Just got the monthly haul from Eduard. Their new Bristol F.2B kit is quite possibly the nicest WW I kit they’ve ever made (and that’s saying a LOT, since they raised the bar on these kits quite high). I’m waiting for the Profipak vesion to be released next month so I can get the PE fret and the fancy decal sheets.
Note: The Bristol “plain” kit, as opposed to the Profipak kits, will be the last of these released by Eduard. From now on, all kits will be made in the Profipak style, with the PE parts and other little extras like occasional resin parts and extra markings. All include masks, the Bristol is the first Eduard kit to be released with masks made from the Tamiya tape they’re now using. All kits in the future will have masks made from this.
Another reminded: Eduard is clearing out it warehouse, and not remaking older kits when they run out, so grab any you might want. Otherwise, you’ll have to wait until when, or if, Eduard re-releases the kit.
The biggest deal among the PE new releases are three new sets for the 1/35 Trumpeter Hind (am I the only one who is sick to death of hearing about Trumpeter?). The interior set is very colorful (mostly because the larger parts are painted that nice turquoise that’s the Eastern Bloc version of our interior green (FS34151), There is also an exterior set and a weapons set that can be used on other Russian underwing stores in some cases, though I don’t know of any other Russian a/c kits in 1/35 scale.
My favorite out of the 1/48 scale pile is the full color set for the Hobbycraft F8F Bearcat, which I would like to own so I could put this nice PE set on it. There are also full PE sets (with color fret) for the new Hasegawa P-40 and a separate set of flaps for this kit. In the ZOOM series, Eduard gives us a set of 1/48 cockpit placards for any F4U-1A, though I’m sure many or most of these placard will go with all versions of the Corsair. It’s not that expensive, so it’s worth buying and checking against your references if you are building a later Corsair.
TOM