New from Barracuda Studios comes an excellent resin cowling set for Airfix's recent 1:48 Hawker Sea Fury.

The set arrives in a clear plastic box, with plenty of soft foam to prevent the parts rattling around in transit. As you'd expect with anything from Roy Sutherland, the casting is exquisite, without a flaw to be seen on the sample parts.

The set replaces the 2-part main section of the Airfix kit with a single beautifully detailed item. The master was produced by Mike O'Hare and boasts delicate panel lines and fasteners on the exterior, with wafer-thin walls around the exhausts and interior detailing in those areas.

The cowl is attached to a hefty casting clock, with a clearly defined groove to cut around. The groove is basically the width of a razor saw blade so, once you've made the cut, there should be minimal clean-up needed.

The exhausts feature hollowed-out ends and, unlike the simple straight pipes in the Airfix kit, they curve at their base - a minor point, but very neat and something you should just be able to make out when you inspect the finished kit closely.

The set is accompanied by a simple set of instructions, but the exhausts are designed to only fit one way, so can hardly go far wrong.

Conclusion

This is another excellent set from Barracuda Studios which underlines why they are among the very best resin producers in the business. It's beautifully detailed, but simple enough for modellers with limited experience, and so would make an ideal first resin upgrade for newcomers to the genre.

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