This set is part of Eduard’s growing line of Steel seat belts sets. The set consists of 3 sets of seat seatbelts and shoulder harnesses for Yakovlev World War II fighters and 3 sets for Lavochkin World War II fighters. The set will particularly useful for dressing up the cockpit of an older kit. I had an old Italeri La-5 kit that has been in my stash for quite some time, so I pulled it out to see how the belts worked.

As with Eduard’s brass etch, the Steel belts are attached with superglue. I used a gel superglue with a medium setting time to allow me to get the parts where I wanted them before it set up. I found it easiest to first tack down one end of the belt or harness then let it dry and harden before attempting to shape it. Once the first attachment point is dry, the belts are then bent and shaped to fit the seat and as the Steel belts are more pliable than brass etch is, they are much easier to bend and shape to reflect a used or slack seatbelt/harness, you just need to use tweezers to twist and bend the strap into the shape you want. The paint on the belts and harnesses held up well despite bending and I did not need to do any touchups.

I really enjoyed using this set and as shown in the photographs, it really dresses up the kit seat so that it looks like a real seat. I really appreciate that there are 6 complete sets included as this will allow me to dress up quite a few kits from my stash.

I hope Eduard continues to release more sets like this one as it is a much-appreciated addition to the kit seats. Highly recommended!

Thank you to Eduard for the review sample and to IPMS-USA for letting me review it.