Eduard 1/32 F-15E Strike Eagle Ejection Seat Detail Set First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

Eduard from the Czech Republic is easily the most prolific producer of aftermarket details. Period. Their series of photo-etched detail sets have brought additional fidelity to otherwise bland subjects, and have taken even the best-produced models and kicked them up a notch or two with details that cannot be produced with injection-molded plastic.

When Eduard first introduced the acetate-printed instrument faces that go behind their photo-etched instrument panels, this raised the bar on model cockpit reality as you could almost read the time on the aircraft clock. How could they top that?

It took a number of years, but the answer is color photo-etch. Somehow Eduard has developed a process for printing color directly on their photo-etched parts such that now you not only can read the instrument faces, you can now see the color warning arcs around airspeed indicators and color reference circles around Luftwaffe flight and engine instruments. In this release, Eduard has produced a nice set of photo-etched details for the ejection seats in the Tamiya 1/32 F-15E Strike Eagle.

This set consists of one fret of photo-etch parts that is color printed on the surface to replicate the manufacturers' placards, yellow pull handles, and even seatbelt and harness details.

This set updates several details around the headrests of the ACES II seats including the top of the center pylon and lateral frame. The placards for either side of the seats are also provided.

The top edges of the left and right sides of the seats are cleard of styrene details and replaced with color-photo-etch details for activation handles, shoulder harness locks, etc. Of course, the set is rounded out with color seatbelts and shoulder harnesses.

While this set will really set off the detail in Tamiya's F-15E kit, this detail set is not for the beginning modeler. You will need to be able to remove the photo-etch parts from their frets (simple once you know how) and then be able to apply these details using cyano adhesives without gluing yourself to the kit parts. It isn't difficult, or else these sets wouldn't be so popular.

You should be able to find this detail set at your local hobby retailer or one of the many online hobby shops. Trust me, this is worth looking for! With a little work, this set may be adaptable to the Revell F-15E as well, but no guarantees!

My sincere thanks to Eduard for this review sample!