Eduard Brassin 1/48 F-104 Pylons Set First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

Eduard from the Czech Republic is easily the most prolific producer of aftermarket details. Period. Their series of photo-etched detail sets have brought additional fidelity to otherwise bland subjects, and have taken even the best-produced models and kicked them up a notch or two with details that cannot be produced with injection-molded plastic. Many AMS modelers will collect the relevant Eduard photo-etch sets for a given project, but they'll also go out and gather specific resin enhancements as well. Eduard has stepped up with a new product line to complement their photo-etched detail series - Brassin. Brassin is a play on words with Brass and Resin, and in many sets in this series, the resin details also include a set of color photo-etch as well.

In this release, Eduard has produced a beautiful set of external stores pylons and missile rails for the Hasegawa and Eduard 1/48 F-104 Starfighter releases. This set replaces the kit parts and provide such nice detail that you probably won't wish to arm your F-104. This set includes your choice of standard or AS.34 Kormoran missile underwing pylons, under-fuselage missile pylons and AIM-9 Sidewinder missile rails, wingtip AIM-9 Sidewinder missile rails, and the centerline pylon. The set includes anti-sway braces for the underwing pylons when configured for bomb carriage. This set also includes a nice set of decals with stenciling for these pylons.

Take a look at those missile rails. The kit provides blank slabs of plastic on the wingtips along with a locating stub for mounting an AIM-9. This set will greatly enhance the Hasegawa kit and provide some much-needed details in the areas most-overlooked in too many kits - the pylons.

My sincere thanks to Eduard for this review sample!