F-35A Seatbelts Steel Zoom PE Set

Published on
October 18, 2017
Review Author(s)
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$7.95
Product / Stock #
33169
Base Kit
Italeri 1/32 scale F-35A Lightning II
Company: Eduard - Website: Visit Site
Packaging

This set is designed for the Italeri 1/32 scale F-35A Lightning II kit. This set contains 1 sheet of pre-painted, etched steel seatbelts and ejection pull handle. 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.

There is only one step to the instructions and the only kit modification is to cut off the ejection pull handle ring from the kit part 42F. I cut a slot in the remaining plastic part and glued the Eduard ring into that slot to make a stronger joint. The instructions show just gluing the ring on top of the modified kit part. I also painted on a coat of Microscale Krystal Klear to the ring to give it more bulk so it didn’t look so flat. After the Krystal Klear dried, I put a satin coat over it to dull down the shine. The pre-painted detail on the ring is much better than I could ever paint thus making the etched piece is a huge improvement over the kit piece.

Next up were the belts. I found it odd that Eduard chose to depict the lap belts with no tongues on the ends of them. I ended up cutting off the Italeri tongues and glued them to the Eduard lap belts. The only other issue I see with the set is that the backs of the leg straps are not painted. I painted the backs of mine with a light grey to try to match the color on the front. The detail is not there on the side I painted, but it looks better than the raw steel. The steel belts were very easy to bend into the shape needed and the paint on them showed no signs of peeling while being shaped.

Overall, this set is a huge improvement over the kit supplied PE belts. I could never paint the belts or ejection pull handle with the detail that Eduard provides already pre-painted. The set was very easy to work with and I didn’t need any special tools to work with this PE set. I would like to thank Eduard and IPMS for giving me the opportunity to build and review this photo etch set.

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