Eduard 1/48 MiG-23 Exhaust 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.

In this release, they tackle an oldie but goodie. Many, many moons ago, AMT/ERTL released the only MiG-23 Flogger ever to be released in 1/48 scale. The kit has appeared in a Hobbycraft boxing and more recently in an Italeri boxing, but it is still the same tooling.

While Eduard is tackling other kit details in additional releases, one area that is most welcome is an update to the MiG-23's afterburner chamber and nozzle. The kit part is very shallow and not at all representative of the MiG-23's engine. I had originally figured that I could use one of the resin afterburner chambers for the F-4 and the J79 engine is similar to the MiG-23's R29 engine. While the engine nozzles didn't exactly match, using a J79 nozzle would have been nicer that the simple part from the kit.

Fortunately Eduard has solved this dilema. I can use my J79 parts where they belong as this set provides a nicer and more accurate alternative. This set provides the inner chamber wall, rear turbine face, afterburner flame holer/spray ring assembly, and sets of inside and outside nozzle petal assemblies.

This is a nice enhancement to the Italeri kit and will definitely set off the completed model with more visible detail. Check out the MiG-23 interior detail set (reviewed here), the weapons set reviewed here, and the exterior detail set (reviewed here).