Eduard B-17G Updates (for HK Models) 1:32

[Mike]

B-17G Updates (for HK Models)
1:32 Eduard

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, along come another two updates from Eduard to bedeck your monster Fort with more detail.

B-17 Superchargers – Eduard Brassin (632033)

The kit parts are pretty good for injection moulding, but these high quality resin replacements simply blow them out of the water. The resin is crisply moulded and very dense, without a shadow of a bubble to mar the surface. There are four supercharger parts, plus two extension tubes to feed the air around the wheel bays on the inner engines. The inner superchargers are handed to accommodate the curve of their tubing, and two separate extension parts are included for where the tubing breaks through the engine cowling and dives back into the engine. You will need your razor saw to remove the casting blocks, which extend the full length of the superchargers, but that's to be expected with such mouldings and is like that to reduce the potential for bubbles. The Y-shaped splitter tubes are kept from the kit parts, as shown in the scrap diagram, but otherwise the rest of the kit parts are consigned to spares or the bin courtesy of what is a very simple and worthwhile upgrade set.

B-17 Fabric Seatbelts (32796)

The Photo-Etch (PE) seatbelts were reviewed here late last year, but now courtesy of a collaboration with HGW this new technology for super-realistic seat belts is available to builders of the HJ B-17. I have used one of these sets in 1:48, and although fiddly, the results are worth it, and the increase in scale should diminish the quantity of profanity significantly. The printing is very realistic, and the leather patches that are added underneath the buckles is especially so, having a mottled "grain" to it.

The set is a mixture of fabric parts and a small fret of PE for the buckles and fixings. You begin by scrunching up the sheet of pre-cut, pre-painted fabric material into a little ball, then flatten it out and remove the backing sheet. After that, you cut out each part as you need it, and mate it with the PE parts as per the accompanying instructions. The material is glued with super-glue (CA), and the brass PE is already coated with a bright metallic silver colour, so no further painting will be necessary. The lap belts fit to each seat in pairs, and a couple of longer continuous belts are also supplied for installation on seats with four legs within the fuselage.

Conclusion
The Superchargers on a B-17 are prominent parts of the underside of the aircraft and deserve the best treatment. if you are serious about detailing the interior of your Fort and your budget allows, you'll almost definitely be thinking of the highly realistic fabric seatbelts, even if you already have the PE set (32764).

Highly recommended.

Review sample courtesy of

[Basosz]

So let me get this straight... those seatbelts are real fabric? They're not, repeat, not PE then?

That sounds insane

[Mike]

They are not PE. They're a kind of fabric/material/plastic of some sort, and come on a peelable backing. No idea what it is, but they look real when they're completed