Eduard Brassin 1/32 F-104 Undercarriage Wheels Early 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.

Many AMS modelers will collect the relevant Eduard photo-etch sets for a given project, but they'll also go out and gather specific resin enhancements as well. Eduard has stepped up with a new product line to complement their photo-etched detail series - Brassin. Brassin is a play on words with Brass and Resin, and in many sets in this series, the resin details also include a set of color photo-etch as well.

In this release, Eduard has produced a nice set of resin main gear wheels and hubs for the Italeri 1/32 F-104C and early G Starfighter kits. This set features a nicely cast tread pattern on the tires and finely cast detailing on the wheel hub and brake hub for each wheel. In addition, this set provides the nosewheel with equally nice tread pattern and your choice of two types of wheel hubs, depending on the version you're building (check your references). Unfortunately, my example was missing the resin block with the nosewheel hubs.

These wheels should work with the Hasegawa kit as well though they will require modifications to fit. Of course this set also includes a set of die-cut yellow tape (Kabuki) masks to make painting of the completed wheels easy.

In all, this set provides a nicely detailed landing gear alternative for the Italeri kit. Recommended for experienced modelers!

My sincere thanks to Eduard for this review sample!