Tamiya's 1/48 scale Lancaster may be getting a bit long in the tooth, but it is still a spectacular kit in terms of size. It is also quite accurate, but its 30 year old vintage is betrayed by the relative lack of detail, especially the interior.

Eduard has turned its attention to this big kit with an equally big detailing effort - five photo-etched detail sets for the cockpit interior, exterior and bomb bay.

Each set is available separately, so you can choose to add as much or as little detail as you prefer.

Let's take a look at each of the sets:

Eduard 49 034 - Lancaster Seat Belts

For modellers who just want to add a single visible feature to your big Lancaster, these pre-painted colour harnesses will be an inexpensive and easy way to enhance your Lancaster cockpit. Six sets of belts are supplied - five lap harnesses and one full four point harness for the pilot.

The printed stitching detail is exquisite.

Please note that the "Zoom" and full interior sets do not include harness straps, so you will want to purchase this set to maximise the detail in those sets (reviewed below).

Eduard FE 371 - Lancaster Interior (Zoom set)

Tamiya's big Lancaster kit supplies a flat, plain instrument panel with decal dials. This is clearly inadequate under the Lancaster's large glasshouse canopy in 1/48 scale.

The Eduard Zoom set addresses this most obvious shortcoming with a full colour flying instrument panel, plus the side-mounted engine instruments. This sets also supplies a few additional boxes for the starboard sidewall.

The panels are supplied as separate layers for the instruments and the panel itself, delivering a convincing three-dimensional appearance.

The printed detail is just extraordinary. You feel that this is a miniaturized version of the real thing.

Your Tamiya Lancaster will greatly benefit from the installation of this marvelous colour photo-etched set.

Eduard 49 371 - Lancaster Interior

For an even more complete interior, Eduard set number 49 371 includes the instrument panels fret mentioned above, and adds a second colour fret with equally impressive radio detail.

But wait - there's more! Three more large frets, in fact, providing a copious amount of additional detail for the seats, the gun turrets, fuselage sidewalls, bomb aimer's dome and canopy interior.

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

Eduard 48 564 - Lancaster Exterior

The main focus on this set is the wheel wells, but additional parts are included for detailing the turret exteriors, the tail wheel strut and small antennas. Other useful exterior details include photo-etched grilles for the Merlin engine radiators, and guards for the supercharger intakes.

This set will really spruce up the exterior of your Lancaster.

Eduard 48 565 - Lancaster Bomb Rack

If you are planning to display your bomb bay, this set will be very welcome. Two large photo-etched frets supply delicate bomb mount detail for your bomb bay.

Eduard's new family of photo-etched detail set will deliver a fantastically detailed replica of the Lancaster in 1/48 scale. It is especially nice to see this much attention paid to an older, but fundamentally decent kit.

I wonder if Eduard have any other similarly worthy veteran model subjects in mind - Monogram's B-17G perhaps?

You'll want to allocate plenty of time and have a few photo-etched sets under your belt, but if you want a super-detailed Lancaster, this is the way to get it!