Eduard 1/24 P-40B Tomahawk Cockpit Placards 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.

This release is designed to light off the Vintage Fighters 1/24 P-40B Tomahawk kit (reviewed here). The kit is nicely detailed, especially in the engine compartment, and offered the detailed 'AMS' modeler with a nice large canvas upon which to do some detailing and detail correcting.

One of the more visible areas in any aircraft model, especially in this scale, is the cockpit. When you do your painting, detailing, and weathering, you still lack one feature that is present in any operational cockpit - placards. There are placards to remind you to extend your landing gear before landing, placards to open your cowl flaps at high power settings and lower airspeeds (climb), and even a placard with your tail number (for radio identification). You could get away without placards in 1/48 scale, but the absence of placards in larger scale cockpits is noticable.

This set consists of a fret of placards specific to the early Tomahawk, the P-40B/C. The color printing process used by Eduard makes a significant difference in the appearance as they can get lettering and instrument details down to finer levels than can be done even with most decals. Very impressive stuff.

As you can see in the instructions, each step is nicely laid out to show where the new parts go and, when applicable, where a little surgery is required..

You should be able to find this placard set at your local hobby retailer or one of the many online hobby shops. Trust me, thisis worth looking for!

My sincere thanks to Eduard for this review sample!