Cobra Company
1/72 PB4Y-2 Privateer Detail Set

Cobra Company has been doing some interesting updates to their casting techniques. This detail set contains some VERY nice work. Designed as a detail set for the Matchbox 1/2 PB4Y-2 kit, you can look over these photos and see why I'm chuckling a bit. I think the accurate description is MAJOR Update set. I think about the only parts you're going to keep out of the original kit are the fuselage, wings, tail, and landing gear struts. Everything else you'll need are here.

The detail set comes in a very sturdy box and contains five bags of resin parts cast in standard tan resin. The quality of these castings is excellent, with no sign of bubbles nor curing imperfections. A sixth bag contains vacuformed transparencies for the aircraft except for one part - the bomb aimer's window. This is cast in perfectly clear resin. Nice!

As you can see in the photos to the right, the first bag contains new underwing engine fairings, new cowlings, and new engines to be seen inside those cowlings.

Bag two contains four accurate propellers and replacement landing gear wheels. These aren't weighted, so you'll need to take a sanding stick and flatten the bottoms a bit.

Bag three is the cockpit, with a new floor, bulkheads, instrument panels, side walls, and crew seats.

Bag four are the side blister frames, cupolas, etc.

Bag five has the front and rear turrets (and these are very nicely detailed).

Bag six, as mentioned earlier, are the transparencies.

The instructions are very nicely done with good quality illustrations and step-by-step synchronized with the kit's instruction sheet.

This detail set is definitely not for the inexperienced modeler. The resin castings are thin to keep them as much in scale as possible, and are therefore brittle. An experienced modeler with the right tools will get these parts off of their molding blocks and ready for assembly with no problems.

Conclusions

You have three choices for the PB4Y-2 Privateer. In 1/48 scale, there is the Koster vacuformed conversion or the Meteor resin conversion in 1/48 scale (big!) or this set to bring the old Matchbox 1/72 scale kit up to contemporary standards.

This detail set will definitely dress up the Matchbox kit and is highly recommended to experienced modelers.

This detail set is available directly from Cobra Company (www.cobracompany.com).

My sincere thanks to Cobra Company for this review sample!