Eduard 1/48 F4F-3 and F4F-4 Aftermarket
By Jacob Russell
Eduard has wasted no time producing some aftermarket detail sets for their new 1/48th scale F4F-3 and F4F-4 early Wildcat kits. Let's take a look at some of them:
644164 F4F-4 EARLY
This simple set consists of 10 pieces. 8 of the parts are pre-painted photo-etched seat belts. These have very convincing detail. The other 2 parts are resin, the 3-D printed instrument panel base and the instrument panel itself.
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3DL48090 F4F-4 SPACE
Space sets combine 3D printed waterslide decals with a steel photo-etch fret. It consists of 31 parts. 23 of these are decals and the rest are photo-etched parts on a single fret. Several of these are pre-painted. The 3D decals include an instrument panel, sidewall consoles for both fuselage sides and several floor-mounted instruments. The decals are straightforward to use: you soak the sheet in warm water for a couple of seconds until the decals slide off the backing sheet. Don't leave the decals in the water too long as this causes them to swell and distort. You can use white glue or GSI Creos (Gunze) Mr. Mark Setter to increase their adhesion and for best results apply clear gloss before attaching them.
The photo-etch parts include the seat harness, rudder pedals, etc. Eduard includes excellent, well illustrated instructions so it should be easy to use the Space set.
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EX904 F4F-4 TFace
These masks are both the interior and exterior of the windscreen and canopy.
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648794 F4F-3 landing flaps
This is a highly detailed multi-media set consisting of 3D printed resin and photo-etch. The 8 piece includes 6 resin and 2 PE parts. You have to remove the flaps from the kit wings and the surgery will be straightforward by following Eduard's well illustrated instructions. These flaps are applicable to both the F4F-3 and -4 variants.
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648756 F4F 42gal ventral drop tank PRINT
This 42 gallon ventral drop tank is comprised of 2 highly detailed 3D resin printed parts that simply attach to the lower fuselage.
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Eduard's new F4F-3 Wildcat is superbly detailed right from the box. These aftermarket parts will increase the model's accuracy where it counts. I recommend these items and I would like to thank Eduard for the review samples.