Out of the box the 1:32 Hasegawa P-47D Bubbletop is superb, but comes up short in a couple of areas. The most glaring of these being the supplied smooth cockpit floor was incorrect for the earlier P-47D-25 which features in two of the decal options.
Eduard have released two PE sets for the Hasegawa kit. An exterior set and an interior set which addresses the corrugated floor issue. Both sets are packaged in the usual Eduard style of a heat sealed plastic bag with thick card to protect the PE frets.
P-47D-25 Thunderbolt exterior - Cat # 32 174
Two frets of PE are supplied and the quality is of Eduards usual extremely high standard. The areas of the kit addressed by this set being:
Exhaust hinge plate and oil control doors.
Intercooler doors and interior on the fuselage sides.
Ignition harness for the Pratt & Whitney engine.
Actuators for the cowling flaps.
Main undercarriage legs and doors.
Wheel well wiring.
Tail wheel doors.
Flap hinges and flaps.
Bomb fins.
P-47D-25 Interior Set - Cat # 32 603
This set also features two frets, however, one of these is pre painted and self adhesive. The quality of this pre painted, or more accurately colour printed photo etch is outstanding, especially the instrument panel and cockpit sidewalls.
Areas addressed by this set are:
New rudder pedals.
Instrument panel.
Cockpit sidewalls.
Seat belts.
A replacement seat.
Cockpit floor.
Gunsight.
Summary
Two excellent sets which will really make your Hasegawa Bubbletop stand out. The colour photo etch is outstanding and when weathered and blended in with the kits cockpit will look superb. I must say I have some reservations about the benefit of "self adhesive" parts though. Kit parts such as the instrument panel and radio will have to have the detail removed before fitting the etch parts, and the coating of adhesive will be more of a hinderence than a help when it comes to checking the fit of these.
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SUMMARY
Highs: Two excellent sets of PE for an already very high quality kit. Interior set addresses the early corrugated cockpit floor issue.Lows: Self adhesive PE looks like being more of a hinderence than a help when it comes to checking the fit of some parts.Verdict: Successfully backdate your Hasegawa Bubbletop cockpit to a P-47D-25 with the interior set.Exterior set addresses some important areas, especially cowling flaps.
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About Nigel Julian (lampie) FROM: ENGLAND - EAST MIDLANDS, UNITED KINGDOM
Restarted modelling in late 2005 after a break of over 20 years.Built a lot of armour as a teenager but now concentrating on WW2 aircraft.
Some skills are coming straight back to me and Im learning new ones everytime I log on to this site it seems.
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