Eduard 1/48 AIM-9E Sidewinder 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 replicated the AIM-9E Sidewinder in 1/48 scale in time for Academy's 1/48 F-4C/D Phantom II kit. The Echo was the first production version of the Sidewinder built to Air Force specification which included a more streamlined seeker head, larger guidance fins, and an improved rocket motor. This version would appear on the F-4C/D/E in the middle and later parts of the Vietnam air war. This set includes four missiles cast in gray resin, four sets of guidance fins, four seeker head lenses cast in clear resin, six rocket motor rear nozzle frames in photo-etch (only four needed) and four optional seeker head covers.

Eduard previously released the AIM-9B in this series which will also be good on the F-4C in the early part of the war, but now you have appropriate missiles for the later part of the air war as well.

My sincere thanks to Eduard for this review sample!