Eduard 1/48th Hanriot HD.1 in Italian Service Limited Edition
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The Kit
 Upon
opening the kit box, you will find three individual sprues of plastic
parts, one clear windshield, a panel of photo etched details, a resin
seat cushion and headrest, and the familiar Eduard masking aid. Also provided
are a clear set of instructions (which also shows the rigging diagram),
decals, and a color marking guide for four Italian Hanriots.
Plastic
parts are crisply molded, with adequate detail. My example does not have
any flash on it. There is a large sink hole in the front of the engine,
but the PE cover plate that is provided that will hide it once it is assembled.
Many of the parts are small and delicate, and will require special attention
to remove them from the sprue without breaking them.
 The
PE set provides cockpit interior controls, instrument panel, and the pilot's
seat and belts. Other detail parts include fuselage panels, gun and landing
gear details, and aileron control lines.
The
decals provide several "stencil" markings and three different
styles of lacing used on the fuselage bottom. On first glance, the decal
sheet looks pretty boring. The only colors used are green, red, white,
and black. But when used as indicated by the marking guide, the aircraft
depicted become quite colorful. Examples include one in natural linen,
one in aluminum dope, and two in different two-tone camouflage finishes.
Three
of the aircraft use a single Vickers gun, with the fourth one having a
twin gun installation. The latter was not common place on Italian aircraft.
 Likewise,
the single gun variants have the gun mounted offset from the centerline
of the fuselage. The Italians found this not to their liking, and many
Hanriots had the gun moved to the centerline position instead. It would
have been a nice touch to have this option included in the kit.
I built the Eduard Hanriot HD.2
floatplane version several years ago, and remember it going together well.
I suspect that there won't be much trouble with this kit either, and am
looking forward to building the "wheeled" version of the Hanriot.
It's nice to have some different markings supplied in a World War One
fighter kit besides the more familiar British, French, and German ones.
Our thanks to Eduard for the review
kit.
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