Eclipse Model Design | 32003: P-40 Fishtail Exhausts
Reviewed by Ray Peterson
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One of the first aftermarket accessories by the new company, Eclipse Model Design, started by our own Derek Bradshaw is a new set of fishtail exhausts for P-40, and other Allison-engined aircraft. These exhausts were seen on the later up-rated engined P-40´s and sometimes were retro-fitted to earlier models. These exhausts were commonly seen on P-40K´s, M´s, N´s as well as the Merlin engined F´s and L´s. These exhausts are especially useful on Grey Matter´s P-40F/L conversion, seen here, especially if using a P-40 E kit as Hasegawa do not offer the fishtail exhausts in those kits.
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The set comes with 2 sets of exhausts for the left and the right side. They are handed so don´t mix them up! Also included is a well illustrated set of instructions. The casting quality is simply superb with no bubbles and very little flash or seams to clean up.
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Comparing the Eclipse exhausts to the Hasegawa fishtail exhausts from their P-40K kit, you can see the Eclipse exhausts have more depth to the openings. You may also notice there is a bit of a size difference. The Hasegawa exhausts are about 3/4 of a millimeter wider. Checking out the kit exhaust cowl parts, I found that Hasegawa has subtly increased the height of the opening for the exhausts on the P-40K part to compensate for the larger exhausts, as in real life the panel has to be able to come off over the exhausts. Therefore the later-model Hasegawa kit fishtail exhausts are slightly too big for the P-40E or the P-40F/L conversion set - at least for sticklers of detail! I am assuming this is an error on Hasegawa´s part as I do not think the openings were enlarged when an aircraft was fitted with the fishtail exhausts, but I could not accurately tell from references. Because of this size difference, the Eclipse exhausts look a bit small for the corresponding Hasegawa late-model cowls, but not overly so.
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In summary, this new exhaust set is highly recommended for any P-40 aficionado building a P-40F/L or E or other early Hasegawa P-40 kit that does not include the fishtail exhausts. They could also be used on the later model kits if you wish a little bit better detail and can live with the slightly smaller size. They should also be useful for P-39´s and other Alison-engined aircraft that used the fishtail exhausts.
This accessory is available from http://www.eclipsemodels.co.uk/.
© Ray Peterson 2010
This review was published on Saturday, July 02 2011; Last modified on Monday, December 19 2016