Eduard 1/48 A-4E/F Skyhawk Armament BigSin 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.

If you've been using Eduard's detail sets for a while, you'll know that for the AMS modeler, they combined all of the photo-etched details for a particular subject into a single package in their BIG ED series. Buying the BIG ED sets can give you some sticker shock, but if you add up the prices of the individual detail sets and masks included in each BIG ED set, you'll see you're saving some good money in that combined package. Following that same business model, Eduard has released their latest savings package for the AMS modeler - BIG SIN for a nice selection of A-4E/F Skyhawk armament. If you look at the list on the box, here are the specific sets included in this release:

• 648093 Mk.82 slicks (1 sets)
• 648137 Mk.82 Snakeye (2 sets)
• 648223 Mk.77 napalm (1 set)
• 684224 Mk.81 slicks (2 sets)
• 648226 LAU-10/A Zuni rocket pods (1 set)
• 648227 Multiple Ejector Racks (1 set)

Note that we do not show duplicate sets in these images (two different sets per image). We've looked at most of these sets individually and the weapons are cast with very sharp detailing which look better than anything I've seen in injection-molded plastic. Most of the sets include a set of decals for weapons stencils and markings plus, where needed, a set of photo-etched parts to enhance the details further.

You might get sticker shock when you see the suggested retail price (street prices are lower if you shop around) but there are eight complete Brassin sets in this box, each with an MSRP of $20 USD. If you do the math, you're getting quite an array of weapons for almost half-price in this package versus ordering these separately.

If you fully bomb-up an A-4E or A-4F, you'd have three multiple ejector racks with 18 bombs which would only use three of the bomb sets plus the MER set. You've actually got enough armament here to load up an A-6 or a pair of Scooters (give or take) as most of these weapons are used with other US Navy fighter/attack aircraft and even many USAF fighter/attack aircraft. You might want to stash a few of these sets for future projects!

My sincere thanks to Eduard for this review sample!