Eduard 1/48th Limited Edition Yak-1b By Stephen Tontoni

Introduction

This kit, originally issued by Accurate Miniatures, was ably reviewed by Tom Cleaver for Internet Modeler in 1998. For that reason, I’m not going to go into the details of either the aircraft, or the merits of the Accurate Miniatures model kit. Take it as read that this is an exceptionally high quality kit.

The Kit

How did this work anyway? Accurate Miniatures turned out a P-39 Aircobra racer that was a spiffed up Eduard kit. And Eduard has released a spiffed up version of this Accurate Miniatures kit. Was it a simple swap? Will we see more collaboration between them? I certainly hope so; the modelers out there benefit from rubbing these two together.

What Eduard has done, and which was alluded to in the build article by Tom, there are assemblies to the kit that could have been executed better. In fact, there’s a reference to the model master, Bill Bosworth, saying that he wished he’d done some parts separately. That wish has come true; in this issue by Eduard of the beautiful Accurate Miniatures kit, they’ve included a modest fret of pre-colored photo-etch. The photo-etch includes the radiator grill, (which is much more convincing than the styrene part it replaces), a multi-layer instrument panel (to replace the clear part which is still included in this kit), seat harnesses, various levers and knobs, oleo struts, and more. This limited edition kit takes an already superior kit and dresses it up to ‘Profi-Pack’ standards. Also included with the kit are Eduard Express masks for masking the canopy.

While the kit instructs you to discard the parts, it also includes the skis if you want to do a ski option, in which case you just need to acquire or cobble together the correct markings. Regarding markings, I was very pleased that you have a selection from 6 aircraft and I’ve scanned just one of the illustrations from the color instruction sheet. On scanning the decal sheet for Internet Modeler, it seemed in the image on my computer screen that the white surround of the insignia was out of whack. An optical illusion? I thoroughly examined the decal sheet, and indeed, the white and red are out of register, but not consistently so. I was disappointed because they seem like excellent decals, printed cleanly on thin stock by Aviprint. The simple insignia can be easily replaced, but the small victory stars on the fuselage, should their white surround be out of register, it could be a fatal condition. I’ll have to think about what decals on the sheet are usable, and what can be replaced if necessary before I begin building the model. When purchasing this kit, I recommend that you ask your friendly model shop owner/operator to open the kit so you can examine the decals. That’s the beauty of shopping at a full service hobby shop over a McHobby’s or mail order super store.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this is a brilliant kit since it’s finally (7 years later) addressed some areas of improvement from the original release. The decal sheet being out of register is a disappointment, but it’s not a fatal flaw; since this kit is still fairly new, I’m sure it’s possible to get a replacement sheet directly from Eduard.

Many thanks to Eduard for this review sample!