Eduard AGM-114 Hellfire (648280) 1:48

[Mike]

AGM-114 Hellfire (648280)

1:48 Eduard Brassin

 

 

The Hellfire is a fire-and-forget anti-armour missile that has been used extensively (and expensively) in the Middle East, both against armour, and targets that are required to be taken out with precision.  Carrying only 20lbs of high explosives in its warhead, it is still a powerful weapon and speeds to the target using its own radar guidance, which is housed behind a snub glass nose cone.  They are the favourite arms of the Apache and the Predator drones due to their low weight and precision, and numerous variants have been used.  As usual with Eduard's larger resin sets, they arrive in the familiar Brassin rectangular box, with the resin parts safely cocooned on dark grey foam inserts, and the instructions on top, doubling as additional protection.

 

 

This set contains resin and Photo-Etch (PE) parts to build eight missiles, plus a pair of four-missile Multiple Ejector Racks, as well as a choice of clear and FOD covered seeker heads.  The main missile body is a single part, with a clear or opaque resin seeker head, PE fins fore and aft, plus a PE exhaust ring.  If the missiles aren't being used on a rack, a small resin part is attached just behind the nose, otherwise the lug is subsumed within the rail once attached.  The four-point racks are made from a resin body with two arms attached to provide the extra stations, with PE rail ends, a PE rear panel, and some additional resin pipework between the rails.  The missiles are shown in a set of scrap diagrams to show the location of the decals, which are supplied on a small sheet within the bag that contains the two PE sheets.  As usual, the colour call-outs are provided in Gunze codes.

 

 

A 4-pack of Hellfires under the wing(let) of any suitable aircraft looks rather good (IMHO), so these should sell incredibly well.  As always with Eduard resin, the casting is first rate, crisp, and with sensibly placed casting blocks to ease removal of the parts.

 

Highly recommended.

 

Review sample courtesy of