Eduard

1/350 IJN Figures 3D

Stock Number: 17518

Reviewed By  Bill Kluge, IPMS# 45849

MSRP: $15.00 Website: www.eduard.cz With this set, Eduard continues their line of photo-etch figures for the 1/350 ship modeler with a set designed to populate the ever-increasing fleet of Imperial Japanese Navy warships coming on the market. In an attempt to stay competitive with the new injected molded figures, they continue to push the envelope of what can be done with photo etch by offering "3D", self adhesive figures. Eduard has saved the modeler considerable time and trouble with these very nicely-produced, pre-painted figures. These appear to be made from stainless steel, as opposed to brass. This seems to be the newest wave, as the PE found in the new Tamiya Mogami looks to be made the same way.

This small set (91 figures) offers an assortment of positions; including signalmen, sailors at attention and several with seabags, in addition to the standard assortment of sailors with one or both arms raised. The uniforms are predominantly either dress blue ratings (51 figures) or dress white ratings (24 figures), and several appear to be in dark gray overalls (6 figures) or light gray overalls (10 figures), though some of the latter could pass for officer’s or petty officer’s uniforms. Eduard has attempted to add dimension to their PE figures, basically doubling the width of the figures’ legs and torsos by folding a second "body" onto the first, with a tacky adhesive to hold them together. Care must be taken when handling these figures, as the adhesive is not particularly strong to begin with, and once you’ve touched the sticky side, its pretty much gone. A little extra white glue is recommended. The 3D effect is minor, only slightly better that a single layer. Seems as though the larger in scale these go, the more difficult it is to convincingly present PE figures in full form. What works reasonably well in 1/700 is exponentially less effective in 1/350, particularly when compared to injection-molded figures. On the plus side, with movable arms and legs, the figures can be realistically posed – up to a point, and the pre painting is very well done. For the modelers who want to crew their ships, but don’t have the inclination to paint the plastic or resin figures that are currently available, these pre-painted figures from Eduard will go a long way towards bringing their vessels to life and, at the same time, allow the builder to save his sanity and patience for other hurdles such as assembling and painting things like the Veteran 25mm antiaircraft guns. Thanks to Eduard for providing this review sample.