I noticed Tamiya has a Fairey Swordfish floatplane with some phot etched accessories…
What else is out there?
Heh… Not gonna get much help from me with AM parts-lists, lol… However, if I were inclined to do a “Stringbag” in the near future, there’s a SMER kit of the floatplane version still out there for around $20.00… Then it’s just a matter of getting some decals, strut material and wheels to convert it… Only real drawback to the SMER kit is that it’s about 1/50th rather than 1/48th scale…
Some of the old Monogram Pro Modeler kits (P-39Q, F-84G) and well their “Hi Tech” line came with small amounts of PE to dress up the kits. And at a very reasonable price. You can still find them online or at kit swap meets.
If you’re looking for WWII kits that have AM parts, that’s going to be a long, nearly impossible list of kits. Almost every kit nowadays, has some sort of after market upgrades available, for it.
One of the best ways I find is to go to either squadron.com, sprubrothers.com or megahobby.com and do a search on a particular plane that you’re interested in. They almost always list the avaialble kits and available after market.
-Fred
Virtually every Eduard and Dragon kit (especially their SMART kits) have PE in them…it is begining to be a very commonplace thing nowadays…
Are you asking for kits that have aftermarket upgrades available? Or kits that have photo-etch, etc, included?
If the former…pretty much everything. I’ve had a bear of a time finding any AM stuff for the Revellogram P-38 that’s in my on-deck circle. Landing gear. Some Ultracast wheels. That’s about it. But most kits have at least some stuff available, and usually there’s one or two popular kits of each type that tend to attract tons of PE (Tamiya Mustang, Hasegawa P-40, etc). I usually search the stuff out by going to Great Models, Sprue Brothers, and others and just searching for the scale and type of aircraft (1:48 P-47, for example) and seeing what’s what. Also, Eduard and a few others post PDFs of their instructions online so you can get a sense of what all you’re getting in a PE set.
If the latter…get thee to Eduard Profi-Packs! They come with canopy masks, PE, and several decal options. I think the F6F-5 also includes a resin radar pod for building the F6F-5N. Also several Monogram releases from around 1993 or so came with PE. The Monogram P-47D and OS2U Kingfisher come to mind.
Agree with what’s been said, but here’s my [2cnts]: the older the kit the more likely its going to have more AM parts available. The newer kits may have to wait a couple of months for AM parts to come out, unless has mentioned, to get the Eduard Profi-Packs
Thanks for everybody’s thoughts, but I am really trying to make this a thread where people just name the kit they have built, and list the after market parts they bought(brand, where purchased, cost) and comment on the AM accessories. So this is more of a reference. And then when/if we have a nice compilation, maybe a moderator can come and delete all of the comments, and list all the results in one stickied thread.
Squadron and Great Models both have a feature on their websites that allows you to view all aftermarket items for a particular kit that they carry. Probably a lot quicker and easier to use that than compile a list manually.
Gotcha. I actually think that’s a great idea. Always seems a big hassle figuring out 1) what AM stuff is available for a certain kit and 2) which of it’s actually worth getting.
Mind that I’m only on kits 5 and 6 since coming back to modeling, but here’s mine (links go to pics where appropriate):
1/48 Tamiya P-51B
- Eduard PE seatbelts - USAAF/USN WWII - Purchased from LHS. A huge step up from anything that was available when I was building kits in the early and mid-90s. But I HATE dealing with PE seatbelts since it’s so hard to get it to look natural. I’ve since picked up Eduard’s Big Ed seatbelt set on sale, and I’m using the shiny bits to augment tape seatbelts.
- Ultracast exhaust manifolds (unshrouded) - Think I purchased from Sprue Bros. In a word, awesome. The level of detail far exceeds the kit exhausts, and really stands out on a plane like the P-51 where the exhausts are so prominent. Highly recommended (I’ve purchased Ultracast exhausts for two more Mustangs in the stash + a Hasegawa P-40E.
1/48 Accurate Miniatures SBD-3 Dauntless
- Eduard SBD-3 Detail - Extensive detail for the cockpit. If I had to do it over again, I wouldn’t buy this. The Dauntless has a huge greenhouse, but the shape of the fuselage means that 90% of that PE detail is invisible.
- Eduard SBD-3 Dive Flaps - The AM kit flaps have a bad reputation for warping (mine were), and the connections to the sprue trees are wide and a PITA to remove without damaging the part. The PE flaps, on the other hand, are stunning, and build up pretty easily. Though I didn’t bother with the actuator business and just mounted the flaps to the kit actuators.
1/48 Hobby Boss F4F-3 Early Wildcat (x2)
- Squadron vacform canopy - The kit canopy didn’t align with the windscreen when closed, and was too thick to be posed open. Solved with vacform canopies. I consider them a must-buy for this kit.
1/48 Zvezda Lavochkin La-5
- Vector cockpit set - Didn’t use on this go around, but for another La-5 I’ve got in the stash. Honestly, given the way the plane builds up, I doubt I’ll use the sidewall pieces, but the seat, levers, control stick, etc? They look great and the plane has an open enough cockpit to make it worthwhile.
1/48 Eduard Yakovlev Yak-3
- True Details wheels - The wheels that come with this kit are seriously the worst wheels I have ever seen. I’m not a huge fan of the TD wheels…the bulge looks exaggerated…but the detail is way better than what’s in the box, and I’d consider this a must-purchase.
- Quickboost exhaust manifolds - Not as crisp in the detail as Ultracast, but still a big improvement over the kit parts. Direct drop-in replacement.
- Quickboost gear doors - The kit doors are very thick and lacking in detail. These are wafer thin and well textured.
Also, though I haven’t built them yet, I’ve been accumulating AM stuff for some of the stash birds…
These are the items I try to go after in general. I’m not too big on dressing up gear bays, etc, which won’t really be seen all that often. Instead I prefer to put my AM efforts toward high-visibility areas where the kit parts just can’t capture the same level of detail:
- Ultracast wheels - The best resin wheels on the planet. So far I’ve snagged them for three P-47s, an F4U, Eduard’s Hellcat, a P-40, a P-38 and two Mustangs. The detail is incredible and obviously superior to the True Details wheels when compared side-by-side. The P-38’s nosewheel, for example, has open spokes with plenty of daylight visible on the other side.
- Ultracast seats - Equally brilliant. Just got the P-40 seats yesterday and was floored yet again. Since the seat is the most visible element of the cockpit, I figure I’d rather put money there than toward PE that may or may not be seen.
- Ultracast exhausts - Make a huge difference on aircraft with prominent exhausts (P-40, P-51, Spitfire, 109, etc).
- Mike Grant IP decals - A lot cheaper than buying cockpit PE sets for each kit you build.