Scale Aircraft Conversions specializes in white metal replacement parts. Its line of replacement landing gear has been expanded to include a set for the 1/48 Hasegawa Mc 202 (also Eduard “Folgore”), and at least for the main landing gear, it can be used with the Hasegawa/Italeri Mc.205 “Veltro” as well. Perhaps the tail wheel, but I’m not sure.

The set includes 5 parts with the following breakdown: two main landing gear struts, actuator arms, and a tail wheel. The parts are finely molded in white metal. These parts are drop-in replacements for the plastic parts.

I should say that these parts are more than just drop-in replacements. Some of the white metal part would be comprised by the equivalent of several plastic parts, so you have an easier job of assembling the landing gear due to having fewer parts to deal with. In addition you don’t have to deal with cleaning seam lines.

If you want to add some great looking seatbelts to your next U.S. Navy fighter of the Second World War, you need to look no further than Eduard. This is my second review of Eduard Steel seatbelts, and I am still amazed at what the company is producing in photoetched products. The belts are easy enough to install for those with some photoetch experience, the only challenging part is installing the clasp on the left side seatbelt, but I would still highly recommend this set!

Introduction

Much has been published on the Tamiya 1/48th scale F-14A Tomcat already. Finally an F-14A kit that is fun to build, with outstanding detail, fit and engineering. By itself, out of the box, the kit build will result in an amazing model. However................many of us cannot leave well enough alone and need to add some aftermarket accessories. Eduard offers aftermarket accessories that are hard to resist no matter the quality of the base kit. With the Tamiya F-14A they have done it again.

Personally I prefer to add add photo etch and some resin aftermarket items to many of my builds. When I aquired my Tamiya Tomcat I began to purchase several aftermarket items. When the opportunity arose to volunteer to review the Eduard Big Ed set of photo etch, canopy mask and seat belts I could not resist.

This is the photoetch fret for Eduard's 1/48 SE.5a. It is listed for the Wolseley Viper Version of the kit, but can also be used for the Hispano-Suiza Version of the SE.5a. This is the same photoetch fret included with Eduard's Wolseley Viper, and with the Royal Class edition as R0015-LEPT 1. It can also be purchased separately from either kit. The photoetch fret is not required for completion of the kits, but adds more accurate scale detail than the kit parts.

The steel fret is about 2-3/4 x 2-1/4 inches and includes photoetch pieces for the seatbelts, instrument panel and gauges, machine gun magazine upgrades, several different cockpit levers, brackets for the exhaust pipes, cables and stanchions for the control surfaces, bomb rack, and frames for the wing pulley observation panels.

The one thing that is a visual interest in a cockpit are the seatbelts and shoulder harnesses. Regardless of what type of aircraft the first thing you see when you look inside the cockpit are the seatbelts.

Eduard has been trying to perfect the use of photo etch seatbelts from the very beginning. Their latest efforts are really nice. This fret includes enough seatbelts for FOUR single engine Luftwaffe aircraft. The STEEL seatbelts are very thin and bendable. The fret is .002 thick and realistically pre-painted. The paint is shaded and looks very realistic. I was able to bend them without the paint coming off which can sometimes be an issue with thicker belts.

If there is a downside, it is that the belts are only painted on one side, but depending on how you bend them they won’t be an issue.