Eduard never ceases to amaze me with their innovations when it comes to adding details to our projects. Just three short years ago, I reviewed fabric seat belts for an F-14A ejection seat, and now the company has released a new line of steel PE parts. I would highly recommend this set to folks wanting to dress up the “bang seats” of their Tamiya F-14A, but this offering should also work on other kits in 1/48 scale.

A feature that you can quickly notice on modern Russian aircraft is the complicated nose pitot tube. Although AMK made a valiant effort in molding the MiG-31 pitot tube with its four separate vanes, the limits of the injection molding process come into play.

Notable is the superb re-sealable packaging that Master Model uses that makes the parts easy to review and then stuff back into the package securely until final assembly. The resin vane section is secured in a high density foam block that is backed with some sort of adhesive tape to minimize the resin vanes from being moved around, or crushed for that matter. You will want to be careful handling the metal and resin parts as their small size makes them an easy sacrifice to the carpet monster. The resin part is especially easy to break one or more of the vanes in handling (as I had happen on a previous Master pitot set), so be sure to handle with care.

Another quick upgrade for the Airfix Wildcat are these two exhausts. They are direct replacements for the kit parts and have very thin walls. While you can paint the insides black I think for the best effect you would still want to drill out the exhaust hole from the engine. Just be careful on how you hold them, the resin is that thin.

No instructions are provided as they are a direct replacement for the kit part.

Thanks to Aires and IPMS/USA for the review kit.