Kit #33004 contains no less than 67 parts on a single pre-painted fret. 67 parts for an instrument panel!? That's right - the detail here is quite phenomenal. Although this set is designed to enhance Hasegawa's Fw 190D-9 (also available from Revell-Germany), this really is a kit in itself. As well as locating tabs to fit the panel to the plastic kit, Eduard also provide a stand so you build it as a display item in its own right.

The foundation of the kit is a single large part which must be folded to form the classic Fw 190 two-tiered panel. Onto this go a series of pre-painted placards. Some attach to the front, as you'd expect, but others fit into recesses in the back of the part to provide the required depth for the instruments. The quality of the printing/painting almost defies belief and the smallest details on every instrument face are clearly legible.

Once the main panel is assembled, individual bezels must be fitted for each dial. Beware - some of these are extremely delicate and attaching them will need the greatest care, since the area that can be glued is minute. There's no mention of glazing in the instructions, but it'll be noticeable by its absence in this scale if you don't add a drop of varnish or glaze the bezels with clear sheet. Every switch is also included - many of which fit through tiny holes from the back of the panel.

The instructions are slightly disconcerting because they're labelled "Fw 190A-8". Luckily, this is just a typo because they do match the parts and are clearly drawn, so there's little risk of confusion in the construction itself - any pitfalls are more likely to be down to the intricate nature of some of the parts. There aren't any painting instructions but, as far as I can tell from a preliminary look, everything that needs painting has already been done for you - but, obviously, you'll need to touch up the tiny points where the parts attach to the fret.

Conclusion

Due to the extreme delicacy of some of the parts, you'll need a fair degree of experience handling etched parts to be able to build this successfully, but Eduard's Fw 190 panel should be a real eye-popper once installed in Hasegawa's cockpit. Of course, with that stand included, the temptation is there to build the panel for display long before I ever get 'round to tackling the whole aircraft...

Thank you to Eduard for kindly supplying the review sample.

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