Osprey’s latest publication is this study of the types of tanks shipped to the Soviet Union starting in late 1941 and continuing through the end of the war under the Lend-Lease Program. Due to their armor losses following the success of Germany’s Operation Barbarossa, the Red Army desperately needed replacements and turned to their allies for help.

Introduction

Much has been published on the Tamiya 1/48th scale F-14A Tomcat already. Finally an F-14A kit that is fun to build, with outstanding detail, fit and engineering. By itself, out of the box, the kit build will result in an amazing model. However................many of us cannot leave well enough alone and need to add some aftermarket accessories. Eduard offers aftermarket accessories that are hard to resist no matter the quality of the base kit. With the Tamiya F-14A they have done it again.

Personally I prefer to add add photo etch and some resin aftermarket items to many of my builds. When I aquired my Tamiya Tomcat I began to purchase several aftermarket items. When the opportunity arose to volunteer to review the Eduard Big Ed set of photo etch, canopy mask and seat belts I could not resist.

The Imperial Japanese Navy entered the Pacific War with the most advanced ship-based attack bomber in the world, flown by the most experienced aircrews of any service. First flown in 1937, and introduced into squadron service during the Sino-Japanese conflict in 1938, the Nakajima B5N was faster, flew farther and carried a heavier payload than either of its British or American contemporaries (principally, the Fairey Swordfish and Douglas TBD Devastator, respectively). When used as either a level bomber against stationary targets, or as a torpedo bomber against ships, the “Kate” (as it came to be known to the Allies) would wreak havoc against Japan’s enemies for the first year of the war.

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 one thing that is a visual interest in a cockpit are the seatbelts and shoulder harnesses. Regardless of what type of aircraft the first thing you see when you look inside the cockpit are the seatbelts.

Eduard has been trying to perfect the use of photo etch seatbelts from the very beginning. Their latest efforts are really nice. This fret includes enough seatbelts for FOUR single engine Luftwaffe aircraft. The STEEL seatbelts are very thin and bendable. The fret is .002 thick and realistically pre-painted. The paint is shaded and looks very realistic. I was able to bend them without the paint coming off which can sometimes be an issue with thicker belts.

If there is a downside, it is that the belts are only painted on one side, but depending on how you bend them they won’t be an issue.