1/48 Scale Kit Review

Transcript*

Skit

Good morning. When you were a child, your parents likely taught you about stranger danger. Well, today I’m here to teach you about Strafer danger. People think it will never happen to them, but one day you’re walking down the street minding your own business when all of a sudden a big bomber with 12 machine guns in its nose comes barrelling down at you at over 300 mph. It’s more common than you think.

Over 0.00001% of Canadians fall victim to strafers every two decades. So, if you ever happen to find yourself in this situation, just remember, duck and cover. And also remember, always watch the skies. This has been a public service announcement from David at Loisirs vers le soleil. Now, let’s review Édouard‘s brand new release in partnership with HK Models, the Strafer. So, let’s hop in the studio and check it out. Now that I’ve saved all your lives.

About the Kit

Without further delay, let’s take a look at Eduard’s Limited Edition 1/48 scale Strafer. This is a rebox of HK Models’ 1/48 scale B25 Mitchell, which they first released about 4 years ago. And that kit alone is very nice. So, just imagine all the amazing updates and features that Eduard has placed in their rebox. The subject in question, the B-25, one of the most famous bombers of the Second World War, and like all great aircraft, it was very versatile, not only in its original task as a conventional level flight bomber, but also as a gunship. So, this particular variant is the J, which uh most of them took out what used to be a glazed nose for the bombardier to see through and replaced it with a full covering and armed it with anywhere from two to eight machine guns, not to mention an additional four on the side that are also forward firing. So, yeah, if you happen to be standing in front of that, you’re going to have a bad time.

Marking Options

So Eduard’s kit offers six different marking options. Two in bare metal and four in olive drab and neutral grey. So now let’s open it up and see what’s inside.

Nose Weight

So the very first thing you got here which caught my eye is a nicely packaged nose weight. Of course, B25 being a tricycle landing gear aircraft, you have to put weight in the nose or else it’s going to sit on its ass and your model, even after all the hard work you put into it, is ruined. So, don’t forget to add that considering they were so nice to add one in for you. t

Clear Parts

Next thing we got here is clear parts. They even wen an extra step and put a protective film over the canopy and the dorsal turret. So, that was kind of them. Nice see-through raised on the uh frame as well. So, no complaints so far.

Fuselage

Now, we have the fuselage halves. So, there’s some nice full structural detail along the entire interior from nose to tail. The exterior surface has very nice, clean panel lines and rivet detail, as well as HK’s trademark jiggy style wing spar. Beautiful.

Nose, Bombs, Machine guns, Wings

Next, we have all the parts for the nose. So, you’ve got the racks where the guns go on the coverings to access the machine guns, uh, ammunition boxes, radar, and the nose itself. And then we’ve also got parts for sits bombs, as well as all the machine guns. Two more sprues here, which is everything for the wings. On each sprue, you’ve got a top half and bottom half of the wing as well as the brakes, the engine nacelles. And on this particular sprue, this is an optional part. Uh, but technically, you could place this covering over the fuselage where the dorsal turret usually goes if you didn’t want the turret there, but for this version, that wouldn’t be accurate. We don’t want that, do we?

Tail Related Sprues & Cockpit

This here is a sprue for what looks to be everything involving the tail end of this aircraft. It is a double rudder plane. So you got two dorsal fins here. Uh you’ve also got everything for the elevators. This looks to be the Bomb Bay doors. Uh some nice interior detail here as well. And this one here is most of the cockpit and interior parts. I do really like how HK very nicely categorizes its sprues. Basically got everything for one section in one sprue. So very nice details here for the Bomb Bay as well as the cockpit floor and the bulkheads.

Engines, Propellers, Resin Tires

You got your pilot seats here, instrument panel, tires, some more machine runs, and what looks to be the last sprue here is parts for the engines. We got two propellers, two engines, tires, engine cowlings, as well as cowling flaps. Here come the Eduard exclusive goodies. So, they include three resin tires in case the wheels that are included in the kit are not detailed enough for you. Then of course some photo edge.

Photo Etch & Canopy Mask

So they give you some cockpit parts, few seat belts and on the other side uh more structural parts like uh if you don’t like the seats in the kit, you can fold up some photo-etch and make this one uh some engine spark plug wires and a canopy mass set. Obviously diecut. I’ll open it up, give you a better look. You can just barely pick it out. Uh, looks like masks for the tires, the canopy, obviously. Always a welcome addition, especially for these kinds of bombers that have the canopy framing all over the place. Now, we’ve got a large decal sheet.

Décalcomanies

Oh, there are kids watching, I’m sure. So, uh, a lot of nose art to choose from here. Most of it very racy, of course. And on the other side, a smaller sheet with mostly stencilling. And being that this is a post 2020 Eduard release, these are very likely the removable film decals. So, feel free to let us know in the comments how you feel about those.

Instruction Booklet

And at long last, the instruction booklet in full colour. So, first pages give you a parts map as well as the uh extra bits that Eduard threw in. And the illustrations are written in a mix of the HK and Eduard style. So, it looks like you start in the cockpit and if you choose to, you can add all the Eduard photo etch. Then it moves on to the bomb bay which is its own sub assembly fully enclosed. Then you add the cockpit and the bomb bay as well as components of the dorsal turret into the fuselage. Oh yeah and the tail gunner section as well. Then you move on to the tail section featuring the elevators and the rudders. A dorsal turret is next. You know, surprisingly for a high quality model, the uh assembly doesn’t look too complex. I mean, it’s not an overwhelming amount of parts.

Then you have the option of displaying the Bomb Bay doors and the crew access doors open or closed. And then you start constructing the engines and placing them in the cowling. And it would appear that you only have the option of open cowl flaps. Although I suppose if you’re really anal about it, you could trim off every one of these and then re-glue them in the closed position. Uh next is the wings. uh engine nacelles go into the wings. You may notice that where the landing gear is housed, it’s just a very small opening. And even though I my expertise is aircraft, I still to this day don’t get how the wheels fit into that little hole. Please let me know in the comments if you know.

I know you all like correcting me. So once the wings and nacelles are all done, you start work on the nose and all that scary armament. And with these access hatches, you do have the option to leave them open or closed. And then the last part is just attaching the wings and the nose as well as the engine cowlings and a few other antennas and step ladders, stuff like that. And you got a little illustration here on where each diecut mask goes. They’ve uh colour coded it to make it absolutely idiot proof.

Marking Options

And here you have your marking options. So you, as I mentioned earlier, you got 1 2 3 4 5 six. What do you know? I can count. All of these are essentially very late war versions all in the spring and summer of 45. And here you just got some stencilling data where they all go. Even got masks for uh certain marking options, too. and uh HK felt just in case you needed it. Some notes on the very back. Looks great.

David’s Conclusion

In conclusion, great kit. As I alluded to in my Eduard video a little while back, they don’t rebox kits that often, but when they do, it’s the good stuff. And HK is the good stuff. I mean, when HK came out with their own B25, I almost bought it myself. Lucky I waited. So, you can purchase this awesome kit for yourself at Loisirs vers le soleil in store or online. But don’t delay. This is, after all, a limited edition kit.

So, once it sells out, it will not be coming back. Thank you very much for watching this video. Remember to like, comment, subscribe, follow us on our socials, and remember, look both ways when crossing the street. And by both ways, I mean down and up. Adios.

About the Author:

David Peckam has built scale models since he was 12, specializing largely on military aircraft. He is a makeup artist and background actor for films and TV. He enjoys watching hockey and of course, movies. He has an excellent knowledge of hobby products and if you have questions concerning scale model airplanes.

*Video by David Peckham
Video Edited by
Daniela Castellano
Transcript generated by youtube
Edited by Angelo Castellano