Eduard has released resin drop tanks for both the 110 gallon and 165 gallon drop tanks used by the Iwo Jima VLR Mustang groups as part of their Brassin line. They are intended for modelers who want to step up the level of detail on their VLR Mustang builds.

In addition to the drop tanks, the package contains resin sway braces, photo etch parts, and decals.

As you can see from the picture below, the pour stubs do not run down the bottom center of the tank, but slightly off center. However, the detail on the bottom of the tank is right up next to two of the pour stubs, and it is very difficult not to damage the detail when sanding down the pour stubs. It appears that Eduard anticipated this, and the photo-etch pieces are the replacements. Nice touch on Eduard’s part.

It did not take long to eliminate the pour stubs, and clean-up was easy with only a few pin holes to fill.

The photo-etch pieces are very small, and Eduard provides an extra of both pieces should you lose one to the carpet monster. Again, nice touch on Eduard’s part.

Comparison Between Kit and Resin Drop Tanks – While the resin drop tanks are beautifully cast, are they that much better that the kit drop tanks to justify spending the extra money to acquire them? I purchased this set from Sprue Brothers for $13.50. Let’s see what they look like with paint and decals.

I put down a primer coat of Alclad II Grey Primer/Microfiller (ALC 302), and then painted the tanks with Alclad II White Aluminum (ALC 106). After painting the filler caps with Vallejo Model Color Flat Red (70.957), the decals were applied. Eduard molded the flat metal pieces that kept the sway braces in place into the resin drop tanks. Nice touch on Eduard’s part. The picture below shows the actual front metal piece and how everything was held together. I painted this detail with Vallejo Model Color Natural Steel (70.864)

Both the kit and resin drop tanks look really nice once painted and finished. It is nice to have the two metal pieces that run across the tops of the tanks molded into the resin tanks, but those can be replicated using styrene strip and rod on the kit tanks. The other nice feature of the resin tanks is that they have slots for the placement of the sway braces, which should make the sway braces easier to install.

Eduard sells the their P-51D VLR drop tanks sprue as a separate Overtrees (82109X) for $9.95. So for a little more money, you can get Brassin resin tanks. Well worth it in my opinion. But as you can see from above, you really cannot go wrong whether you upgrade to the resin tanks or stay with the kit’s tanks.