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 seatbelts have nice detail, but the color is a little too red for the leather portion of the belt. Likewise, the colored instrument panel does not accurately represent the wood color of the aircraft. I painted both before assembly. The instrument panel and gauges offer a nice alternative to the plastic panel and decal gauges issued with the kit.

The bomb rack is a complex photoetch shape, but it adds nice detail to the bottom of the aircraft.

The cables for the control services offer an option to the base kit’s molded-on stanchions and separate cable. The photoetch cables are very delicate and should be installed near the end of kit construction. I left on a portion of the sprue fret connectors for the cables to anchor them in the holes on the aircraft wings. The steel color of the photoetch cables doesn't require painting, but the stanchions should be the color of the surrounding wing area. The forward cables for the upper/lower rudder controls aren't long enough to fit in the fuselage notch.

The photoetch frames for the pulley observation windows in the wings are a little thick but have nice detail.

Summary

This is a small but nicely detailed photoetch fret that adds considerable detail to the SE.5a aircraft. The photoetch can be used in conjunction with Eduard's Overtrees version of the SE.5a to economically produce another variation of the aircraft.

Thanks to Eduard for producing these nice photoetch add-ons and supplying review samples to IPMS.