Eduard 1/48 Harrier GR.7/9 Exhaust Nozzle 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 much-needed resin exhaust nozzle set for their recent limited edition Harrier GR.7/GR.9 kit. That kit is based upon the plastic kit by Hasegawa and these nozzles will also work for any of the AV-8B Harrier II releases. Cast in gray resin, this set provides the front and rear nozzles set up to be a drop-in replacement for the kit assemblies. In the kit, each nozzle is built from several parts making clean-up of interior seams very difficult. These one-piece nozzles are seamless and only require removal from their casting blocks, removal of any remaining mold agents, and a nice metalizer paint job to add some eye-catching detail to your next AV-8B or Harrier GR.7/9 project.

This is a nice enhancement for the Eduard or Hasegawa kits and I'm planning on stashing a few more sets away for future Harrier projects.

My sincere thanks to Eduard for this review sample!