History

The Sikorsky S-43 was a twin engine amphibious aircraft manufactured in United States during the 1930s by the American firm Sikorsky Aircraft.

The S-43 first flew in 1935, and was a smaller version of the Sikorsky S-42 "Clipper". It accommodated between 18 and 25 passengers, with a separate two-crew forward cockpit. The S-43 was known as the "Baby Clipper" in airline service.
On April 14, 1936, An S-43 with a 500 kilograms (1,100 lb) payload and piloted by Boris Sergievsky set an altitude record for amphibious aircraft when it reached an altitude of 27,950 feet above Stamford, Connecticut. Also aboard was designer Igor Sikorsky.
In total, approximately 53 S-43s were built, including examples of the twin-tailed S-43B.

Five aircraft were acquired by the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1937 under the designation OA-8 and were used for transport of freight and passengers. 17 aircraft were procured by the U.S. Navy between 1937 and 1939 as the JRS-1, two of which served the U.S. Marine Corps. One JRS survived in service at the end of 1941.
Info From Wikipedia

Introduction

The Boat from Eduard started its life as a kit by Sword way back in 2003, and was re-released by Special Hobby in 2005. It has languished around until Eduard have made a Limited Edition boxing of this 1/72nd kit.

In the box

The kit comes in a colourful top opening box with two JRS-1's painted on the box top in flight over a shoreline terrain.

The contents of the kit is packed with three grey plastic sprues, one clear sprue, packed separately, two bags of resin parts, one set of masks, one set of decals, a instruction booklet and a special publication on the JRS-1, which includes a lot of photos and information on this flying boat.

Starting with the plastic parts, they are well moulded with little flash and pin marks do seem to be in places that wont require a great deal of work to remove. These are a mix of raised and recessed ejection pin marks, and some will need sanding down to glue parts together.
No positioning tabs are on the kit so care will be needed to align and glue the parts.

The resin parts are split into two bags as one is from Sword and the other from Eduard, both sets of resin parts supplied are well cast, but you can tell which one was supplied by Eduard as the detail is a little more crisp.
The cockpit seats by Sword will be a pain to remove from the casting block as they are attached by the back of the seat. The rest of the parts should be easy with a sharp scalpel and razor saw.

The Phot Etch fret has a few pre-coloured parts on it for the harness's and instrument panel, with the rest of the fret destined for the external areas. These parts cover the actuators for the flying surfaces underneath the wings and various parts for the fuselage, such as panels, ariels and hand holds.

External detail is recessed panel lines and raised details for the various actuators on the flying surfaces. A nice ribbed effect is on the wings and tail planes, although some may feel its slightly overdone.
The fuselage has raised lines for the hull (can you call it a hull on a flying boat????), which again might be slightly overdone.
A nice touch is the option of having an open upper clamshell door on top rear of the fuselage, which shows an internal stairway.
The cowlings are made up of several parts with the original Sword resin engine faces adding a nice touch of detail. Eduard have supplied prop covers or uncovered propeller hubs, depending on which marking option you are building.
Resin exhausts are supplied, along with a load of photo etch for the external areas of the Boat.
The wheels are moulded in left and right halves, are slightly weighted, and are just about passable for plastic parts. It would have been nice for Eduard to produce these in resin.
The undercarriage is only shown deployed in the instructions, and is made up of seven parts each.
The outriggers fit underneath the engine nacelles and Eduard have supplied a rigging guide for these parts, which is a nice touch.

Internal detail is pretty sparse with seats for the cabin, and a few bulkheads which are pretty devoid of detail. As you wont be able too see a lot through the tiny round windows then this isn't too much of a problem. The passenger seats do come with decals for the lap belts.
The cockpit gets the Eduard treatment with photo etch harness 's for the pilot and co-pilots resin seats, a two part P.E instrument panel and photo etch instrument panel for the ceiling.

The clear parts are blemish free and are pretty opaque.

Kabuki tape style masks are supplied for the greenhouse style canopy and the fuselage windows. Masks for the wheel hubs are also supplied.

Instructions and decals

The instruction booklet is typical Eduard with the build taking place over seven pages. The build is pretty straightforward with any resin or photo etch parts used during the build clearly labelled with either an RP for resin or PE for photo etch.
Parts in the instructions that need to be filled or taken off are colour filled with green or red.
The different marking options for some parts are noted along the way.
Internal and external colours are given for the Gunze Aqueous and Mr Color paints.

The smallish decal sheet is printed by Eduard, so no issues should arise. Colour registration looks pretty good and the decals have a glossy sheen to them.
Most of the decal sheet covers the Stars and Bars, unit markings, and a few decals common for all machines. The only other major decal on the sheet is the tail stripes for marking option C.
Seven marking options are available, which are -
A - JRS-1, Bu.No.1063, VJ-1, 1938-1939
B - JRS-1, Bu.No.1193, VJ-1, Guantanamo Air Base, Cuba, December, 1938
C - JRS-1, Bu.No.1063, VJ-1, Pearl Harbor, February 1942
D - JRS-1, Bu.No.1063, VJ-1, summer 1943
E - JRS-1, Bu.No.1063, VJ-1, 1943 – early 1945
F - JRS-1, Bu.No.1063, NACA Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, May 1945 – November 1946
G - JRS-1, Bu.No.1192, VJ-2, circa 1939 - 1940

The marking options guide is in full colour with all four sides of the aircraft shown. As per usual for Eduard Gunze Aqueous and Mr Color paints are keyed to the colours to be used.

A nice addition to this kit is the special publication, which at first glance looks like another instruction booklet. This is a 27 page colour booklet which gives you a short history, operational use and a short story on one mission for the JRS-1.
The booklet is packed with photos and profiles of various  JRS-1's and the back has a handy walkaround of an aircraft located at the National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly U.S.A.

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