Some of the hardest details to make realistically in modern jet fighters (or any aircraft) are the molded – in seatbelts, especially those on ejection seats. Using strips of masking tape leaves a bit to be desired. Eduard has come to the rescue with sets of photo-etched seatbelts for different aircraft.

The Eduard steel photo-etched set for the F-4 in 1/48 scale is a very impressive set of pre-painted photo etched parts that are intended as replacements to kit parts. While the set is simply marked as F-4 Seatbelts, Grey, the aircraft kit that I used this example was the Monogram F-4C/D kit.

This photoetched set requires some work to use it in previous manufacturer’s F-4 kits. All the molded-in detail for the seatbelts had to be filed and ground off the seats. Specific to Monogram’s F-4, the seat bottoms are molded as part of the cockpit floor.

Once all the molded in seatbelts were removed, the cockpit was painted. Most of the Eduard photo-etched parts fit into place, with just some minor adjustments. Only two Eduard parts gave me trouble – parts number 8, and that was due to the way Monogram’s kit is set up.

Overall, this is a very nice pre-painted photo-etched set to enhance almost any 1/48 F-4 kit, particularly the newer kits.

Thanks go to Eduard for supplying the review sample.