Eduard B-24J Engines PRINT (6481029 for Hobby Boss) 1:48

[Mike]

B-24J Engines PRINT (6481029 for Hobby Boss)

1:48 Eduard Brassin

 

 

Hobby Boss followed their 1:32 Liberator last year with a new tooling in 1:48, which was the first in this scale (my preferred scale) since Monogram’s excellent but dated kit from the 1970s, which although it had raised panel lines could be built into a decent replica with help.  This new one from Hobby Boss is crying out for super-detailing, and Eduard are making that a possibility.  As is usual with Eduard's larger resin sets, they arrive in a Brassin-themed black-and-yellow cardboard box, with the resin parts safely cocooned in bags between two layers of grey foam, and the instructions folded around acting as additional padding.

 

 

There are two segmented bases containing eight parts in 3D printed resin, four engines and four adapters to ensure a snug fit of the parts on the kit nacelle bulkheads.  The engines are attached to their bases via fine support tendrils, which can easily be removed, but take care not to accidentally remove the wiring loom that is engineered into the front face, as they are also fine and could easily be mistaken for more supports.  There is a useful scrap diagram in the top-left of the instructions that shows the various wires and push-rods along with painting call-outs in Gunze Sangyo codes, which is Eduard’s preferred brand.  Once cut from their supports, the engines should be painted and weathered, followed by fitting the adapter-plate to the rear, and inserting a 6.8mm length of 0.3mm rod from your own stocks into the bell-housing at the front of the motor to act as prop-shaft.  That will allow you to hang the kit propellers from the front, but improving the detail a thousand-fold. There are also smaller scrap diagrams that show the removal of a tab from the bottom of the nacelle housings, with the part numbers called out, and the remainder of the tab thinned down to 0.7mm for easy fitting of the new engines.

 

Detail is stunning, and the inclusion of a wiring loom on a twin-row radial will save hours of modelling time trying to get lengths of lead wire to stick somewhere near where they should be without covering the parts and yourself with superglue.

 

VERY highly recommended.

 

 

Review sample courtesy of

[vppelt68]

0,3mm or 3,0mm rod for the prop shafts? I had to check Eduard website for the instructions and they really say 0,3mm. That feels awfully thin. V-P

[Mike]

5 hours ago, vppelt68 said:

0,3mm or 3,0mm rod for the prop shafts? I had to check Eduard website for the instructions and they really say 0,3mm. That feels awfully thin. V-P

I didn't think about it while I was doing the review, but in hindsight 0.3mm would absolutely rattle around inside the hole in the bell-housing.  I measured the hole with my Mitutoyo micrometer, and came up with a hole size of 2.3mm.  It could be that someone at Eduard mis-typed 2.3 as .3, or similar, but I don't have any 2.3mm rod, so slid some 2mm into the hole, which had a little play, so I'd reckon 2.2mm or 2.3mm would suffice.  Your best bet would be to measure the kit prop shaft, see if it fits, and either replicate that with rod (brass for toughness), or nip the shaft off the kit engines if they're long enough and use those