We play "Where's the Birdie?" with Eduard's new 1/35 "Fauna" set

This is one for the birds - a sheet of photo etched coloured brass that is trying to replicate birds and other fauna in 1/35^th scale from Eduard.

Sounds like a flight of fancy? Have I gone around the cuckoo‘s nest? Let’s have a look at this small sheet and see what all the flap is about…

Review: Eduard Coloured Photo Etched set: Fauna – Birds.


The contents - 46 flighted creatures...

36 196: Fauna – Birds
Kit No: 36196

Kit type: Photo Etched coloured fret

Scale: 1/35

Available from: Eduard’s Webstore

Here we have one sheet of Photo Etch from Eduard – coming pre-coloured so no painting required – we have a 7cm x 4.5cm sheet that replicates different birds and even some bats sitting (or hanging) for use in a diorama setting.

People are including animals in their dioramas more and more no. This started with horses which could at least be used to drag military equipment, the addition of cows to milk, puppies to fit in tanker’s jackets and bears to scare motorcycle riders animals have become quite a regular thing in diorama work. Some modellers use them as a trademark of sorts of their diorama, including them in each work they do – a rabbit comes to mind…

This is where this sheet of “fauna” comes in. The sheet has a total of 46 birds of various shapes and sizes – I am no Bill Oddie and I really wasn’t a scout either but I can recognize these birds as what they are purporting to be. This means Eduard has done a good job on the printing work. From larger parrots and what looks to be a kingfisher type bird (complete with fish in its mouth) Swallows, cuckoos and tits (not in the same sentence please) and other various birds are all there – Many tiny creatures that look like a budgie size are included in all sorts of colours. This sheet is a veritable flock! This one sheet could well do you for all of your diorama needs for a long time.

I decided to do a mini assembly of some of the birds, the larger ones – about half of the birds on this sheet are painted/printed on both sides and are meant to be folded over in one or two ways to make a 3D shape – either of opened wings or fan-tailed – these are the more convincing birds than their just single sheet/ printed both sides birds which fill the other half of the sheet.

I will say you need some very fine snips to get into the P/E fret, some superglue and some very fine tweezers, and steady hands to make the best out of this kit. The parts could easily “fly away” on you if they were to ping off. I did all of my work in a confined space and when a bat went AWOL I was able to find it. Just be ready for the size of the birds here. Rightfully they are to scale.

A small flat pair of folding pliers is the other thing you need to hold the body while you fold over the wings and fan out the tails. I used some superglue to “perch” them in place and most of them sit down easily – even the bat which I hung upside down adhered with some sticky stuff to aid it. Below is my trusty test diorama to which I applied them to…

Like looking for a needle in a haystack!

Can you see them? In this diorama I have placed five birds – they are so tiny you really do need to squint to see them, and this is the effect I suppose you need to have when depicting birds at this scale – they will be tiny! There are of course smaller birds on this sheet which I left off - you can at least make these ones out if you look hard enough!

Here they are!    

I have to say I really like the idea and the photo etch worked a treat in replicating the real thing in scale and in look. Applying them to the kit takes some care but so does most of modelling. They are small but so are the real life creatures – isn't that the look we want?

A great little idea well executed by Eduard – I recommend this set.

Adam Norenberg

Thanks to Eduard for this P/E set. They are available at the link in the banner.