IPMS/USA Reviews

The Weekend Editions and the Overtree editions of Eduard's kits are really good value for the money. One thing that I'd like to add to mine is the photo etch instrument panel and some other bits and bobs. Lucky for me Eduard answers those prayers, sort of.

If you've never heard of the LEPT sets they are smaller pre-painted photo etch frets and have what I think are the 'essential' photo etch items. They are only available through the Eduard website. The reason I said sort of earlier is that these sets are typically only available for a limited time to accompany the Overtree kits when they are released. After that you have to buy the complete PE set for the kit, which while having more items, may contain things that you may not want to use. Then of course you may want to, but this fret is the essential items and included in those full PE sets.

In my opinion, the essential items on the Bf-109 are the instrument panel, seat belts, trim wheels, access panels, oil coolers, exhaust deflectors and the like. All the things on the fret are things that make sense to do in photo etch for scale thickness.

The Curtis SB2C Helldiver was produced to replace the "Slow But Deadly" Dauntless with a larger, faster aircraft. Unfortunately, the plane suffered from many handling issues and a shorter range leading to the nickname "The Beast" being applied by its crews. The Helldiver served aboard carriers for the last 2 years of the war including participating in Operation Iceberg, the Battle for Okinawa.

Academy's latest Special Edition version includes markings for three aircraft that participated in this operation. A tri-colored plane from VB-3 off the USS Yorktown and two gloss blue aircraft, one from VB-16 off the USS Randolph and the other from VB-84 operating from the USS Bunker Hill.

The kit contains 84 grey parts molded on two sprues, 6 clear parts and 28 photo etched parts for the dive brakes. The molding is very nice with decent panel lines and good interior detail for the cockpits, gear wells, and bomb bay.

This is the Overtrees edition of the excellent new SE.5a kit from Edward, who continue to set the standard for the finest in model kits. An Overtrees edition is the 'bare-bones' of the SE.5a kit, including just the plastic sprues, nothing else. No instructions, no decals, no photoetch, masks, etc. The box doesn't even include any artwork!

This kit includes two gray plastic sprues and a clear plastic sprue. Instructions are not included with the Overtrees edition but can be downloaded from the Eduard website at this link.

An Overtrees edition can build a stand-alone kit or share parts with one of the other versions of the SE.5a. At only $14.95 the Overtrees provide great value. With the Overtrees kit, the modeler can build either the Wolseley Viper or Hispano-Suizo engine version of the SE.5a. The plastic parts are newly tooled by Eduard and are molded in gray plastic. The detail on the parts is excellent and there is no flash. I did not notice any visible ejection pins or sink marks.

This is a photoetch waist section set to for the Hong Kong Models B-17 E/F Kit number 01E04a. This set with two photoetch sheets one of which is colored. These sheets add a lot of detail to the waist gunner's area of the fuselage in the B-17. These parts really add some great additional details to a great kit.

In the packet is:

• 1 colored photoetch sheet
• 1 photoetch sheet
• 1 instruction sheet

Summary

This is another wonderful set for a kit that is great to begin with; these parts are an great details.

I did find one minor issue with the set - the parts 40, 8a, 8b, 11 and 66 show them being a symmetrical assembly but in fact there is only one location.

Please note that the gun barrels shown are from another aftermarket set I had.

If you have invested in the HKM B-17 you really should add this set and the others by Eduard.Thanks go to Eduard for providing