Eduard 1/32 Tempest Mk.II Big Ed Photo Etch Set
By Jacob Russell
This is Eduard's "Big Ed" suite of photo-etch enhancements for Special Hobby's new 1/32nd scale Hawker Tempest Mk.II kit. It consists of 4 separate sets:
32402 Tempest Mk.II landing flaps
32905 Tempest Mk.II
32906 Tempest Mk.II seat belts STEEL
JX199 Tempest Mk.II masks
Set 32404 is a full set of landing flaps. They consist of 38 parts on a very large fret. These flaps are very complex, but they will be fairly easy to assemble by following Eduard's well illustrated instructions. You will have to remove a fair amount of plastic from the wings, and supply some plastic rod to depict the flap actuator rods.
Set 32905 consists of 56 parts on 2 photo-etch frets, one of which is pre-painted. The latter fret is dedicated to the cockpit. It includes a new instrument panel, throttle quadrant, compass face, sidewall consoles, etc. The "standard" fret includes a new seat, rudder pedals, compass frame, tail wheel detail parts, etc.
Set 32906 is 2 pairs of pre-painted seat belts. These will be easy to use with the aid of Eduard's well illustrated instructions.
Finally, JX199 is a set of masks. It consists of 24 elements. The set includes masks for the windscreen, sliding canopy, main wheels and the tail wheel.
Special Hobby's Hawker Tempest Mk.II kit has been well received. It is accurate and well detailed. It includes resin detail parts, a photo-etch set, and vinyl masks. I personally prefer Eduard's rice paper tape masks to vinyl, There's not a lot of overlap between Eduard's and Special Hobby's PE sets. The latter is primarily dedicated to the wing weapon bays. Special Hobby's instrument panel also uses decals for the instrument faces, so you may well prefer to use Eduard's PE panel instead.
This is a comprehensive, "bells and whistles" set that adds a phenomenal amount of detail to a kit that is highly detailed right out of the box. I recommend this set and I would like to thank Eduard for the review sample.