the most skilled hand painting.

CONS

Were the modeler to splurge on al the reviewed sets, he’d be looking at U.S. $186, a significant addition to the already expensive Trumpeter kit. In my opinion, resin in certain components such as seats offers a 3D effect, depth as it were, that, although requiring painstaking paint efforts, can only be approached in overall appearance by PE. Blending the best qualities of each medium is perhaps the best solution; hey, it’s what I do!

All Highly Recommended.

Thanks to Eduard for the review samples

Text and Images Copyright © 2008 by "Bondo" Phil Brandt
Page Created 29 January, 2008
Last updated 29 January, 2008

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