Eduard A6M3 Zero 3D Printed Cockpit (648800) 1:35

[Mike]

A6M3 Zero 3D Printed Cockpit (648800)

1:48 Eduard Brassin

 

 

We’ve reviewed the recent minor retool of the new Eduard Zero, which is the A6M3 Type 32 in ProfiPACK guise, which you can see here if you haven’t yet.  It’s a gorgeous kit, and these new sets have been created in parallel to give the modeller who is in search of even more detail than is possible with injection moulded styrene, even with today’s advanced techniques.  There are eight sets in the review pile right now, so to avoid burn-out of your scrolling finger, we’re snipping them up into bite-sized chunks.  This set deserves its own review, as it’s absolutely gorgeous and a credit to the designers, which is actually pretty normal for these new Eduard sets.  As is now usual with Eduard's larger resin sets, they arrive in a deep Brassin branded cardboard box, with the resin parts safely cocooned in bags, and the instructions folded around acting as padding.

 

 

Inside the box are thirty-one 3D printed resin parts, a small fret of Photo-Etch (PE) STEEL that is also pre-printed, and a small decal sheet.  The parts will need to be removed from their printing bases by detaching the tendril-like mounting rods, and on some of them a small raised spot will need to be sanded off from the liberated part.  The process is quite straight forward, if a little messy due to the brittleness and number of tendrils, but the results are well worth it.

 

 

Construction begins with the seat and its attendant four belts, with three diagrams showing the correct placement of them over the seat.  The next sub assembly is the instrument panel, beginning with the panel support with an equipment box in the centre, a small twin dial just above it with a double-layer PE surround, and at the top the gunsight with twin film layers inserted at angles into the top.  The main cockpit part is so well-detailed that you could be forgiven for thinking it was complete already, but there’s still plenty of work to do, starting with using the kit window in the floor, and adding a tiny lever to one of the upstands sprouting from the starboard side of the floor.  The rudder pedals are moulded into the floor, but have PE straps fixed over them, plus an adjustment star in the centre.  There is also a seat adjustment lever that attaches to the rear frame of the cockpit, two equipment boxes mounted on a ledge on the starboard side, both of which have decals on their faces, the mounting rail for the seat, which the seat assembly then hooks onto, the top lugs fixing into recesses in the rear bulkhead.

 

The control column and a lever insert into the floor, with some detail painting going on through this and every other step, after which the instrument panel is slotted into the front of the curved ribs that sprout from the front of the floor, and a rod slides through the rear of the cockpit, just in front of the three bottles at the very rear.  The starboard side console is detail painted and has decals added to it along with a couple of levers, resting between the front and rear ribs of the cockpit, then the complex shaped ammo boxes and feeder pathway for the twin nose guns is dropped into holes in the front of the cockpit floor, ready for the twin machine guns that have brass cocking levers.  A pair of light-like cups are installed to the back of each side console, after which the fuselage half is detailed with a lot of extra instruments with decals and PE parts included, while the rear of the lower wing is upgraded with more detailed equipment boxes and another cylinder to replace the kit parts.  The port fuselage sidewall is also upgraded with similarly high levels of detail, and at last the cockpit assembly can be enclosed by the fuselage halves, with one last piece of equipment added to the port side during closure.  The last stage shows the cockpit being finished off by the addition of the kit’s front deck and the rear canopy, as well as adding the lower wings, all of which are kit parts.

 

 

Conclusion

The detail of these new 3D printed cockpits is beyond stunning, and the way they fit together is incredible from an engineering point of view as well as detail.  The finished item is at the pinnacle of modelling detail as it stands.

 

Very highly recommended.

 

 

Review sample courtesy of