Eduard Brassin wheels for F-4 1/48

This month I have received two new Eduard Brassin products:

648014 F-4 J/N wheels 1/48 http://www.eduard.cz/products/card.php?id_product=6673

648015 F-4 S wheels 1/48 http://www.eduard.cz/products/card.php?id_product=6674

Both sets come packed in beautiful Eduard blister packs and they include:

• 4 super-detailed resin wheels
• Includes 6 brakes as bonus!
• Photo-etched details
• Express mask

Wheels are beautifully molded in resin and with outstanding level of details. Small photo-etched fret contains brake installations and they are spot-on. Small masks are also provided for precise painting the wheels. These wheels look great and add more realistic look to Hasegawa F-4 kit.

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New Eduard Brassin line has truly established itself among modeling community as the best combination of resin and photo-etched parts and masks for precise painting available on the market. These products are highly recommended!

Darko Mladenovic

Samples provided by Jan Zdiarsky from Eduard

You can purchase these sets directly here 648014 F-4 J/N wheels 1/48 and 648015 F-4 S wheels 1/48

Read also this:

1. Eduard Brassin F-22 seat and wheels in 1/48 scale
2. Eduard Brassin F-16 seat and wheels
3. Eduard Brassin 648004 F-16CJ Block 52 engine 1/48

Kit

AZ model kit Zlin Z-50M features 42 parts casted in grey plastic, two resin parts, one clear plastic canopy and a small photoetched fret. Zlin is packed in a standard AZ model box with nice color art and painting guide on the back of the box. Surface details are nice but bare in mind that this is a short-run model so it needs some additional work in order to get the best you can from it. Pin marks are present on the kit but fortunately on the inside parts that will not be visible once the kit is done. AZ has a pretty soft plastic so removing the pin marks is not a problem. Cockpit is well presented and it should look rather nice once it is finished and photoetched parts like instrument panel and seat-belts should make pilot’s office great. Canopy is good and very transparent and dry-fit test showed it would fit well. Fuselage and wing surfaces show some very nice and crisp panel lines as well as rivet details, and I really like this feature. Since I started building this kit I can recommend to double test dry fitting of the parts prior the gluing since kit requires some trimming especially with wings and for sure you will need to use some filler on wing-fuselage joint. Resin spinner and propeller are nicely molded with small molding blocks that can be easily removed.

AZ model Zlin Z-50 M 1/48 cat no Az 4823

Marking options are for three Zlin Z-50M’s:

1. Zlin Z-50 M Czech Republic Aeroclub
2. Zlin Z-50 M Morska Sobota Aeroclub Slovenia
3. Zlin Z-50 M South Africa

Decals are well printed and registered, with nice thin film and I am sure they would look great on the model.

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As conclusion I can say that this kit is really nice, definitely not for quick build but once it is finished it would catch spectators eye. I can recommend this kit to all modelers interested in civilian airplanes.

Darko Mladenovic

Sample kit is provided by Jaroslav Osten from AZ Models

Read also this:

1. Zlin 50 AZ 4822
2. AZ Model 7301 Spitfire mk Va 1/72
3. Spitfire FR Mk. XVIII AZ Model

Kit stock number is AZ 4822 and it come in nice illustrated box.  Inside is the three frets of the grey plastic parts, one transparent part, one sheet of the photo etched parts, two sheet of the decals and instruction leaflet. As usual, painting schemes are printed on the back of the kit box. Plastic parts are good molded, well engraved and with good rest of the surface details. All of the details I could find on the images available on Internet was also present there on the kit.

Zlin 50

I can not say that build of this kit is straightforward and as well there is need for the fittings of parts, some skill are required so this can not be credit as the kit for the beginner. During the interior assembly I have made some changes and I have paint some structure elements in the medium green color as well I have noted this on the available images. Thanks to the photo etched part, interior can be made very detailed. During the build kit have need to be very carefully filed on the wing to fuselage join line and I have used both liquid as well standard model filler.

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All of the proposed samples for finishing have very simple basic coat of the polished aluminum and the bottom in the area is red color. The rest is given by decals. Interesting to note is that polished metal bottom surface is given as decal and I was a little disappointed in first moment when I have seen this. But when apply on surface this decal give really good presentation of the real metal so solution is good. General note is that much care have to be taken during the decals application as well they are so thin.

Definitely this is not an few days project but the result is the very beautiful scale model of Zlin 50. If you like that type of plane, have some modeling skills, this is kit for you!!

Bradic Srecko

Sample kit is provided by Jaroslav Osten from AZ Models

Read also this:

1. AZ model Zlin Z-50 M 1/48 cat no Az 4823
2. Spitfire FR Mk. XVIII AZ Model
3. Spiteful AZ Model 1/72

Raptor brassin set

For this review I received following samples

648002 F-22A seat 1/48

648003 F-22A wheels 1/48

Eduard Brassin line comes packed in beautiful blister plastic package with clear assembly instructions; painting guide is not included so you should look for further references about that. Quality of these sets is absolutely amazing, resin parts are beautifully molded with highest level of details, and the photo etched parts are provided for the details not molded in resin like all sort of placards and things.F-22A seat set contains 4 resin part and about 30 photo etched parts. Resin is outstanding quality and most of the photo etched parts are prepainted. This seat is the best seat for model kit I have ever seen. Wheel set for the F-22A contains two main landing gear resin wheels, one resin nose wheel, six wheel chocks for the front and rear wheels, and a complete tire masking set for painting the wheels.

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Eduard Brassin is a great new line from Eduard, details and combination of resin and photo etched parts are simply amazing. As Eduard announces Brassin line will grow and more sets will be available very soon for different subjects. These sets really add realistic note to F-22 kit so I can highly recommend this set.

Darko Mladenovic

Sample product is provided by Jan Zdiarsky from Eduard

Read also this:

1. Eduard Brassin F-16 seat and wheels
2. Eduard Brassin wheels for F-4 1/48
3. Eduard Brassin 648004 F-16CJ Block 52 engine 1/48

Polikarpov I- 16

The newest addition to the I-16 family by Eduard is kit 8146 I-16 Type 17 1/48 scale profipack edition. The kit comes packed in a box with a beautiful box art of this fighter wearing most interesting markings for Soviet Ace Vasiliev. Kit is beautifully molded in traditional Eduard Olive plastic with some fantastic surface detail. The panels are a mixture of fine engraving and subtle raised panels. The representation of the fabric surfaces is superb. Inside the box you will find four sprues with parts, one sprue with clear parts, one small photoetched fret with 30 parts and as we used to from Eduard masks for precise painting of the canopy and wheels. I started this build from the cockpit which is well detailed with excellent detailed levers, some of these are provided as photoetched parts. I added some small pieces of wire to reproduce electrical cabling. As I decided to build my kit with side door open, I fixed the cockpit floor and added some details like a little bag on side wall and a gun. I painted the cockpit with the White Ensign ACS 06 IMUP blue-gray metal primer. I used Eduard’s photoetched instrument panel rather than plastic one or the decal, and I must emphasize it looks great. I drilled two holes in front of cockpit one on each side of gunsight to represent a natural light openings, Eduard has engraved these openings as panels but they were actually two holes with glass on top. At this time I could glue the fuselage and start working on wings. First step in this stage for me was to cut out the little window inside the right wheel well. Although Eduard provided a photoetched frame for this window, and perhaps it could be done easier just simulating the glass with paint, I decided to make it a real clear part (no fuss at all). Engine is well detailed and it is a shame that once installed it could hardly be visible but I like to say I know it is there. I drilled gun barrels and venture tube and replaced pito tube with hypodermic needle. The undercarriage is precise and absolutely in scale. At the first moment I thought it could easily snap but when I joined them it is very compact and rather strong. Undercarriage doors are a bit complicate to install but if you follow the steps in the instruction sheet it is really easy and if I may say with all those rivets look realistic and effective. At the very end I added a piece of stretched sprue from the centre of wheel hub to the small hole at the roof of the undercarriage bay to reproduce gear retraction system. Almost no filler was needed during assembling of this model, but I like to fill joints just in case. The one and only joint that is a bit problematic was belly side aft wing-fuselage joint, but it is easily solved using filler and rescribing it afterwards.

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I sprayed a primer coat of Mr. Surfacer 1000 onto the aircraft and then filled in any remaining gaps and seam lines. After I have done some preshading using my Paasche Talon TG airbrush, and the I-16 was ready to be painted. My decision was to represent machine flown by 1^st Lt. Gennadiy S. Zhuikov during the summer 1941 member of 191^st IAP credited with 17 victories. I used White Ensign ACS 03 for basic lighter color and ACS 08 for darker shades as top colors and White Ensign ACS 02 for bottom, all colors received some lightening in order to shade some areas and panels. After few coats of Klear I applied decals which are very thin, and no decal solution was needed just one more layer of Klear. Decals in a sample I received were a bit out of register, but I presume it is not a case in all boxes. Next step was wash and weathering and at the end a final coat of mat coat.

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This kit is easy to assemble and I really enjoyed building it, this is one of those kits you could really finish very fast. I-16 type 17 looks great on shelf so it is highly recommended for both novice and expert modelers!

Sample kit is provided by Jan Zdiarsky from Eduard

Darko Mladenovic

Read also this:

1. Eduard Polikarpov I-16 type 10 1/48 Weekend edition kit 8846
2. Eduard Polikarpov I-16 type 24 1/48 Weekend edition kit 8468
3. Polikarpov I-16 Eduard 1/48

Regiane 2002 cockpit

After attaching main parts of this set to the kit cockpit, my first step was to prime cockpit and then to paint it in cockpit basic color. In the next step  I have glued small  mostly prepainted details on the kit and the rest of the work was rather same for all, some wash chipping and drybrush. Once completed cockpit of the Ariete looks much better than the Italeri provided.

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This set is easy to work with, so it can be used by all modelers no matter of experience. Italeri Regiane 2002 in 1/48 scale was a kit that most of the Reggia Aeronautica fans were waiting, in combination with this Eduard set it really looks nice.

This product is highly recommended!

Darko Mladenovic

Sample set is provided by Jan Zdiarsky from Eduard

You can purchase this set directly here

Read also this:

1. Eduard Brassin F-16 seat and wheels
2. Eduard Brassin F-22 seat and wheels in 1/48 scale
3. Eduard’s 49585 F6F-3 Hellcat undercarriage set

F-16 Brassin 1/48 set for Tamya kit

The samples I received for review include sets:

648 001 F-16 early seat 1/48 – link

648 005 F-16 early wheels 1/48 – link

Beside these two sets Eduard also released two more sets:

648 007 F-16 late wheels 1/48 – link

648 006 F-16 wheels A/B 1/48 – link

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New Eduard Brassin line comes packed in beautiful blister plastic package with clear assembly instructions, painting guide is not included so you should look for further references about that. Quality of these sets is absolutely amazing, resin parts are beautifully molded with highest level of details, and the photo etched parts are provided for the details not molded in resin like all sort of placards and things. I must state that resin quality is excellent and that it is easy to work with, you can even use regular hobby knife to cut the Eduard resin which came as a true surprise to me.

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Since I like to test the product during the review, I kind a looked in my stash for F-16 kit in 1/48 scale but unfortunately I haven’t had a Tamiya kit which is recommended to be used with Eduard Brassin sets, so an Italeri kit had to be used in order to compare parts that need to be replaced. It was obvious that Brassin looks much more realistic than Italeri original parts, and the seat easily slip into the cockpit.

I started building the Brassin seat by removing it from mold blocks and cleaning the parts. Next step was to assemble the seat and prime it . After primer I sprayed my seat with Model Master FS 36231 as a base color for the early ACES II seat used on F-16. After that it was easy to add photo-etched parts on it and to paint some details like seat cushion. I mixed some artistic paints to do a wash in order to emphesise some details, and the work was completely done.

However, I must mention wheels set that includes resin wheels, small PE fret and masks for painting, they can’t be compared with the Italeri wheels since Eduard’s  wheels are much more detailed, but they will fit on the kit.

As Eduard announced F-16 engine I am looking forward to test that set too. I believe judging on these two Brassin set I tested that that engine will be best detailed F-16 engine available on the market.

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Eduard Brassin is a great new line from Eduard, details and combination of resin and photo etched parts are simply amazing. I hope that Eduard Brassin line will grow and that more sets will be available very soon for different subjects. These sets really add realistic note to F-16 kit so I can highly recommend this set.

Darko Mladenovic

Sample product is provided by Jan Zdiarsky from Eduard

Read also this:

1. Eduard Brassin F-22 seat and wheels in 1/48 scale
2. Eduard Brassin wheels for F-4 1/48
3. Eduard Brassin 648004 F-16CJ Block 52 engine 1/48

Many areas in the basic kit was empty and there was good place to apply Eduard photo etched parts. Undercarriage bay was almost based on this etched details and not only airframe details are made there, inside is also most important wires on the undercarriage legs. Interior is consisted in couple of the independent sections which are made as sub assemblies and there is engines, nose wheel bay with nose cone, air intake duct, cockpit interior and the wheel bay in wings. One of the most important part is the ejection seat, which replace original seat from kit and it is resin made part.

Finished Lightning kit

During the assembly of the kit I have made several changes in step. First at all I have skip mounting of the intake cone, part 14, to the intake assembly, as well it is better to leave this for the very end of assembly. Cone is finished in green color and this will avoid any need for protection during spraying of the entire model, this is better to complete finish and just put it on its bearing. Inside is enough of space to put lead for weight. I will also recommend you to put fuselage extensions, parts 43- 39- 40- 42, before you place wings of fuselage as well if you put wings first (as the instruction recommend), you will later have problem to sand cement if it leak from the edge of extension. But most of the other steps from the assembly instruction, could be followed with easy.

Four attractive machines were provided to be finished and decal sheet is very large and excellent printed. Proposed machines are from 111 Sq., 56 Sq., 92 Sq. And 19 Sq. I decide to make Mk. 1A from No. 111 Squadron. It is attractive and here you are few info from the operational service of Mk. 1A machines in this unit.

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By the September 1961 No. 111 Sq become fully operational with the Lightning F Mk. 1A. In October 1962 units machines were converted to carry in flight refueling probes and one month later unit has take part in the high altitude interceptions and perform successful interception of the hight flying U-2 from USAF/CIA service. From the March 1963 some of unit machines was deployed to the Cyprus. In 1964 unit get well know Black-Yellow unit colors and that was result of the competition and the winning scheme was painted on Airfix plastic kit of Lightning in 1/72 scale (kit released in 1963)!! During the summer 1964 unit was participated on the annual exercise on Cyprus. Lightning F Mk. 1A end its service in 111 Sq. In November 1964, when the machine was replaced with Lightning F Mk. 3.

I would not like to say that it is easy kit to built, no it is not, much of care have to be take during the assembly and painting but the final results are more then satisfactory! Finished kit look really nice and if you decide to left cockpit canopy open, many of the excellent interior detail would be seen. You can buy this kit direct here.

Srecko Bradic

Sample kit is provided by Jan Zdiarsky from Eduard.

Read also this:

1. Suhoi Su-7 Eduard 1148
2. Eduard Bf109E 1/32 detail set
3. Eduard Brassin F-22 seat and wheels in 1/48 scale