This set is designed for the Italeri 1/32 scale F-35A Lightning II kit. This set contains 2 sheets, one is pre-painted and the other is etched brass. Details are included for the seat and cockpit area of the jet. The instructions are the normal Eduard instructions with clear drawings showing where the PE parts go and what details need to be removed from the kit plastic parts.

The first step of the instructions covers the seat. There are details to add to the parachute housing and the controls on the side of the seat. You have to supply your own 1mm plastic rod (or equivalent) for the side of the parachute housing. This step also has you replace the kit PE rudder pedals with new ones that also add some detail to the rudder bar.

Next up is the instrument panel. Eduard replaces the kit decal for the all-glass instruments with a pre-painted PE piece. I did have to file down the corners of this piece to get it to fit within the cockpit coaming on the top fuselage piece. I just filed it down to match the plastic piece (27D). The other pieces fit fine and really add detail that I would not be able to paint.

The cockpit tub is next and there is quite a bit of detail added that wasn’t molded in the kit parts. There are a couple of vents to be added to the sides as well as floor details. The PE armrest is a 1000% improvement over the molded on blob that is included in the kit. The armrest, part 19 is a little fiddly to work with, but once assembled looks great. The cockpit will need to be painted after some of the details are added, but before the pre-painted parts get glued down. The pre-painted details are once again much better than I could paint.

The next part covered is the canopy sill and shelf behind the cockpit. The Eduard PE details for this area are more detailed than the Italeri PE part. Eduard has you build up the details with multiple layers of PE and then add the kit part 17D. The grills (PE parts 28) that attach to part 17D are etched with finer detail than the Italeri PE parts.

The final details are for the bottom side of the canopy frame. There is the main piece (20) that gets added to the bottom of the canopy frame that adds detail that wasn’t molded in. The lock brackets (33) are replace molded plastic ones that were lacking in detail. The PE part 25, which covers the back of the canopy frame, adds detail that wasn’t molded plus covers a huge ejector pin hole.

Overall, this set really improves the detail of the kit. The set was easy to work with and all folds have lines etched into them. I didn’t need any special tools to work with this PE set and just used tweezers and smooth-jawed pliers to make all the folds. I would like to thank Eduard and IPMS USA for giving me the opportunity to build and review this photo-etch set.