Eduard do some new panelling - We review their Bf-110C Instrument panel in 1/4th scale

Eduard have re-released the kit we thought would never see another run – their excellent Bf-110 instrument panel in 1/4^th scale – only now they have improved it over the original. This looks like a great little kit even for those who don’t build aircraft - let’s look closer in our review…

Kit.no: 14001 - Eduard ¼ scale Bf 110 instrument panel

Scale: 1/4th

Sprues: 2 in Grey /blue + 2 Transparent

Photo Etch sheets: 2x coloured

Model size: 203x124mm.

Available from Eduard directly & their stockists.

This kit was originally a special bonus of Eduard’s 2011 1/48^th kit of the Bf-110 “Royal Class” kit. Then later as a release all on it’s own right. Eduard has recently done the same thing with their Bf-109 Royal class kit - we made that panel up – and loved the experience. So naturally we were excited to see this on our desks as early as possible!

This kit of the Instrument panel of the Bf-110 “Zerstörer” comes in a lovely colourful box with simple light diagrams of the I.P. schematics over darker colours – with the realistic looking panel on the front. It sure does jump out at you in the flesh and almost dare you to make it.

Designed for Bf 110C version, this kit features 60+ switches and placards that replicate the real thing - just in a slightly smaller scale. Coming in at a size of 230mm x 124mm it isn’t THAT small and I look to build and frame mine in the future.

The panel to house the instruments makes up the main part of the kit – all of the coloured plastic in here is of the indeterminable “German grey” that loosely resembles RLM 66. This COULD be left bare and unpainted – but I would paint mine to give it that better detailing you can achieve through proper shading and modulation.

The panel is detailed finely with several small pieces – the screws and the switches are small and sharply edged. The detail is here to be dirtied or scratched up in the painting process which really will pay dividends with a great base like this to work from.

The instructions are in the clearly laid out style most would know and appreciate from Eduard. – and although unlike the Bf-109 instrument panel this is a wholly simpler affair with only one real layer and no gunsight to model, there are sometimes four steps to a switch or instrument being placed on the kit – it never seems confusing when reading these instructions though.

There are two sheets of colour Photo etched label placards. These photo etched parts also serve as the dials for the instruments and they certainly are effective. You could never expect to reach this level of detail doing it yourself or using stencilling. Like their tiny brethren in many of the cockpits of Eduard’s smaller scale models these are the way to go.

Several of the metal parts require a small bend to conform to the plastic parts they are to be mated with – you will need some superglue but the detail on these parts of pre-painted metal are really excellent and will make the jump from a home painted kit to something that could have come out of the factory. They make the kit believable is what I am trying to get across.

Those more eagle eyed will have already seen that we built the 1/4 scale Bf-109E Instrument Panel last year – and what a novel and fun kit it was to build. That kit had an improvement over the older (first run) Bf-110 kit I.P. in that the dials were decals instead of vinyl stickers. This has been redressed in this re-release of the kit of the Zerstörer’s instrument panel. There is a decal sheet to go along with the photo etched details which make the placards and switches in the aircraft.

This sheet is finely printed in mainly black and white with some greyish colours included, you can read all of the  numbers and letters and the sharp eyed amongst you will see that the “Draht” has been corrected to “Dreht” in this release – not that we noticed it anyway when a dial was in front of it!

The decals are fine in their printing and there aren’t any register problems, the white is strong and there is no carrier film in excess to remove or to juggle with when putting this into the small dials which they live in – a great improvement over the original!

The transparencies are two sheets of clear plastic with no fogging or problems – both are thin and crystal clear. You need so nothing with these except to insert them straight under the bezels that sit on top of them.

All in all this is a wonderful little kit – I am glad that the decals were included ith this one and that the small letteringing on the decals is correct. Eduard have listened and made some small changes to make this an excellent kit for a fun project or for the serious re-creator. We are all hoping that we see more of these in the future – and I for one can’t wait to see more of these customised on modelling club tables in the future.

A successful re-release of a much loved type, with improvements to the original this is a great kit.

Adam Norenberg

Many thanks to Eduard for this great kit – we look forward to showing it to you built soon.