Eduard 1/350 USS Ticonderoga CV 14 Detail Set 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.

When Eduard first introduced the acetate-printed instrument faces that go behind their photo-etched instrument panels, this raised the bar on model cockpit reality as you could almost read the time on the aircraft clock. How could they top that?

Now when it comes to naval subjects, you don't usually associate Eduard with in-depth details for ships. Evidently that will change. When I saw the owner of Eduard at a recent trade show, he indicated that Eduard will be doing less armor in the future and more naval photo-etch. True to his word, here is an in-depth detail set for the Trumpeter 1/350 kit of the first long-hull Essex-class aircraft carrier, the USS Ticonderoga CV 14 ( reviewed here).

This set consists of three large sheets of photo-etch and eleven panels (six pages) of instructions. Unlike most of Eduard's releases, this set is reserved for the advanced modeler for the vast number of tiny photo-etched parts that make up this scale make-over of Trumpeter's 1/350 USS Ticonderoga CV 14 kit.

This set provides a nice array of details including:

• Ladders
• Hatches (open, partially open, and closed)
• Gun shields and details for the 40mm BOFORS quad mounts
• Railings (lots of them)
• Life raft netting
• Launch cradle and deck details
• Cargo cranes
• Bow flight deck edge details
• Five inch gun turret details
• Flight deck edge foldable HF antenna towers
• Safety railings for the flight deck elevators
• Underside framework for the outboard flight deck elevator
• Funnel vent grillework
• Radars
• Gun directors
• Main mast detailing

The twelfth panel advertises set 53031 which is the railings and catwalk set for the Ticonderoga kit.

This is a beautifully done detail set and will really dress up the Trumpeter kit. As indicated previously, this set is definitely oriented to the advanced modeler that can place photoetched railings in 1/350 scale as well as manipulate these fine details into shape.

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

Recommended for advanced modelers!

My sincere thanks to Eduard for this review sample!