Eduard 1/32 Swordfish Mk.I Interior Detail 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.

When Eduard first introduced the acetate-printed instrument faces that go behind their photo-etched instrument panels, this raised the bar on model cockpit reality as you could almostread the time on the aircraft clock. How could they top that?

It took a number of years, but the answer is color photo-etch. Somehow Eduard has developed a process for printing color directly on their photo-etched parts such that now you not only can read the instrument faces, you can now see the color warning arcs around airspeed indicators and color reference circles around Luftwaffe flight and engine instruments.

Eduard didn't stop there. One of the challenges for less-experienced modelers attempting to use photo-etched details in confined spaces is trying to avoid having cyano adhesives from oozing out of the most inopportune places such as an instrument bezel or other visible location. Eduard has produced self-adhesive photo-etch to solve that problem. Simply remove the part from the fret, remove it from the backing paper, and then place the part in its location. According to Eduard, you can move the part to fine-tune its placement before pressing the part more firmly in place to set the adhesive.

This set provides nicely color-printed instrument panels, and side consoles, but the star of this set is the color printed wireless set with the colorful dials and knobs. This alone is worth the price of this set when you drop it into the open cockpits of the Swordfish for viewing. The seatbelts and shoulder harnesses are provided in a separate set.

The second set of photo-etch provides overlays for the rear cockpit floors, details for the seats (including a new and thinner rear seatback), the new wireless set, details for the Lewis gun, spare ammo drum details, and lots of levers and controls including a nice throttle quadrant.

You should be able to find this detail set at your local hobby retailer or one of the many online hobby shops. Trust me, thisis worth looking for!

My sincere thanks to Eduard for this review sample!