Eduard B-24H Upgrade Sets (for Airfix) 1:72

[Mike]

B-24H Upgrade Sets (for Airfix)

1:72 Eduard

 

 

Airfix released their newly tooled B-24H Liberator in 1:72  recently, and if you haven’t seen it, we reviewed it recently here, as it’s a nice kit.  Eduard's new range of sets are here to improve on the kit detail in the usual modular manner.  Get what you want for the areas you want to be more of a focal point.  As usual with Eduard's Photo-Etch (PE) and Mask sets, they arrive in a flat resealable package, with a white backing card protecting the contents and the instructions that are sandwiched between.

 

 

 

Cockpit & Engines (73829)

Two frets are included, one nickel-plated and pre-painted, the other in bare brass.  A complete set of new layered instrument panel sections that run across the width of the cockpit, the substantial centre console with throttle quadrants are given the same treatment that includes a forest of levers pushed through the quadrant surface; the footwells have a detailed skin applied to the floor; four-point seatbelts are included for the two flight-crew; another instrument box in front of the centre console is provided, applying a new surface to the larger box below it, and detailing the sides, top and adding control levers before gluing the two components together; both cockpit sidewalls are festooned with equipment boxes with pre-painted faces and dials, some based upon kit parts, but others new; the overhead console that is missing from the kit is built up on a PE base, gluing the completed assembly to the underside of the canopy between the crew.

 

 

The four Pratt & Whitney R-1830-35 Twin Wasp engines are upgraded with a wiring loom that wraps around the bell-housing, with a scrap diagram showing where the wires should end, and extra detail is added to the magnetos on the bell-housings.  The kit superchargers have flapper covers fitted to the exhausts, removing the tip to keep its length standard.  The aft end of the engine nacelle cowlings near the wing trailing-edge is thinned to a more realistic thickness, removing some details on the wings within the confines of the inner nacelles and are filled, creating four flat boxes with mesh fronts that are supported by a pair of brackets that glue into place.  There are four of these, and one is fitted into the footprint of each nacelle.  The four cooling gill parts are thinned by 0.2mm along the outer surfaces to accommodate replacement skins with the individual gills etched in that can be wrapped around them, two per engine, top and bottom.

 

 

 

Nose & Radio Compartment (73830)

Two frets are included, one nickel-plated and pre-painted, the other in bare brass.  A complete set of detail parts for the Norden bomb sight, and new box in the front of the bomb aimer’s compartment, and a huge quantity of other equipment boxes dotted around the nose compartment are included, some using kit parts as the base for a new pre-painted front, but many on the sidewalls are missing from the kit, and are folded up from PE then faced with a pre-painted front to increase the detail.  The ammo feeds leading from the boxes are given a skin that represents the ammo feed in more detail, adding more detailed surfaces to the ammo cans at the same time, and making the missing bomb-aimer’s seat from a length of 1mm rod from your own supplies, putting a PE seat on top and adding lap-belts over the top.  The rear of the compartment is also upgraded with a large VW logo-shaped framework that carries several new equipment boxes, fitting it onto the short bulkhead in the front of the cockpit floor, after skinning the front with a new PE part.

 

 

Moving into the centre fuselage section, control panels on the bulkhead are upgraded with pre-painted PE parts, and fitting a regulator to two nearby oxygen bottles.  The radio compartment is substantially upgraded with a new PE floor that also includes a short wall with corrugations etched-in, and installing a framework for the toilet, which is represented by a length of 1.8mm rod from your own supplies again.  A large vertical equipment rack is made from PE with painted fronts, installing it under a pre-existing box on the starboard side of the hatch, adding more boxes top the opposite bulkhead.  A table is fitted with painted fronts to the moulded-in radio gear, folding up an oscilloscope on a tapered support to the side before fixing it in place over the new floor.  The floor hatchway is extended with folded sections of the skin applied to the floor, adding lap-belts to the seat nearby, and two more regulators to O₂ bottles in the compartment, and two more in the waist gunner’s position, applying a detail insert to a step in the floor, plus tops to the ammo boxes.  The ammo box on the waist guns have their chunky triangular supports removed that are replaced by a separate PE shelf, additional PE around to top and outer surfaces, and a length of ammo link that is strung between the box and the breech, which also has a new PE top-surface fitted to the top.  The final part returns to the bomb aimer’s position, adding a windscreen wiper to it on the outside.

 

 

 

Undercarriage (72739)

This larger bare brass set contains some important enhancements, requiring removal of the ribbing in the upper wings, and the latticework in the bay wall parts.  The remaining structure of the bay inserts are skinned with ribbed surfaces, a new roof part, an inner structure of one of the wing formers, folded into two layers to give it extra relief, adding small sections of wall around the edges, then installing new latticework in two steps. The first step brings back the three complete ribs and stringers, creating the fourth partial rib from two parts that are folded double before installation, taking note of the scrap diagrams nearby.  The smaller ribbing sections are skinned on both sides near the socket for the main gear legs, which have a new PE bay door fitted to the lower section, removing the chunky scissor-links from the separate retraction jack, replacing it with a new PE unit, adding another scissor-link to the nose gear in a similar manner.  The nose gear bay has its two doors replaced by folded PE parts that have a lip to improve adhesion of the hinges, with retraction eyes at the rear ends of each one.

 

 

 

 

US National Insignia (CX668)

Masking off the main markings of models removes any pitfalls associated with using larger decals, such as thickness of the carrier film, unintended decal movement before setting, and the perennial scourge of decaling – silvering - where microscopic air bubbles become trapped under the carrier film, reflecting light and giving the completed decal a silvered look.  Using masks, it’s possible to paint several colours in very thin layers with an airbrush, leading to a set of markings that are more harmonious with the overall paint finish, and later appear to have been sprayed on along with the main colours.  It also makes weathering or chipping the markings as simple as it is with paint.

 

 

This set is tailored for the Airfix kit, and arrives in a flat-pack resealable package, backed by a small instruction sheet held within along with a sheet of vinyl masks.  Why vinyl rather than kabuki tape?  Vinyl is more robust and requires more tension to deform it, lending the material to letters, digits and shapes that require precision of size and shape to look correct.  The masks include parts for the national markings of the aircraft so you can paint the stars-and-bars on the model, which could be an introduction to using masks and an airbrush to create more realistic markings on future models.

 

Positioning the masks should be straight-forward, but if you have placement issues you could place the positive masks as a guide, then lower the negative masks into position over them, weeding out the positive masks once you are happy with their location.  Depending on what colours you are spraying, and the shades you are using, it may take multiple steps and some element of adding and removal of masks, which you can keep together by adding a separate piece of tape across the group of shapes to keep them aligned in between uses.  It would also help keeping the groups apart from each other during use, so you don’t get the individual mask sets mixed up.  A perfect opportunity to try something new with your modelling, helping to increase the realism of your work by removing the carrier film and associated issues from the equation, at least for the major markings.

 

 

 

Conclusion

Superb sets that improve the detail in spades, from which you can choose which you want or need.

 

Highly recommended.

 

Review sample courtesy of