How many of you remember, back in the 70's, when Hasegawa released their 1/32 F-86 Sabre? This kit was touted as the model of the year by some modelling magazines. Back then, no one could conceive of any way to improve the model.
Well Eduard has proven us wrong. They have released two exquisite detail sets for the Sabre. One set deals with the cockpit and gun bay interiors while the second deals with the exterior.

Set number 32-027 has two frets of brass and one sheet of photo-negative instrument faces. The largest of the two frets consists of 77 parts, and is predominately designed for the cockpit area. Modifications required to the kit cockpit are limited to removing some of the raised detail to facilitate the installation of the photo-etched replacement parts. Compared to the detail sets designed for Revell models, this set is easy to use with a minimum number of bends required. I attribute this to the quality of Hasegawa models and their inherent higher level of detail to start with.

I was a little confused with the instructions as they relate to the gun sight area. It is suggested that foil be added to part 31, which is the reflective lens support. I think they probably meant that you should install a piece of clear film to represent the lens. Parts 18 and 29 combine to make the gun sight box, which they also indicate to add a piece of foil. However, I did not know if the foil should cover all of the interior surfaces, or just one side.

The ejection seat builds up quite nicely and includes the foot rests and additional arm rest supports. A set of seat belts are provided, which is now an Eduard regular feature of their cockpit sets. It is a nice touch.

The remaining parts on the large fret of brass, along with the 36 parts on the smaller fret are geared towards the two gun bays. These parts consist of front and rear gun bay bulkheads, detail panels for the inside of the gun bay covers and some beautiful cooling jackets for the guns barrels along with the ammo belts. In my estimation the most impressive pieces of the entire set are the cooling jackets and ammo belts. Words cannot describe the impact they have, and based on a comparison of an actual Sabre in the National Aviation Museum, they are faithful to the original. The jackets must be rolled to the proper diameter and then slipped over the kit's plastic barrels. Rolling the metal pieces is a breeze as the brass is soft and does not have any spring to the metal. A suitably sized piece of metal rod is used as the rolling pin, and the entire process takes mere minutes. The completed parts are glued to the kit barrels, with the lengthwise seam hidden at the back of the barrel.

A very impressive set indeed.

Reviewed by Randy Lutz